I: I am going to continue my study at the island. I would go straight to the night school after finished work.
No respond from my parents on my decision; deemed as they both agreed then.
There wasn’t any college that provides night school for the professional study I chose. Island side was the capital of the state; so its city life was more happening and busy than the mainland side where my hometown was located.
I wasn’t good at direction. Therefore, I had no clue with the driving routes in the island side, especially the city area. My dad spent some times with me and drove me along the driving routes from the jetty area to college, repeatedly for two to three times. I tried to draw a simple map, jotted down the shop or scenery at every turn along the route. I really tried my best to memorize the direction. At that time, we didn’t have map functions or directory application in the mobile phone yet.
I braved up myself to start my journey based on my memory and the hand-sketched map to get my way to the college, started Monday.
Not long after such daily driving routine on my secondhand motorcycle to college, the working place that I worked at hometown was having company restructuring and I was asked to be transferred to headquarter office in the island. That change required me to begin my journey to the island early in the morning for work and return to home after night school class. Again, my dad helped me to get myself familiar with the driving route from jetty to the company and then to the college. I had it memorized well.
Whenever I have night class, I reached home nearly eleven p.m. each day.
I: I am going to stay in the island. Rent a room and come home on weekend.
Dad: …
Mum: No!
Mum pondered there as she wasn’t able to voice up any reason to stop me from doing so. As for my dad, he truly understood the tiredness in me for having to drive from home to work place and night school, to and fro every day. My words led to a silence dinner, that evening.
None of my family member ever worked and stayed away from home, except my dad. He used to work at another state in our country when I was still at primary school. He was our breadwinner that time. He has no other way but to ensure the days where he stayed at company hostel and not seeing his wife and his two little children. Those were the days. Now, it was my turn to stay away from home.
For one whole week, mum didn’t talk to me at all. The stubborn me also didn’t initiate any conversation with mum as I didn’t find myself at any wrong.
The night before the physical move out to the island, my dad helped me if I need any further help. He would accompany me to the rented room at the island as he wanted to double-check on the landlord family and their house conditions.
“Maya, talk to your mum. She’s just worry about you for staying away from home, all on yourself.” Dad spoke slowly while I buried myself in folding my clothes into the luggage.
My hands paused for a while and my eyes lost focus in the space in front of me; I continued on the packing work after three seconds.
The next morning, I walked down towards dining area after I finished wash up in the morning. I addressed my mum and asked if we were going out for breakfast. I tried to break the silence between us. Mum didn’t answer right away. I let her be and drank my coffee at the dining table. To me, I would cover those additional expenses with my salary funds; I won’t be causing any extra burden to the household expenses; so, my decision shouldn’t cause any issue for them.
Mum: Your dad goes to buy noodles for us.
Cool. She replied at least.
At the evening time, Dad put all my luggage onto the car and drove me to the rented place. He helped me settled down the items and had a little courtesy conversation with the landlord family. They seemed humble and friendly.
All set and I sent my dad at the entrance, assured him that I would give them a phone call tomorrow. I headed back to the bedroom and tidied up the daily items before heading for a shower and rest. The new life of me sharing house with another family and starting living in the island all by myself began.
Landlord family was friendly and they sometimes, even treated me to the dinner they cooked. As courtesy sake, I bought them some fruits or snacks in return. I slowly gotten to the living style in the island and learnt to live independently. As promised to my parents, I travelled home every weekend even though traffic jam happened everywhere. Over the years, I had a few jobs changed and made new friends extended from formal colleagueship. I learned to handle and solve the issue(s) that happened at times, such as my motorcycle broke down or punctured on the road. I can no longet calling for my dad for help when such thing happened but to find solution to get the issue solved. My phone contact list has gotten longer; filled with contact number to foremen, mechanic, locksmith, emergency call and etc. I enjoyed my days away from home.
I: Here you go.
I put down my signature on the member’s registration form and handed it over to the administration clerk. I was in the shopping mall and there was a campaign held at the square at ground floor. I went to check on it. After the briefing and the detailed information shared by the said admin over the questions I asked her, I decided to enroll myself as one of their members.
I: Do I need to tick (check) on these boxes?
I looked at the back of the member’s card which has my name written on it now.
Admin. clerk: Yes. Choose what you’d prefer.
Skin… Bones…?
I: What do you mean by bones? They’d take my bones and what would they do with the remaining body? Are they going to pass over the slump body without any boned back to my family?
Admin. clerk: If you choose Bones, they would extract the bones and put some replacement structure to support the body part.
I: Serious? Then what? Wrap with a piece of clothes and give back to my family?
My eyes widened by her words.
Admin. Clerk: Usually, they would wrap the body and put in a coffin before handing back to the family members.
I: I think it’d be just the simple coffin yeah. Coffin is costly though.
Admin. Clerk: I believe so. But it all will still need family member’s approval beforehand. If they do not agree, doctors can’t do anything about your body.
I: Even when I have registered myself as member?
Admin. Clerk: Yes, family consent must be obtained.
Oh… then, that means I have to relay this decision to my family then. I only selected a few from those selection boxes.
On the dining table, when we were about to finish our meals, I voiced up the action I took the other day.
I: I registered myself as the donor; to give away my body, organs to the patients in need after I died.
Deep silence on the dining table after every one of my family members digested my words. I tried to lighten the atmosphere a little.
I: I chose organs and so on. But it would still family members greenlight before doctor can take those parts.
Dad: Why do such thing…?
I: Why not? Doing something with good karma even after the end of my life.
No one said anything about my decision there. I knew I had really shocked them with such abnormal decision I declared openly, without any intension to at least discuss with them beforehand.
Pa, Ma, I love you all. After death, the body was just an empty ‘container’, donate to those in need as their second case to live a better day, not bad, I think.
After almost nine years of living and working in the island. I started to feel bored and once again I entered into the job search mode. I needed some more excitement in my career development. Everyday attended to work was just to finish the daily, weekly and monthly routine tasks. Neither new project or knowledge transition from overseas branch.
Should I try to search for a job outside of this state but which state? Capital state of the country? That was pretty far and I wasn’t quite like the packed city life there. In my job search, I had applied to job post from other states including cross-country, i.e. Singapore.
Job opportunity knocked on my mailbox and I successfully gotten a job offer from another state that required nearly one and a half hours’ drive by car, from my hometown. No news from my job searches for Singapore.
I: Pa, Ma, I’m going to neighbour state, to work and rent a room to stay there.
That’s more or less the same as per the time I spent on travelling from hometown to the island. Not much difference to my opinion, so, I grabbed the job.
No comments from both my parents. Guess, they already immuned by my behaviour. We have a short family trip to that state on the weekend; again, for me to get familiar with the driving route in this new state and the new place I would be working next. My dad also lost his way when we entered the town area in that state. It has been a long time since my dad visited this place. No big deal as we wasn’t in a hurry. We had a few spins to get the route right.
My parents joined me to go around to see room for rent in that industrial area. Finally, the lucky me got a rented place found and fixed. An old yet healthy grandpa as the landlord let us have a look at the room that he intended to rent out. It was a huge room. I paid for the room deposits and heading back to our hometown. There was two weeks before I starting to work with the new company. I took the time and drive along highway to the neighbour state. I drove all by myself, at a driving speed of 110mph. That’s the max I would hit as my secondhand car already gave off some funny sound if I sped of any further. So, I maintained at the driving speed; that took me one hour and forty-five minutes, one way.
I tried to adapt to the new working environment and that rural life living style. Luckily, we already have internet explorer invented; else, I definitely bored to death. This residential area doesn’t have any leisure place to hang out. Shopping mall and city required another fifteen to twenty minutes’ drive from where I stayed.
