Amira’s Energy world

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"Stay simple be who you are and be proud off your self! The whole life is a lesson ...Believe in life and stay positive as much as you can with enough patience thinks will get always better!"

I came to Regina in 1995 from Bileca, Bosnia that’s right along the border of Croatia. I came to escape the Bosnian war that resulted in the break up of Yugoslavia that led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people. That was the beginning of my life and now I’m here living another chapter in such a beautiful country like this.

When I first came here, I was afraid. Leaving my family behind in a war torn country had high impact on me and then coming here and not knowing anyone or how to speak the language was difficult. My second language is German and it had some connection to English but I still didn’t know much so I decided that I was going to learn English sentence by sentence and change my life in a positive way.

I met so many people from around the world that were learning the same language and that’s what I loved the most. Our teacher was kind and friendly and we all became like a family. We had a translator trying to help us, taking us to places around the city and introducing us to schools. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do all of it such a short period of time. I just focused on the language and the city was so supportive.

I went and applied for a job at an engineering firm called Cliffton Associates. My English wasn’t great and I did have a license but I was determined to learn and improve myself. They were very friendly and let me volunteer at their firm and as I gained experience (and got my drivers license) I started testing concrete, then I went on to work for the Sask Wheat

Pool and eventually ended up working on a digging project for Wascana Lake.

All I wanted to do was accomplish something. You can’t be a complainer as a new immigrant. I worked for many years in Engineering and then I decided it was time to start having a family so I start having kids and then I decided that I wanted to start my own business. I never did business school and knew nothing about it but being an entrepreneur is inside of you, and I think everyone has it inside them but people are afraid to make that change.

I became a homebuilder and started building homes over $500.000 so I was really happy about that. At this point, I had three boys. I don’t think that there is a better place that has people like Regina. I’ve travelled a lot but there’s something about this city and the people. Yes, people say that it’s too small but if you’re coming from a place that had war then you’d appreciate it so much more. I’ve been really lucky to be here in Saskatchewan.

I’m now 44 years old and I’m trying to live a healthy life. I try to be positive every day and give thanks to my parents and god for how beautiful life is. My mom used to be a teacher and she loved books and every year she would buy me a book for my birthday and she never missed a year. Through all the books I read, I will never forget one, it was written in Israel, and she stated, “Even if you’re not happy, go to yourself in the mirror and look at yourself and say I’m pretty and start laughing, and that will make your day.” We have to be strong and we have to make everyday for ourselves beautiful.