My name is Paúl Gotera, I am 22 years old and I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. I started studying karate when I was 5 years old and I’ve been an instructor since I was 17 years old.

Describing who I am has always been difficult because I consider myself to be a multifaceted person, although I always try to make good use of every part of me. I love to dance, to travel (with a purpose), to have a good conversation with my friends, to philosophize with anyone, and I also love to give my opinion on relevant and sometimes controversial topics.

I am a person that’s always full of energy, outgoing, desperate to continue learning, unique but at the same time one of the 7.8 billion people who inhabit this planet.

I started karate when I was 5 years old and I never stopped until the doctor told me to when I was 13 years old because of a surgical procedure. 4 months later I came back and continued my journey in Martial Arts.

The karate level in Venezuela is very high, so my experience was always excellent. I have always said that if they remove all athletes from the main national team and all the alternates replace them, we would continue to win internationally. I had the good fortune to be trained by many masters. I started in a traditional academy for 10 years and then I trained in a hybrid academy that mixed sports and traditional. The first taught me the basics of martial arts and connect my body and spirit. The second helped me boost my competitive career.

I always recommend Karate. It is the perfect combination of discipline, psychomotor development, respect, and healthy activity. As a coach, I saw first-hand the change in my students.

My experience in China.

Karate took me to China. Two friends were already there and I received the offer to teach at an academy in Canton. I thought about it a bit but the opportunity came to me at the right time, I refused to become a migrant in The Americas.

I dedicated my first two years almost entirely to Karate, but little by little I explored other areas, I worked in Marketing, I became an English teacher, but I also had some weird jobs, I was an extra, a dancer, a party promoter. These are things I never thought I’d do.

Culture shock in China is not for everyone. Either you love it or hate it. There is no middle point. And this is crucial. Everything is different, social codes, food, language, laws. Sometimes you feel like you’re in a movie.

I was very well received. My students’ parents recognized my effort in teaching quality knowledge to their children. I made incredible friends who supported me and who have made life a beautiful journey.

A funny anecdote is about the first day when I arrived in China. I took a bus from Hong Kong and I seriously needed to go to the bathroom, as soon as we got to the stop I had to do it behind a tree, the only thing I thought was that I was going to go to jail on my first day in China. As soon as I got to the apartment at dawn we ordered McDonald’s and what I thought was a normal chicken turned out to be extremely spicy. I couldn’t bite it twice. I just thought that I wouldn’t even be able to eat at McDonald’s in China.

A sad anecdote happened a few months after I arrived, I was sitting on the sidewalk crying and talking to my parents. I almost returned to Venezuela. At that time, I was facing too many problems and I thought I couldn’t handle everything.

For me, it was better to emigrate to a city where foreigners live as expatriates. That is, you are not one of the crowd, it is you and the other expats bursting into the unison crowd, in this case, China. The interesting thing is that you get involved in that culture and you live it. You get to know it and you integrate with it. Also, when you meet the other expats, you realize that each one has a very interesting story.

As a migrant I learned to leave behind prejudices, to accept myself as I am. That the world is big and there is room for everyone. I learned the value of money and planning.

My reverse culture shock was VERY strong. I spent almost two years in Venezuela as a result of the pandemic. The first year I still said “China” when asked about where I lived. The first time I said “Maracaibo”, I got goosebumps. I never felt it as a delay but it did affect me to have my life on pause. What affected me the most was having all my things in my apartment and being 15,000 km away. All the little things that I had worked so hard to buy were sitting there in my apartment gathering dust. It felt like they were waiting for me. Now they’re packed up and spread out at friends’ houses and I’ve become a minimalist person. I had no choice about the latter because I left my house with only 10kg of luggage when the pandemic started.

My trips.

I began to travel very often within Venezuela because of Karate competitions, and the first step is that moment when planes and airports stop being exciting, and all your attention is focused on the destination and what you will find when you land.

When I had the opportunity to start traveling, not because of competitions, but as a tourist, I began to notice small things that filled me, meeting new people, finding differences and similarities, different ways of seeing life, and perceiving the most common things. This was a little easier for me because when I started traveling throughout Asian continent, differences were very noticeable.

Many people travel less because they think they will spend a lot of money, and part of this is because as Venezuelans we were spoiled with dollars at low rates, and we think that vacations abroad should be in luxury hotels and restaurants. But when you travel so much you realize that not all vacations are relaxing, that some trips can be about adrenaline and discovery. That some can be in hotels and others in an Airbnb, some can be in restaurants, and in others you just cook.

But my passion for traveling is due to something very simple: the planet earth is huge and life is very short. At least when I leave I want to be able to say that I knew the planet where I lived.

My favorite countries are the Philippines, Cambodia, and Italy. The Philippines is a magical place, I only met an island and I felt in paradise. It was like being in Los Roques, but the repowered Asian version. If you ask me, it’s my first recommendation. I want to know all of it.

Cambodia is a pretty poor country but I think it’s a personal decision because of the magical moments I lived in it. It was my country of escape when COVID started to spread. While I was there they canceled my flight back home. I had to rethink everything.

I got to know the temples where Angelina Jolie recorded movies, I learned about the Cambodian genocide where 1/4 of the population was exterminated only 40 years ago, but I also saw the most striking and beautiful sunrise of my life at Angkor Wat which served as the background for me to declare love to someone, hahaha.

Italy was my first country in Europe and it opened up another continent for me. I realized so many similarities that exist between us, and with so many Italian friends it was a country that sooner or later I would have to visit. The best moment was when I arrived and reunited with all my friends. It was a sign that I was doing something right.

I have some anecdotes transformed into tattoos. In Vietnam, I got “Stay positive” tattooed on my arm. It sounds cliché but with the pandemic, anxiety was high. I had left my watch at a security point at a transit airport. And they couldn’t find it. Just two days later, when I thought there was no solution, I got a call and the flight attendant told me that they had found it and would send it to me for free on the next flight. The person I was with told me: “Now you see? Stay positive!”. I turned around and went into a tattoo shop that was 50 meters away from us. These are silly events that mean a lot to me.

Teacher Paul.

Teaching English is one of the most common jobs in China . 4 years as an English teacher have allowed me to teach children from 4 years old to adults over 60. I have learned that languages ​​are not only about semantics and grammar but about culture and awareness.

During the pandemic, I reinvented myself thanks to the help of a friend and of course due to a bank account balance that made me want to cry, hahaha. Teaching online was challenging at first, but I quickly adapted myself to it. My students became my friends. Although I don’t want to teach English for the rest of my life, I do want to stay in the teaching field forever.

I got certified as a teacher after 3 years of teaching, but also having studied undergrad in English gave me a lot of background on the context of how to use a language. Having been a Karate teacher to children and adults also gave me an important pedagogical foundation.

Every day I learn from the questions they ask me. I have realized that it is not a cliché but a reality. By being a teacher you learn, and you learn a lot.

My future.

Future is something so uncertain after COVID that whoever has an accurate roadmap has my absolute admiration. For now, I know that I will try to return to China without discrediting new opportunities that have come and will come my way.

I want to become an academic Ph.D. soon and I want to generate passive income before I turn 24. I want to continue being a backpacker and I want to live the process as much as I live goals and objectives. I want to go as far as I can because that’s all I need.

The next destinations I have in mind are Spain, Kenya, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Luxembourg, and Myanmar.

My only reflection is to live the journey as much as you will live the destination, which is nothing more than living the process as much as you intend to enjoy your achievements. And I say this only because we all live preparing ourselves for that future moment when we think our best years are gone. Always keep in mind planning and cautiousness, because those who live off appearances are empty inside.

Translation: Pascual Díaz