I can’t be going to the same shopping mall every night, right… I headed home every Friday after work. Along with me, I bought some local fruits home for my parents to eat. Slowly, I gotten more familiar with the local whereabouts. My colleagues shown me around the seafood eating place in that state. When there’s long weekends, I brought my family members to dine in that recommended seafood restaurant. Food served in huge portion, cheap and yummy! We enjoyed the sunset views on the boardwalk that were fully parked with fishing boats.
I tried to numb myself in spending my boring rural life and forcing myself to perform that job duty that I wasn’t quite enjoyed, at this neighbour state. Out of my expectation, I got a job offer phone call from Singapore, nine months later. My eyes were sparkled with excitement. Singapore? I haven’t been there before.
I took a few days annual leaves and bought a ticket from travel coach company. I had with me a small luggage boarding the coach bus heading to Singapore.
My parents reminded me to be more careful and asked me to give them a call when I reached Singapore.
I: No worries. I would stay at my formal classmate, Yan’s house for two nights. She would guide me along. After interview, I’d take the return bus home.
I waved my hands to them, from the window of my seat.
Heard that Singapore has more Chinese locals as compared to my home country. Shouldn’t have any big problem. Living style should be more or less the same as ours.
With the detailed SMS messages from Yan, I finally reached her house. Yan was staying with her sister; in fact that was her sister’s house. I overnighted in Yan’s bedroom. We had a long chat. The next morning, I prepared myself and went for the job interview, followed the map direction given by the HR personnel.
The interview session went well. They asked me to wait for the interviews ‘conclusion in a week’s time. After Yan’s working hour, she shown me around the residential neighbourhood. I bought a small give to thank her and her sister for letting me stayed over at their place. Yan led me the way to board the coach bus returning to hometown, in the evening. That was a short trip to Singapore – a high-tech and well-organized country that packed with locals and expats.
I: I got the job from Singapore; I’m going to Singapore, this month end.
Dad: You got the job? Really? That’s good. It’s two times’ more than our local currency.
Mum: …
I smiled and nodded my head.
Hopefully, I could save some money from working in Singapore. Other people in my country would have to work two and a half years just to get the same total salary I worked in Singapore for a year. And, I can come home every two months or so, by bus at a bus fare of SGD60, one way. Locals in Singapore are pretty similar to my home country; I can surely adapt to it.
I already tendered resignation letter to the company at the neighbour state. I packed my stuff from that rented room, bid farewell to the old landlord grandpa; I drove home. Next journey, to Singapore!
Dad: When you have any job opportunity in Singapore, introduce to your younger brothers then.
I: Sure.
Mum: Be careful always, and call home once you reached there.
I: Okay.
This time, I also bothered Yan for staying over at her place a few days while searching for rented room. That process was pretty efficient; I managed to book a rented room on the third day. Yan’s brother in-law, together with Yan’s sister, they all treated me for vegetarian dinner before sending me over to my newly rented place, in their car.
New life in Singapore stated. Anxiety, panics accompanied with excitement overwhelmed me for at least the first few days I started working in the new employment. Time flew by, two years passed. New colleagueship bonded at work and I visited Yan once a while. With landlord, I didn’t have much conversation with them.
Seemed like that was the living patterns of the locals… But, that’s fine. I can adapt to it. Not a big deal.
While I carried out some filing works for my personal document, during the weekend, something caught me thinking deep. It was the stack of approval document and the results from the IELTS exam I once sat for. I read through the approval conditions once again to refresh my memories about it. I then flipped open my passport and read the approved visit period printed on it.
Hmm… I must clock at least two years out of the five years approved visit period; else, I can’t renew it. What should I do next?
That stack of document was the permanent resident (PR) application paperwork prepared by the agent. That was done three years ago. After the PR was accessed and granted by the Australia Immigration Department, I didn’t do anything about it.
Great, it is now entering the third year. I only left with two years to fulfill the numbers of day of stays in Australia, so that I could renew the PR-ship. I spent nearly a month thinking about this topic and what to do next.
