"By placing your foot between the doors leading to the light, you can be sure that this train will not rush into a dark tunnel..." - V. Martynov

"The embassy is simple? You must be crazy! What are you even talking about!?" - I probably would have been just as indignant a few weeks ago, when this trip to an American institution was just starting to worry me... Oh, if only someone had said that phrase with conviction...

A step into the unknown is always scary. And who knows what it's like to get a visa?! Maybe it's harder than passing a quantum physics exam?.. No, my dears! The embassy is simple! You just need not to be lazy. Basically, just like in the course of your daily life.

What to do? Using my own example, I will show you - What and How you can do it!

To start, I looked through all the instructions I received by email and checked the forum http://www.iec.ru/forum1/viewtopic.php?t=13184&start=0. Of course, it is necessary to carefully prepare documents, copies, etc. In general, just follow the instructions that will be in your email! It's simple! After all, all that is required of you is to read, think, and do. If you managed to approach everything seriously from a formal point of view, then victory is 2/3 in your hands. To be honest, you can already safely await the "moment of truth," knowing that you will get the prize. Everything else is a matter of technique...

BUT!

During the preparation, I began to realize that this was not enough for a successful result of the "exam." Then it became simply necessary to understand what I was missing. The answer turned out to be right on the surface of the problem. I simply lacked self-confidence and faith in my skills. Of course, the visa application had already done its job, and the consul's decision was almost determined. BUT! As always, there is this big BUT!

The most important thing in the interview process will be your behavior at the counter in front of a real American. Your manner of holding yourself, moving, the ability to convey emotions and energy – all this is simply necessary for you, wishing to conquer America! So here it is, your opportunity to show your strengths in action! The upcoming interview at the embassy is a great reason to lift your spirits!!

Self-confidence is created by preparation! So why not prepare? Let's get started! In addition to tips and reviews about going through the embassy on forums, I advise you to read educational and practical literature (which you consider necessary in your situation). These can be books on practical psychology, or any others capable of helping you overcome fears and other difficulties. Every person has them, and everyone has different ones. You need to find them and destroy them with the help of new knowledge.

Solving any problem depends little on the situation, but on you and your inner mindset. Therefore, learn, improve, read, and rejoice, as new knowledge always brings many positive results. Having overcome and forgotten your fears, you will start looking at life differently, and such a "scary" interview at the embassy will turn into minutes of pleasure for you!!! Throw most of your energy into learning, and you will take a huge step forward, approaching perfection.

It should turn out that you suddenly start imagining an imaginary "examiner" when you are walking your dog, having lunch, or even getting ready for bed. Always practice mentally answering different questions, creating the most difficult, unexpected turns of your conversation in a virtual embassy for yourself. The moment such imaginings become an everyday routine for you – you, without even realizing it, will already be ready to enter into a verbal battle with the "cunning" consul.

Sometimes such preparation looks funny and absurd, but the result will not keep you waiting! The main thing is diligence and readiness to improve and not stand still!

Once, returning home, I decided to stop by a store. Music was playing loudly in my headphones. I walk along one counter, then another, and I feel the gazes of other supermarket customers falling on me. The first thought – "Probably, there is something wrong with my face, or my jacket is dirty, or, finally, my zipper is unzipped where it shouldn't be!.." Embarrassment, then my cheeks turn red. I take off my headphones, and I hear the phrase involuntarily flying out of my lips: "Yes. I play basketball..." Wow! Was I really talking to myself in English, while Mikhail Krug's songs were bringing me joy with their very soulful rhymes?.. We've arrived... I quickly came to my senses and, having paid for my purchases, left the store. Of course, I was embarrassed. For a few days, thoughts about the upcoming embassy automatically left my head.

But soon, the rehearsals continued. My roommate in the dormitory often told me that there was no need to prepare so hard – "it's only a five-minute job." But I resisted. Under the influence of fear, articles were read, and films in English were watched. Sometimes I wanted to talk to the actors, or answer them in my own way if, by the will of the script, they had to ask a question. For the second time in my life, I had a dream in which I was freely communicating in English, using words I had never heard in real life!

//A little tip:

If your English is bad – you can read phrasebooks. They usually have a lot of examples from life that will definitely help you say something to the embassy representative. Read always and everywhere you can – memory is designed in such a way that in a stressful situation, the necessary words will suddenly come to you as if from heaven. As it will turn out later, after the shock of what was said – you had already read these words, you just didn't know yet that you would remember them//

A couple of days before the interview. Rehearsals continued. And they ended when I was already taking the first step towards that cherished window #9.

But even before the embassy itself, when our crowd was being organized, I suddenly realized – there is nothing to be afraid of now! I know everything, I am confident in myself! This is the merit of preparation.

Approaching the window where the consul was sitting, I said hello. And right then, in that very second, a shot was fired in my direction – "Hello, how are you?". And it started... The questions the consul asked, I simply didn't consider difficult. My thought was one – I've heard and said this somewhere before :). Oh yes! I was digesting such conversations every day for weeks.

Here-here-here-here-here!... One more second.. and..

A smile behind the glass.. says "good luck", then "have a good summer"... words of gratitude fly out of my lips too, and in the same minute I find myself on the street with the happiest smile on my face!!! I smile at everyone: passersby who don't know about my joy, pigeons, the sky, the sun – everything that was nearby!

In my soul, such a feeling remained, or rather, a memory: as if, as a child, my mother took me to the local clinic for a vaccination. I remember how I kicked, bit... our turn comes, the door opens – I need to go in, and mom picks me up and brings me to the couch. As suddenly, a kind nurse, shining like the sun, gives me a candy, and, while I was unwrapping it – one! And that's it!!!

What, that's it? So easy and painless? "Yes" - says mom, and I walk down the street proud of myself and happy with the sweet gift!

That's it, dear friends! As Mikhail Bulgakov said: "Cowardice is not fear, but slavery to fear." Stop being afraid and look at life simply! After all, everything in the world is quite simple if you figure it out!

Well, good luck to everyone!!! Thank you very much for your attention! Full of hope that everything will be fine with you!!

Sincerely yours, Vyacheslav Martynov