An update on life – May

It’s been a while since I’ve provide an update about what and how I’m doing. You know it’s all starting to get a bit unclear when friends start pinging you wondering where in the world you are.

Despite all the photos that I have been posting of New Zealand on my social media (and to add even more confusion, my last sets of photos from SE Asia), I’m currently back in Sydney.

If there’s something you don’t like, do something about it. There’s always bound to be something better

It’s been almost 2 weeks since my New Zealand trip, but it hasn’t all been quiet. For starters, I’m now living at my third place since moving to Sydney in only 5 months. For the two months prior to my trip, I’m so thankful to have my friends Kevin and Etsuko let me stay at their place (while Etsuko was away for 2 months), and also offering me a bed after I got back until I found a new flat. It’s been such a positive experience and redefines my definition of having a housemate, taking turns cooking experimental meals and doing activities together on the weekends – not just staying holed up in our own rooms after work. Turns out, I did find some lemonade.

Don’t forget the power of connections

The hunt for a new place was not all that easy this time. With uni students still in school, it’s harder to find shared housing. I would’ve loved to have stayed in the same neighbourhood, but with property prices in that area rising, rent has also dramatically increased – on average about 20% more than when I first arrived. I had a couple of suburbs that I would love to live in, but upon looking at those prices, it was quickly apparent that I’d need to start looking at secondary neighbourhood choices, or find a high paying job. Haha.

After viewing a dozen or so places in just a few days, I wasn’t getting any luck. Recurring themes: dirty (cockroaches and ants roaming around!), too many housemates with not enough washrooms, too far from city centre. I messaged one my friend’s friend living in Sydney to see if she knew anyone looking for new tenants, and to my surprise, there was, which turned out to be the winning home that I’m living in right now. There are 11 of us in total in this house, most of whom are on working holiday from Taiwan. Tada, my new room!

Now that it took me a week to move to a new place, time to start planning what I’m actually going to do. With the Australian cafe experience under my belt, I think it would be easier to find work at another cafe. However, it would be a shame to have brought all my camera gear from back home and bring it all back without doing some sort of photography. Two paths exist: advertise my services and organically get clients for photo shoots, or join with an established photographer and gain some experience while getting paid doing what I love. Either way, after a week of searching high and low, the prospects of finding something in the short term is looking slightly dim and disappointing. Nonetheless, I’ll continue to work towards it and hope to encounter some luck. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Time is a funny thing. There always seems to be an abundance of it looking forward, but in reality, goes by quickly if you don’t make the best of it. Counting backwards, it’s been 7 months since I left home on this journey, and counting forward, only half a year to go before my WH visa expires (maybe?).

So there you go, another long update. A lot of decisions and permutations of paths lie ahead. Which one should I take?

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs