The more I stay here in Sydney, the more I realize that there is so much to be thankful for. Prior to moving, I've had all these fuzzy dreams and ideologies and wishful thinking on how my life will be like when I move. I was going around Europe comparing and noting down how I was shaping my hopes and expectation for Sydney in my head. (Call it wishful thinking)
While things did not exactly start the way I had hope for them to be, I still feel immensely blessed. I sometimes wonder to myself before going to sleep (I like to introspect and digest thoughts before transitioning to the next day) why so much good has come my way. If karma was real, I feel the scales have tipped over.
Career
I was preparing for the worst case of not finding a job for 6 months and struggling to settle here in Australia. There were a lot of people saying that it will be tough to find a job - on the lines of - give yourself at least 3 months or 6 or a year to find job. I got a job short of 3 months (10 weeks) and I am more than thank ful for that.
It's a job that is in the field I am in and it's a progression from where I left off in Singapore. It's a Senior consultant position with a small consulting firm, and from the get-go, I am liking the vibe of the office. I get to work with other senior consultants and for the ~2 weeks I've been here, I can tell I can get along with the people I will be working with.
What overwhelms me with this blessing is that from a lot of people I've gotten to know here in Sydney, a lot of them found jobs that were off tangent to the track they were on. Lower salary grade, zero experience, start from scratch.
Friends and Family
I am thankful for the friends I have. Old friends, new friends. I stayed with one of my closest friends from University for the first 10 weeks that I lived here in Sydney. She's one of the truest friends I have and she's also my confidant. I'm the type of person who gauges my affinity to people based on "wavelength" and she is one of the few people I am definitely 100% in-sync with.
When the year started off and I was in New York, I told myself that for 2015, my resolution is to be a better son, better sibling, better uncle and better friend. I came up with that resolution after I met a great set of amazing people when I was in New York. (I had a friend I met when I was on vacation in Bangkok (almost a year ago from now) who introduced me to this friend in New York). I told myself that for 2015, I will work on being the person who my friends would want to go to - to talk, to have a drink with, to hang out, to be the person who would listen to their problems, to be the person they could trust.
I've come to a point in my life (nearing 3-0) that I enjoy a small group of people I trust and love being with, than a big group of unfocused relationships.
A huge chunk on how I managed to make it through to moving and finally starting to settle here in Sydney is due to my family. I love the kind of dynamic I have with them now. I'm happy to have received such strong support from my parents and siblings - on the financial and emotional aspect of the move. It's humbling to realize that despite the distances we have from another (Los Angeles, Auckland, Sydney, Quezon City, Middle East) we are able to be there for each other when needed - in part due to technological advances.
More than anything, I am thankful for the friends and family who believed ...
More than anything, I am thankful for the friends and family who believed I will be able to make it and push through the challenges of moving to a new city and country without a job and with only savings in tow. There were several occasions on the 10 weeks of being jobless (longer than 10 weeks if you count the trip to US, Europe and a couple of weeks in Manila) where I questioned the timing and decision to move. I was comfortable living in Singapore - with a stable job, a good source of cash flow, etc. But I knew I wanted something more ... more stability and security. And after everything, I finally reached a point in my life where those possibilities can become an actuality.
Sydney
I am thankful that I was able to apply and get approved for Permanent residency here in Australia. Now that I found a job and have started working here for almost two weeks, I am excited by the other possibilities I can think of making an actuality. Despite being relatively the same in terms of expensiveness as compared to Singapore, there is a difference in the quality of life. On one front, the amount I am paying for rent in the place I am staying in here is about the same as in Singapore - except it's more spacious. On another front that I was surprised about is that despite having higher tax than Singapore, based on my initial computation, my net here will still be higher than my gross in Singapore. That lead me to realize that Singapore has become a saturated market for my skills.
Pictures!
