I quitted my job in 2012 and went to Australia for my working holiday.

Before getting there, working holiday had become a social issue. Maybe you don’t think it should be a problem if you live in a country in which a gap year is prevalent. But in Asian cities or countries like Taiwan, people like to judge whether a gap year or a working holiday is good to one, in terms of the career development. They answer it with their own life experience as well as global economic trend. Besides the prediction, people try to make this holiday as a kind of certainty, with the publication of guide books about it. I was once involved in it but I got rid of it shortly. Imagine when all the people know about the ‘rules’ (this job has so many vacancies and the salaries are so high blah blah blah), they flock to the places and eventually ‘break’ it (no more vacancies and the employer does not have to attract talents with much money).

It is so crazy that people like to look for certainties that makes their life easy and straight-forward. I know that in the past the industrial world was like that, but now the days have gone. We are living in a creative world.

In 2012, many people like me flock to Australia. Jobs were actually not easy to be found, and the types were limited to agriculture mainly. I truly understand why I came there since I would like to meet and live with locals. Working in exchange for accommodation and food had thus become my main parts of this trip.

How about me afterwards? I learnt that I couldn’t own a house like in Australia even if I am so rich in Hong Kong. I also realized I could be more independent. I can make food myself by planting fruits and veggies. Hong Kong is a city that you need to care about your own security, while Sydney is a city that you don’t need to lock your door of your house……

I have different mindsets after the trip. Before going there, I always worried about if someone would employ me, since I didn’t work for long. There are so many answers say you can be self employed rather than being employed, and the boss may change their minds since working holiday has become a trend……

Working hard is not the only way of doing but can be one of the options. In my hometown, this value is a kind of ethic so that one will feel guilty if he/she is lazy. Working harder does not necessarily result in more positive outcomes. If we stick into the belief of hard working, we will ignore other possibilities, especially we will be poorer.

Even though I worked for a bedroom and food, I still earned a little bit money, including building a website for an accountant. When he drove me to Sydney rail station we talked about life and work. He said there was no difference between working hard and being lazy as everyone will die eventually.

So, don’t think too much whether you should have a gap year or not, especially with the prediction of your future. Since we are NEVER able to understand what happens next before it comes. We can imagine it but it is not necessarily true. Everything can change. Thus, have your first step, go, look and see and think while doing. Don’t hesitate. There are both positive and negative contingencies whatever your decisions or choices.

Chinese people usually like to judge things and decisions by ‘success’ and ‘failure’ seriously but in fact it is not possible to label everything. Try not to use a ‘Yes/No’ perspective to look at things in the world, which can make your life much more difficult.

And try not to think its possibility before you act. On one hand we can’t predict, on the other hand we tend to say it’s impossible and we will give up. Just go.

Death, as said above, is a final destiny for everyone. So why don’t you do something make your life easy and happy? Why do we think too much and miss so much?

Let me quote what Marina Keegan said in her work, The Opposite of Loneliness:

“What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.”

What is too late is you spend too much time on analyzing deeply whether your decision will be correct before acting it. Everything can be changed if we find something is wrong. We can change our minds, strategies and even goals which are better than what we think in the life process.

For me, I wanna create something every day. Creativity can give me power in my life!