E60: Cancer broke Kris Granger. Community & resilience put him back together

Hello, I'd really like to grow this email list. If you enjoy this newsletter, it would mean the world to Jola and I if you encouraged one friend/fellow immigrant/colleague to subscribe…Very likely, the the only thing you will get in return is warm fuzzy feelings, and if I can attribute it to you, I’d personally send you a thank you email.

Join us as we explore the bitter-sweet world of the immigrant.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Kris Granger, who immigrated from Trinidad to Sweden four years ago.

The immigrant experience can be stressful, so stressful that Kris ended up with Stage 4 cancer.

His story is amazing. Inspiring. Humbling.

Kris moved to Sweden with his girlfriend at the time to further her music career. He was going to be a digital nomad and service his marketing strategy clients from Sweden. She would move ahead with her music career. "I thought I could do anything," he says. Boy, was he wrong?

A couple of months later, Kris was running thrice as fast to keep up with all life was throwing at him. He was losing his clients back home, he hadn't been able to get a job in Sweden, and things were getting desperate.

He ended up getting a maternity cover role at an agency after volunteering with the European Union. But he had to make ends meet, so he still hustled hard for clients back home. He also accepted a guest lecturing position at the University of Gothenburg. This continued for a while.

By the time he got his dream job at Volvo, after applying over 50 times, Kris's life was falling apart.

His marriage was falling apart.

His body was falling apart.

In this conversation, we chat about surviving Stage 4 cancer and finding family and community at his Volvo workplace. We also talked about:

* The power of volunteering as an immigrant

* Why making a decision to fall in love with his city was the first step to falling in love with his new life

* The checklist life of an immigrant and how it can lead to dreadful outcomes

* The importance of breaking into the existing friendship circles because these are often the work circles, and more.

This was some episode. My biggest takeaway: if you move in your 30s, seek community. Seek stability. We trivialize all we walked away from in our former life.

Our family. Our friends. Our colleagues. Or the cultural cachets that make it easy for us to approach every day as if it’s nothing.

Moving to a new country resets you. The stress of trying to settle in, get a job, while also being a good parent and partner can literally kill you.

Here’s Kris’s approach to finding his community:1. Seek out spaces where you feel alive. Look for groups or classes that truly interest you – those are the places where real connections form.2. Give first, without asking. When people feel your genuine willingness to help, trust follows.3. Say yes to small, unexpected opportunities. It’s often the smallest steps that open the biggest doors.

Official Links

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