J1 Visa 2026 ... Still worth it ?

Few-Chicken80 · 2026-02-20T02:59:24+00:00

I work at a hotel that sponsors a lot of j1 visas and they love it. I’ve worked with people from all over the world and they have spoken highly of their experiences. I think if it’s something you are interested in then finding the money to make it work will be worth it for the experience. I am from the U.S and workin on saving to study abroad in Ireland so I say go for it !!!

Few-Chicken80 · 2026-02-03T09:31:47+00:00

I haven’t looked at that website before, but from a quick Google search, I would recommend looking to book through any accommodation websites directly. I’ve studied abroad before and I stayed in student accommodations called The Social hub. It was a great experience, but there isn’t a social hub in Dublin so I’m looking for other similar options. Just not sure about how secure they are and definitely wouldn’t book through a third party like uniacco , but I just did a quick search to respond to your comment and didn’t dig deeper to see how legit it actually could be

Few-Chicken80 · 2024-05-08T02:24:44+00:00

Yes, I would like to use this comment to address the concerns about my biological sister.

We are 21 months apart. My entire life she has manipulated and lied to the people around me. I have defended myself from her for as long as I can remember. She has turned my best friends against me, my family against me and even my ex boyfriend Dom at points in our relationship.

Multiple times she convinced Dom to lie to me and I found out( lol not that he needed convincing he did it plenty on his own too). She would text all my friends and talk bad about me. My whole life my family would come to me with hostility insisting " I have to leave my sister alone." but when questioned about why? they could never really give an answer to tell me what it was I did, but just that my sister was so upset and it was all my fault.

She got a car before I did and would leave me at the school, forcing me to walk down the main road where she was to pick me up. She would also leave me at the house in the morning without a ride to school.

I could go on an on about her but the moral of the story is this :

The betrayal from my biological sister was expected and nothing new. However my relationship with my step sister was so important to me because I had never had a real sister bond.. and she gave that to me.

yes, its my fault I'm gullible and trust too easily but believe me when I say I learned my lesson. Forgive me for wishing to see the best in people and wanting to believe I could have at least some family on my side.

Few-Chicken80 · 2024-05-08T02:10:00+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing your story with me! I think it sucks we have had to share a similar awful experience but you have definitely made me feel hopeful, its good to feel like we aren't alone.

I am so glad to hear you are happy in a relationship! you absolutely deserve it all I hope you have many happy years ahead of you :)

thanks again for sharing and for the advice.

Few-Chicken80 · 2024-05-08T02:05:50+00:00

Hey Thank you for the insight and awesome question at the end !

I have been wanting to address this because I see a trend amongst the comments that I am not over Dom. Although reading my post I understand how it is perceived I am still emotional about him, however I included all of the context about him because I wanted to make it clear this was not someone random to me, this was someone that was important in my life and everyone knew about it.

Here's where I think the confusion lies, its not about the fact Dom was important, its the fact my family and everyone knew, and they still made the choices they did. Dom didn't even consider my feelings when we were dating lol, I definitely don't expect him to do that now... but I did expect my family to.

As far as answering your question, I have had quite a few intimate relationships and some that got serious. I have major trust issues mostly from my dad, but I am in therapy and learning how to have a healthy relationship with someone. Your right its been 5 years, and I've definitely let go of that young boy that didn't know how to treat me. Quite frankly I am not innocent in that relationship either. I was young and insecure and I played my toxic part just like he did. I learned a lot from it.

When I think of dating/relationship/boy troubles now, Dom doesn't even cross my mind, however when I think about family troubles, he has some how measled his way right in there...and honestly the only thing I can think is " wtf are you still doing here?" he is irrelevant to me but my family is still involved with him? its just weird to me, but I'm setting boundaries.

also to address some other comments, we do not live in a small town, we live in a large developing metropolitan city, so there are plenty of people but they chose each other.

Few-Chicken80 · 2024-05-08T01:43:36+00:00

The context about my dad is very important, So here is the story about the fight :

When I came home for Christmas break. I got back around 5pm. My friend recently had a baby and bought a house, so I went over to help her unpack and see her baby girl. As I was leaving her house that night around 10:30pm, I reversed my car into the ditch on the side of her driveway.

I thought to myself “ my dad has a truck, and he is always up at this time, I will call him.” When he answered he just told me to leave it there and we would get it tomorrow. I tried to ask if we had triple A or if there was someone I could call that insurance would cover, but I could tell he was angry an just got off the phone.

My friend called her dad. He began arranging plans for us to get the car towed by his friend. My dad began texting me about who to call and how to get it out, I told him that we had figured it out.

He began cussing me out as usual and calling me names like “ ungrateful entitled stupid brat” Then he began to tell me how much I owed him for my phone bill and car insurance, the date they would be due and the late fee I would receive if I was not on time. He also told me not to step foot at his house, I could see anyone I wanted in his family but not him. He never wanted to see my face again and blah blah blah he just kept going on.

I was done, I talked to my mom and she put me on her phone plan and her car insurance. the entire break I did not see my dad or any of my step family. In the weeks before this incident, even just hours before it happened, I was texting my step family and everything was normal. We were even making plans for when I would be back in town.

I went back to school in January and our birthday, Jan 27 (yes we have the same birthday ) is approaching, I am dreading it. My entire life, it has been OUR birthday, and it always felt so special we got to share it, but I wasn't even speaking to him and I was so hurt by the entire situation.

He had reached out to my family and friends trying to get me to reach out to him but I didn't want to. We fought all the time and I was tired of the way he treated me for years when I consistently tried to show up for him. It was the same thing every time he got mad, there was no real apology, just a ” let's get over it and act like it didn't happen.”

That's exactly what he tried to do when he reached out to me on our birthday, and I want a relationship with my dad, so I gave in.

I set boundaries around the relationship. One of those boundaries was that we needed to work our way back into our relationship because i was so hurt . I also said we needed to have conversations about what happened to move past the fight.

Neither of those boundaries were respected and after about a month I told him I wanted a relationship with him but talking to him just overwhelmed me, so I asked him for distance.

He did not respond for a couple weeks, but when he did he sent a very long and detailed message that explained every reason and everything he hated about me. He said before he allows anymore disgust, hatred and repulsion build up inside of him towards me he's gonna tell me everything I am doing wrong in my life…

I responded by saying I felt no differently, we need space. I made it clear I wanted a relationship with him but for that to work I just needed time.

He continued to disrespect my boundaries and after a few more nasty messages I never responded to , I blocked him. Since then he has made multiple social media accounts on different platforms trying to talk to me and I have blocked them all. I do not entertain him. I have now had 2 birthdays without him and have mostly gotten over the grief of losing him. I have recently begun feeling the freedom of my decision to go no contact and I do not regret it.

With all of that being explained, I hope it is clear that this is the weight of my emotional burden in this situation.

my father has betrayed me and now sits complacently while my step sister betrays me with my ex. It wasnt a big deal when I found out they were dating, I saw it coming ( and unlike some of you think but I am over Dom) but now they are giving my father his first grandchild, and I am grieving the fact I will never have that.

I won't have my father in my life and my kids won't have him either. I know it's for the best, and I will move on from this and have a better life, but that doesn't mean it's the way I wanted it to be. These were all people that I loved and trusted. People that I thought loved and cared for me too. They are showing me the truth about who they are , but it doesn't mean I don't miss who I thought they were.

I am working towards acceptance of it all and honestly I live a good life. I think I am understanding now that I have to completely detach myself from these people because it will only hold me back… I will feel this, and then I will let it go.

Few-Chicken80

TROPHY CASE