Hello Everyone!
I wanted to introduce myself as my first post so you can learn a bit about me and my story up until now. My name is Alisha, I’m full chinese but was born and raised in Australia. I studied Industrial Design at university and decided, nearing the end of my degree, that I would not pursue a career in design. I came to that conclusion mainly because I enjoyed designing for myself but was mortified by the idea of designing for clients and having them critique something I put a lot of time and heart into.
In 2015 I graduated and I moved from Sydney to Brisbane to look for an job that will officially make me an real life adult, aka an office job. The idea of any sort job that was not in retail was my idea of a dream job. I wanted to be able to call home to my family and tell them “I got a full time job” so they can call and boast to my grandparents, aunties and uncles that “yes our daughter is going to be OK”.
So my job searching started:
1 month past...nothing. During this time while I was job searching I decided to purchase a online course to learn more about illustrator (design program) just to have something productive to fill my time.
2 months past...1 interview for a receptionist. Didn’t get it.
3 month past.. Landed a retail job but heck I was happy because I needed the money.
↑My first apartment in Brisbane. My tv stand was an old camping table, I know how fancy! // Street Beach Brisbane - Fun Fact, not a real beach. It's just a pool.
This retail job gave me momentary bliss just knowing that even though it wasn’t office job, I’m earning money now and not just drying up my savings. However, that thought a lot of us get started to creep back in ‘what am I going to do? What am I going to be? I just want a job I don’t absolutely hate so I can make normal salary’. If i could just land 1 office job in a company then I can just stay there forever and I will be set for life’. Tip: don’t think about these things at night like I did, It doesn’t help at all. After one panicky night, I decided to just get back on the job searching site again and just have a look around. I spotted “Assistant Graphic and Web Designer”. I knew next to nothing about web design and only a teensy bit about graphic design that I learnt in one class in university. I thought what-the-hey and applied since data-analysis and receptionist jobs didn’t seem to be catching on anytime soon. She replied by to me later that evening asking for me to meet her the following day for an informal interview. As you probably guessed, I got the job! She later told me that these icons I designed in my portfolio caught her attention. Which was what I had learnt from my Illustrator course I took in month one of job searching! Like I said before design was something I didn’t want to do as a job but this job came to me to quickly and easily that It seemed like it just must be.
↑My icons I created from my Illustrator course that got me the job
I worked one on one with my boss, I was her first and only non-virtual employee and little did I know that after 1 year of working with her my life would change so dramatically. I really enjoyed working especially the first month in, I would sometimes get a butterfly feeling in my stomach ‘thinking is this real life, I can’t believe I’m getting paid to sit down at my laptop and create banners, buttons and icons. I guess you could say my boss was an entrepreneur and her clients where all female entrepreneurs that were starting their business or growing their business. So while we worked my boss would alternate between having music on or podcasts/interviews. I really enjoyed the podcasts they were mainly entrepreneurial, mindset and business. As the months went by the more and more i learnt subconsciously about mindset and entrepreneurship. I learnt about this whole new world of living life on your own terms, being your own boss and the work it takes to have a success mindset. I felt like 100 doors were opening in mind and life is not limited if you’re daring enough to put yourself out there and try something out of your comfort zone. It was only a year ago from that time in my life I thought It would be so silly to own your own business because if you worked for a company you can have a really cushy life and not stress about the anything other than your tasks for the day. After a year working at this job I felt like I was ready to start a new adventure. Up until then I had followed closely to what everyone was doing around me. Finish High school, study at university, graduate and get a job. I was curious to know what It would be like If I tried different, something that wasn’t really me, something uncertain. I didn’t know at the time what I wanted to do exactly but I knew I couldn’t stay there. I booked a 10 day trip to Bangkok which was set that day after the last day at my job.
↑ My Bangkok Trip: Erawan Waterfall | Lopburi | Wat Pho Temple
So I don’t bore you guys with the details a quick recap of what happened after my trip to Bangkok. I return to Australia, decided to break my lease 1 month early and put the little I owned into storage and moved to travel and work in Thailand. I returned home to Australia for Christmas and now I’m back in Thailand. I know a lot of people come to Thailand to live and work but this is not my end goal. (I can go through this part of my life in more detail in a later post if anyone is interested)
↑ Back in Thailand for the next few months
It’s funny how things turn out. If I had never done that illustrator course for fun, I never would have created the icons for my portfolio and probably wouldn't of got that graphic designer job. If I had never done that, then I would never have heard the hundreds of inspiring podcasts and worked with clients who are female entrepreneurs who have been my inspiration for living this lifestyle. Would things have turned out the same in one way or another? I will never know.
This is my first year living life on my own terms, It’s sooo scary yet sooo exciting. I love not knowing what I will be doing a year from not because I know the possibilities are endless. I want to document my journey through these blogs and bring whoever is interested along with me.
I would love to share posts/videos on travel, mindset, health/fitness and experiences I encounter as I go along this journey. Hope you will stick around.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read my story.
Until next time!