Camila Souza and Avner Augusto

“Things were stable and we were planning a big wedding for 150 people. You’d think I’d put up a bigger fight when later that year Avner told me he was considering applying for a job in Sweden. But for some reason my immediate response was “go for it”. The thought of leaving my family, my job and my dream wedding was scary in theory. But honestly, ever since he proposed I knew my home would be wherever he was.”

In the early hours of the morning (in Brazil), while I was finishing my dissertation, I received a message from a friend asking if I was interested in working in Sweden, I said that I needed to talk to Camila since we had a wedding scheduled. In the morning, I commented on the message and she (who had already lived in Canada and wasn't thinking about leaving Brazil) said that she had heard a lot of good things about the country and that she would agree. On the same day, she sent a message to a group of friends on WhatsApp and one of them, who also works here, asked her if she was interested in working in Sweden. Suddenly, we were both doing interviews... FOR THE SAME COMPANY. She got the job first so we had to have a wedding in a hurry, we got married on December 16, 2021, on the 18th we were in Lund. I say we're still on our honeymoon.

To the Linkedin profile of Avner Augusto

Camila Souza's Story

In January 2021 Avner proposed. That day definitely makes the top 5 of my favorite days ever. I could see my whole life ahead and it looked pretty good. I was marrying the man of my dreams, we both had good jobs and were planning on moving to a bigger apartment soon. Things were stable and we were planning a big wedding for 150 people.

You’d think I’d put up a bigger fight when later that year Avner told me he was considering applying for a job in Sweden. But for some reason my immediate response was “go for it”. The thought of leaving my family, my job and my dream wedding was scary in theory. But honestly, ever since he proposed I knew my home would be wherever he was.

Things ended up working perfectly, I applied for a job in the same company as him, and things went smoothly with the job interview and visa process.

Well, there is always small hiccups. Like when he lost his passport during our visa process and we had to rush a new one only to find out later that it had fallen inside the furniture of our apartment. Things happen. But mostly everything fell into place, giving us a sense of divine will.

In November of 2021 we arrive here, in a new country, with a new language full of weird new characters, and a weather that would forever make me miss my home town. But with such beauty and kindness and safety and possibility.

The life of an immigrant is not always easy, but it is definitely worth it. Now I have two homes.

To the Linkedin profile of Camila Souza