I asked around my ex-colleagues and relatives that have already migrated to Australia for years. I need more information on the chances of getting a job in Australia and the living cost. Of course, I carried out my checking from the information available on the internet, as well as reading some basic knowledge one has to know before living in Australia (shared by Australia immigration department).
How about I take a short trip visiting to both Melbourne and Sydney first? And then, decide which place I prefer to stay? That sounds like a plan. Better to have look around on the places and living style first before too quick to jump into a decision on where to stay.
I: Pa, I go for a short trip to Australia.
Dad: Australia? Go with who?
I: Just me. Free and easy. Just a short trip. No worries.
Dad: Okay. Stay at the city and be careful always.
I met my ex-colleague during my visit to Melbourne. From the information and tips shared by him, it would be easier to get a job offer when one has a local address. I tried searching for job offer when I was still working in Singapore; that way, I could reduce as much risk as possible.
Another month passed, no news on my job searches at all.
Guess, I really have to be in Australia for better job opportunity. I began to read, did some research and calculate the basic living cost I have to spare beforehand. Taking into consideration on the risk of not having any job in the first three month, how much of my savings would be burnt and etc. That was quite a tremendous volume of considerations I had to make there.
When things were well prepared, I made a trip home.
I: I’m moving to Australia. I have the PR already. Will try to find a job and stay there.
Once again, I shocked my family members. They all looked at me with widened eyes. My mum was speechless and my brothers blinked their eyes no sure what to say next.
Dad: Can you not go?
I: I want to try and see. If I can find a job, I can live there and you guys can go over to Australia.
I have spent hefty money paying to the migration agent and the PR-ship application process; I can’t just waste it without even using the PR-ship.
Brother 1: Is it easy to get a job there?
I: Some says to apply before go there but I didn’t find any. And some says better chances if have local address in Australia; so, I’d rent a place and search for job, and see how.
Brother 2: What season is there now?
I: March? Entering winter soon. Cold.
My mum went on silence strike mode again. But I knew she was sad about my migration plan as that, no doubt, they wouldn’t be seeing me more often than the frequency I travelled home from Singapore, i.e. less than three times a year. Back then, we didn’t have the video chat yet; and my parents weren’t familiar with Skype application. Overseas phone calls at a cost was what we could do. When I arrived at Melbourne, the first thing was signed up the mobile phone package that covered the most outgoing calls minutes.
I tendered resignation to my Singapore employer and colleagues bid me farewell. I gave away most of the electrical items and daily use consumable products to my best friend. I brought along two huge luggage and flew back to my hometown. There were some items that I needed to bring along if I was on migration purposes to Australia.
My siblings organized family dinner and the day we went to airport, my mum cried and nearly choke. I felt down watching my ageing parents and family members. I promised them that I would call them frequently. Don’t worry too much about me.
Upon landing Melbourne city, I rented budget hotel to settle down and started to search for room for rent, through newspapers and local websites recommended by many. After sighting for a few rooms, I finally entered into room lease with an Asian couple’s house. The room didn’t come with heater. I quickly went to supermarket to get the bed sheet, thick comforter and pillow. For a person came from sunny ASIA country, I had prepared myself with thick sweater and winter clothing. The winter in Melbourne was so cold, to my opinion. I endured it by spending most of my time in public library or at my rented room.
I wasn’t the type that would lay back without any target set for my days and times. My next important mission was to get myself a job. Else, I would be spending on my hard-earned savings. No, that can’t do!
Frankly, job application process in Australia was so different from what we have in ASIA. In Singapore, I could literally, send out at least ten to twenty job applications in one day. But, in Australia, applicant has to fill up a bunch of questionnaires set in each company’s website. Most of them asked candidate to write an essay on their thoughts about a topic! What the hxck? Now, came to think of it, I think I could sell off those short articles for a fee. In a day, I wasn’t even able to send out at least five job applications, through websites. Those that published on popular job search website was more for part-time job.
