Away From Comfort

For those who know me, I finally did it. I took a new step, one I've been wanting to take for the longest time. For those who don't know me, I'll give you a little background. My name is Andrea, I like to act tough and adventurous, but in reality, I've been stuck with my day job for 3 years because I was too afraid to do what I've always been dying to do...Find my passion (I know, we all want to do that, right? It's a "millennial" thing) MOVING ON! Now I quit my job, took two months off, and finally chased my dreams of moving to Singapore. I didn't exactly move permanently, but I'm here for 2 months to go to school.

I'm writing this for two reasons.

First, I've been telling a lot of people that I want to write a blog, and I've always been making excuses because I was too afraid of the idea that I was this boring girl who nobody cares about. But I've met a couple of friends, and spoke to old friends. If there's one thing I learned, It's that we write, not to please others, but we write to please ourselves. So this post is just to get a whole lot of feelings off my chest (maybe). Which leads to reason number two.

Second, I wanted others to know exactly what it feels like to leave a job that got you stable, that got you independence, that got you to travel without having to constantly count the amount left in your bank account. I want you to know exactly what it feels like to leave your comfortable semi-routine life for something completely new. This is it.

I resigned from a job that I loved, that I enjoyed, because even if I did love it, there was always something calling in the back of my mind, telling me I wasn't happy. I quit, took a vacation to refresh the mind, to reset the body, to once again connect with a passion I missed. I missed being "a creative". That's the "in" term now I guess. I missed having so much emotion poured out into words, into pictures, into your outfit, into everything that you did, that you saw, that you dreamed. Once, I got back into it, I finally opened my laptop and dropped a visit to some old links I saved when I was too scared to jump into it and just pined for it. I went searching for schools in Singapore. I found one, I went to visit those schools while on vacation last October and found the perfect one for me. Before my mind could tell me all these excuses, I applied. I got into the class that started on November, withdrew my life savings...asked for alot of help. Then I did it, I pushed all the doubts away and bought a ticket, enrolled, got a place to stay, and took the flight.

Im still in day 2. So far, I worry every moment that I wont make friends. I worry about not being able to succeed in finding a career or success in this investment. But really, what I'm worrying about most is.. how to do my laundry. Yes, I have never used a washing machine before (kun sa ato pa, wai ingon ana sa amo. English translation? We don't have this where we come from). The instructions look pretty simple.. but to someone as clueless as me who only knows the art of hand washing my delicates, Im struggling. I'm worrying about where to buy all the different kinds of soaps I need, I miss having the department store and the grocery in every mall. I miss the convenience of having a ride come to you in where ever is convenient for you because my feet are dying. I'm worried that I'll take the wrong bus, get off at the wrong stop. I'm worried that the lady at the 7/11 will think I'm a weirdo because i didn't know how to use the microwave at their store. I am so lame. I admit. It made me think that I bet you reading this know might say that I'm spoiled, a "rich kid", but that doesn't really matter to me. What matters to me is every victory I've made so far. I got to my dorm in one piece, all on my own. I bought my own things with my own money, and found so many new places (IKEA being the best, another story for another day) AND! I made friends, not really, not yet. But I'm positive we will be if the universe decides that we bump into each other again.

So to wrap it up, the second reason why I wrote this blog is that, I wanted to prove to myself that I'm doing a good job. I wanted to share to the others that for those who are too scared to chase their dreams and go back into pursuing what they most loved in this world, don't be. I was, but it's never too late. I'm not the most well equipped for risky things like this, but I made it (so far, since it's only been two days. Talk about confidence). No matter what skills and life experiences you have, we all have our advantages and disadvantages when taking risks like this. All you have to do is hold your breath and jump. Jump away from comfort to find what you've been meaning to find.

I took a photo by the way of the city lights and played a little bit with my reflection because I absolutely love that I'm in the top floor with this really really big window facing the city. Check it out.