Today is such a long day for me which involved a lot of moving.
I finally say goodbye to my cafe and agreed on ending the contract. As I pack up and move things from cafe back to home, I also moved props from home to tomorrow’s event venue. When I was young, I never quite believe the saying that says ‘everything happens for a reason’. But as I grew older and as I see how my life unfold, it is indeed hard not to believe that everything do happen for a reason. This could very well be a good example of when one door closes, another opens.

For a long time, I kept saying that there is nothing else that I know how to do besides coffee. Maybe a little bit of photography but I am very well aware that I am a rookie so I don’t think I can turn it into a career. Unlike most of my peers who go straight into working in corporate and in an office environment, I took a very different path. From the start, I was never willing to work overtime with no extra pay and funnily enough most jobs that come out of my major do require a fair bit of overtime. I don’t know, I was always striving for that so called work life balance. I can trade in my time only when I can get money in return. And honestly, in event and advertising company you do not really get overtime pay. That’s how I turned into a freelance girl and for a long time, I was just working as a freelancer. I was young so it didn’t matter to me even though at times I was selling cigarettes during the day and alcohol during the night. It didn’t bother me one bit but at the same time I was also aware that I cannot be a freelancer forever.

My way out was leaving for Melbourne and found my passion in coffee making. It wasn’t just so much about coffee, it was also about running a cafe. I enjoyed every bit of F&B and even if I work crazy long hours and stand for 10 hours I was happy with my job. I can never sit in an office for 8 hours a day and get all sorts of stress. I would much rather talk to my customers, make them coffees, and see their happy faces. I finally found something I really like but the dynamic was different compared to working in Melbourne and back here. I had a bunch of very good team mates who I can go crazy with but work so well together at the same time, who can always talk coffee with me. Here, I was always alone. I have to care about numbers and so much more which I was not used to and in time it because a JOB. A means to earn my income and sometimes it really is just that. It does seems like there’s no better time than now to take a step back from coffee and slowly evaluate on how I can work with coffee again in the future. Perhaps a couple months of break will do me good. Coffee means a lot to me because it totally changed my life.

To think of it, I’ve always love coffee since I was a kid. I never fancy chocolate. I always go for coffee flavour when it comes to cake and ice-cream. But right now while I take a break, I would very much like to focus on my new found venture. Something I never knew that I could do! I never knew that my love for art and craft can one day possibly turn into a job although that was one of my dream when I was young. My love for gifting and surprises can now finally put to good use!
Sometimes people say to me, ‘you are such an entrepreneur’. But actually I’m just a doer. Whenever someone tell me of a plan I’ll just say, ‘do lah!’ If it doesn’t involve too much money to start it up, I’ll just do it.
Because if I were to spend so much time working for someone else and building their empire, I might as well try and build my own. Even if I fail, I have zero regrets because I learned shit loads. Me being calculative over working hours and pay turned me into having an entrepreneur mind, that is all I can say. How great haha.`

Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s event! :)