Three weeks passed. No incoming calls from those job applications that I had sent out. Unlike what was suggested by my friend, i.e. having a local address didn’t really get me any better job offer. Local companies required applicant to have working experience in Australia companies which I didn’t have. I started to panic as living on my savings really stressed me out. I had no choice but to change my mindsets to downgrade myself to apply for clerical jobs when my last employment in Singapore was holding a Finance Manager’s post. Still, no news after two weeks.
Reality pushed me further. I browsed through those part-time job in service line. Finally, the lady boss from a Thai restaurant called me up and offer me a part-time job as kitchen helper. I was so happy about it but worried in the same time as I have never worked in the kitchen before. In order to save some money, I have just tried to learn cooking some food for myself after I rented a room in Melbourne. Both my mum and dad were good cook; and my stay in the island, cross-state and Singapore were facilitated with local economy food choices; no need for me to cook at all.
I burnt the skin on the back of my left palm by accidentally touched on the steamy hot coffee scoop when I tried to prepare a coffee per customer’s order. No one taught me how to make those coffee, e.g. long black, short black, latte and so on. I was taught to peel cooked prawns, prepare fruit shake, and even wrap Vietnamese spring rolls. My mentor was a middle-aged woman who was called as Mum by each worker there. I addressed her Mum Lee. She was so strict on my food preparation skills for we have to serve quality food to each customer. I had to observe what job I needed to attend to next, and switched between task.
The tough one was washing the fruit juice glasses. Each glass was made with thick and quality glass material. Having a full tray of such glasses arranged and lifted it onto the steaming machine for cleaning. My back and arms took all the weights on. Rounds of washing tasks to be done in a day, especially dinner time.
In only two days working as kitchen helper in that Thai restaurant, my ankles swollen in pain. I have never stand for hours in my life! Laid my tiring body onto the cold bed, I counted the hours I worked so far and multiplied it with AUD 7 per hour; that was the salary I earned in my first job in Australia.
I: Whooh…
I let out heavy sigh. Oh gosh… I was so tired and my body ached in pain. I rang my parents giving them a report of my safety and I quickly grabbed some sleep. Tomorrow is my roster to be on duty at the restaurant.
Only on my off day, I could continue on the job search activities. As usual, spent the whole day in public library tapping on the free WIFI and the heater in the library, I relentlessly searching for jobs. When I really exhausted, I let loose and went for window shopping or relaxed myself in the garden.
People in the neighbourhood? Well, not as friendly as I have heard. In the city, youngsters were more open up to initiate small conversation with others. In contrast, the neighbours in the neighbourhood where I stayed, no one even bother to say ‘Hi’ or ‘Good day’, what’s more to expect a smile from them. When the trash collection day comes, my landlords would help to push along those trash bins of my neighbours to the road side as well. It was just a small favour and those bins were placed next to ours. I joined in this gesture. But never once, did the neighbour do the same for us though. Never once, since my stay here… Bias and human behaviour have always been something that made my jaw dropped.
I got a phone call from another non-office job offer. This one would be working as warehouse assistant at the suburb far away from where I stayed. It took me one hour and a half to travel by train and public bus, one way. The job gave a better pay than the restaurant job; i.e. USD100 per day, eight hours’ job. I tried the job on my off day at the restaurant. Looked at the map and follow the direction to the warehouse.
Oh… It’s a big warehouse that wholesaled all those party items. A clean warehouse and all their products were nicely packed in dozen. My job was to push the shopping cart alongside with walk-in customer and helped them to put the products they intend to buy into the cart; and then let lady boss to collect total payment from customer at the checkout cashier corner.
What a simple job! I was quite like it aside from the travelling time. I called up the lady boss of the Thai restaurant and tendered my resignation. She agreed that she would credit my last pay into my bank account in two days. I somewhat, felt a little relief for having this warehouse job. At least, I could stop using my own savings, from now on.
I worked there for nearly a month; spent nearly three hours each day on the journey to work and head home. I continued on office jobs’ search on the weekend. I cooked my own simple stir-fried food. Landlord couples were friendly to me as well.
During my rest day, for outdoor activities, I chose to relax myself by enjoying the nature’s view in the park, sea view, morning day market, museum and so on. As for indoor, I watched movies or anime series and reading novels from the internet. I sang in my bedroom when landlords weren’t around. I took afternoon naps and did my nails painting, sometimes. What else? I knew myself, I wasn’t the type that would easily open up to be friends with anyone. It took some times and observation works before I could befriend someone. Not that I was bias or anything. Just, give me sometimes.
I came all the way here to Melbourne, all by myself. Although I have friends living in Melbourne but they have their own live as well. Most of the time, I faced the four white walls of my bedroom; prepared and ate the meals in the kitchen. I chatted with family and friends based in hometown and Singapore, over phone calls. Next would be the spot in the garden that I chose to sit, i.e. the wooden bench with nicest view towards the flowers garden. I bet those hardworking ants and busy honey bees could recognize me as the regular patron to their space, by now.
I looked to the window from my bedroom, it was already pitched dark when the clock on my desk shown that it was only four p.m.
Jeez… still early but the sky was already this dark.
Unlike in my home country, Malaysia; and Singapore. After dinner at eight p.m., family and friends could still go for window shopping at mall and hang out at the coffee shops until late evening. Oh… I missed the ‘teh tarik’ (direct translated would be ‘drag/pull milk tea’) of the food stall by the roadside where I used to hang out with my buddies and chat until midnight. That food stall operated 24 hours.
Four p.m., most of the shops and restaurants already closed except for some in the CBD area. Nothing much I could do, here. Week by week, I spent my days like that – sleep, eat, work, job search and rest.
So… here comes another issue that really got me to start considering – Am I going to work as warehouse assistant going forward? But for how long? What time frame should I set for it? One year, two years or life long? Wouldn’t this damage the careers history recorded in my resume that I have built up in the past ten years? My mind was busy analyzing the pros and cons on this matter even though I might look like a human statue that sat on the garden bench with a cup of hot coffee in my hand, not moving an inch. Was it due to the Virgo characteristics in me that won’t allow myself to slack for long time and keeps pushing me to move forward and achieve better targets? I stressed myself up, again. Not only did I demand high quality work from other people, my demand became triple-folded when it came to myself.
It has been two and half months since I landed Melbourne. I followed the routine path and life I chose and set for myself but I have decided that I can’t be like this forever. I gave myself another two weeks. If still there’s no sign of any office jobs, I would return to Singapore; back to my usual finance-related jobs.
Times up! No job offer from any companies. I told the lady boss in that wholesale company about my back for good plan. She persuaded me to stay as she found me a good worker. She even asked me why would I go back to those mind-stressful finance jobs? I thanked her sincere advices.
I truly understood her words – Having a relaxing job that could earn a living, and then enjoy the slow pace living style in Melbourne. That could be wonderful but that was not what I intended to do at this age. If I was already at the age of 40 and above, maybe I would choose such relaxing life to pass my days.
Not now.
After three months period clocked; I changed my mode from newly migrated resident to sight-seeing tourist mode. I joined the local day tour to Melbourne Great Ocean Road tour and jumped on the helicopter ride for the first time in my life. With just a simple change in direction and mindset, to my surprise, all those hard-to-breathe stresses in me were gone in ‘poof’! I didn’t feel stress anymore. Perhaps, deeply I knew that I could earn back those savings that I had spent in Melbourne from my next job in Singapore. I too, already set a budget for my local tour visits purposes. Wow, I felt so relief! As if one knew the timing to cut their losses by selling off their stock without waiting and pinning on baseless hope that the share price would stop dropping soon. Take decision to stop the losses without hesitation was needed, at times.
