After 5 years of working full-time as a freelance independent designer/illustrator, I decided to find a full-time permanent job under a company. This decision was made after almost a year of struggling trying to take care of the whole family, wanting a proper plan to send Sofi to kindergarden and saving enough money to build a house in rural area.
I am actually disappointed, because it leads me to this. I loved my flexible time, the fun time I had creating art and working with client projects. But we were in a desperate phase, and I needed to sacrifice my freedom to have a better living. I know with my experience and skills, my salary can reach to a 'comfortable' level. But the catch is, I had to let my freedom go.
I applied to many jobs in October, by the end of October I received a job offer from a Singapore-based agency which I accepted. Since then, I've been working with them, at home, but full-time. Even with all the perks, benefits and high-salary, nothing can be compared to the joy I had with having freedom to do anything I want. And I miss that, so much.
I am still adapting I know.
But I tried the taste of freedom and I'm still remembering the after-taste.
What changed since then ? :
- we sent Sofi for a trial week at a chosen kindergarden to prepare her for next year
- I've been working at home 8 hours a day, 5 days a week
- we expended our working setup, now I got 2 work desks : 1 for office's iMac (which took the whole table) and another one my old original setup
- I turned off the Patreon monetization, so I just update free contents when I have the time
- I've been having a mild vertigo again, due to the long hours sitting/drawing and I'm trying to use a pomodoro method to remind myself to move every once in a while
- my mind is always at work because I have so much to do, but now, I have money and security
- I started reading less, and perhaps taking a slower time to finish a book because I already reached 95 books and I'm not competing with anyone (but I miss reading)
- I started to have a
properbetter skin-care routine because I am now 35 (hahahaha), honestly for almost my whole existence, I only use face wash, perhaps toner (when I remember). Now I'm in my mid 30s, and I noticed that I'm beginning to show a sign of aging: my skin is no longer supple (like in my 20s), maybe wrinkles will start showing (it might take few more years if my skin is this oily for long), maybe hair will start turning grey. I don't know, I don't really mind much. But this year I added spf, serum and eye-cream. Still can't convince myself to use moisturiser because my skin is so oily :F - Oh, I found this drip coffee that is 'just enough' to start the day. I stopped drinking coffee since I had Sofi, and after the anxiety, it somehow triggers the coffee-jitters. But I needed stronger caffeine than matcha, but not too strong until I got the jitters or palpitation, so I tried this and it works for now ! I drink it early when I started working at 9 am.