Puffy Billy Train, here I come!
I informed my parents about my decision to leave Melbourne. They laughed at me for my fast-changing plan but I knew they were happy about my return.
Dad: Are you serious?
I: Yeah, still can’t find a proper office job. I coming back.
Dad: Okay.
I: I’d go to see some tourist spots before heading home. Don’t waste the trip here.
Dad: Yeah, you’d better. But don’t buy too many things.
I: Okay.
My dad knew me well on this shopaholic side of me. With his reminder, still, I bought some local souveniors during those sight-seeing tours and some reasonably priced abalones in can packaging. I bid farewell to my landlord, and I even went to the Thai restaurant to bid farewell to Mum Lee. She was happy to see me again but a little shock to hear that I was going back for good after such a short stay in Melbourne. Nevertheless, she gave me warm hug and wished me best of luck.
Pushed and dragged along all my luggage with both my hands plus a heavy backpack with my laptop in it, on my back. Indeed, physically heavy yet without any more mental stresses, I headed to Melbourne airport in a cab. Like I always did, I left most of the items that I had in the rented room for the next tenant. He or she could choose to throw or use it.
My dad was happy to receiving me in the airport at our hometown. He teased me for buying so many things, from two huge luggage to Melbourne but returned with four luggage home. I gave him a hug and I couldn’t wait to be home.
Australia, I tried; at least, I have tried. Perhaps the time I went to Melbourne wasn’t right. Some of former colleagues that went to Australia two years later, has successfully found themselves an audit job and settled down there already. I didn’t have enough days of stay at Australia; guess I wasn’t able to renew my PR-ship. I didn’t really carry out a check for the detailed requirements for PR-ship renewal. Perhaps, I knew, I won’t be returning to Australia soon. If chances strike again, I would consider then.
Oh, well… fate. Maybe ASIA countries need me more. Ha-ha.
I had gathering with my friends at hometown and shared my short yet memorable experiences in Melbourne with them.
Friend #1: Maya, you’re crazy. Go so far, all by yourself!
Friend #2: I won’t go if I were you. I’m homey person. I love Malaysia.
Friend #3: Worked as kitchen helper? Wow! I want to eat Vietnamese spring rolls. Made me some!
I: Ha-ha.
I: Pa, I got a job interview from Singapore. I’m going to Singapore this month end.
Dad: Oh, really? Okay.
Mum: So fast, you got a job there already?
I: Yeah, this job application was sent three weeks ago; they called and did a simple interview over the phone. I’d go Singapore for second interview. If accepted, I’d move to Singapore then.
Mum: Okay.
Looks like my parents were much mentally prepared and acceptive of me living in Singapore rather than Australia. Singapore is much closer to Malaysia and I can be home anytime, with that one hour and ten minutes’ flight.
With all those shocking decisions that I had make along those years in my life, I really wanted to thank both my parents for the FREEDOM and mental supports they have given me thus far. I have the freedom to choose what I want to do, where I want to work and which place I intend to stay. Thank you for not restraining me on the decision I made.
I once read from an article that often times, parents objected or rejected their children’s decision was meant to see if their children were well prepared. If their children backed off right after the rejection from their parents, that just demonstrated that the said children weren’t ready to take action and not determine enough to push themselves for another trial in convincing their parents about the plan and decision they have in mind.
Guess, in this test, I passed? Thank you, my rebellion and well-prepared self!
The truth is, no one is perfect. Neither my parents nor me were perfect. Each of us has our flaws and attitudes that hurt the other party, sometimes, But with their mental supports and trust that I have the courage to explore various options before deciding on my plans. I have the chance to see the world – visiting new places, meeting new people, gathering various experiences in my life. And the most important thing would be that I learnt to face and face the consequences from the decision I made, be it a success or failure.
Face it, reflect, and move on.
THANK YOU, Pa, Ma! (Although I wasn’t the type that would say this out loud to your face but I really hope that you all knew this all along.)
