Elizabeth Tai

Digital Content Specialist and freelance writer, editor and proofreader based in Adelaide

Oct
20

By

Writers, to realise your dreams, you must take that leap of faith

Category: Personally..., Writing 2 Comments

Want to write a novel? Be a journalist? Be a freelance writer? Be a social media consultant? To do all this, you need to take a very important step: take that leap of faith.

Aubrey Andrus wrote a post I heart so much: The First Hurdle: Why Writers Should Stop Being Scared and Take the Leap of Faith. One particular paragraph really stood out for me:

Even the talented ones who are likely to be very successful as a freelancer prefer to dawdle and over-research what it takes to go out on their own. They dream instead of do. But your dreams will not come true until you step over that first hurdle. Take that first leap. Bust your excuses. Start taking action instead of thinking about it.

I was exactly like that! For years I dreamt about writing that novel. So, I read and read and read books about writing. I had shelves full of them. But did I do any actual writing? Nope. I realised I wanted to be as perfect and equipped as I can before I start anything. But you know what? You can never learn until you do the actual thing and make mistakes.

So, I started writing. In the beginning it was difficult to battle my perfectionist tendencies and not listen to my inner critic, but I managed it! I ended up writing a short story and submitting it to the MPH Alliance short story contest. I didn’t win or anything, but boy it felt so good to finish a story!

After that, I became bolder and bolder. I ignored that inner critic monster and took a few leaps of faith. I submitted a poem to an anthology. (Didn’t get in, but Sharon Bakar gave me awesome feedback.) Then I called up a publisher to find out if they were interested to publish a few children’s stories I wrote a couple of years ago. The time it took for them to get back to me was tough for me, but in the end they came back with a yes! That was how the Trixie Koala series of children’s books was born. My first book will published in the next few months in paperback and ebook format.

Aubrey also wrote this: You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Yes! Totally!

Moving to Australia. Getting published. Working as a digital content writer. These were the things I thought I could not ever do because they seemed too difficult, too impossible. But here I am, living my dreams at last because I dared to take the leap and dared to fail. And I did fail a few times. But rather than moan and dwell on it, I picked myself up and walked towards the next challenge. That’s what I recently learned. It’s not about doing the right things to succeed — it’s about knowing that you’re going to be all right even if you fail.

Photo by LarryLens.

Oct
6

By

My life as an Aged Care student

Category: Life in Australia, Personally... 1 Comment

This post is a little late, because I just ended my tenure as a student. Still, it was such a fascinating time to be a student that I had to write it down.

I signed up for my Aged Care course like I planned. Initially, I was supposed to head to Barossa Valley to spend a month at a winery picking grapes and labelling wine bottles, but when I found out about the South Australian government’s Skills for All initiative, I cancelled it. I qualified for the scheme, so this meant that the government will pay for my course. Instead of paying $2,000, I only paid my college’s $260 registration fees (Padman Healthcare). Though, at some colleges you pay almost nothing. But I chose the college because I felt that as the company ran nursing homes, they’d ensure that the training given would be the best there is – especially since the organisation does take in some of its students as carers.

(Anyway, it is lucky that I applied then, because the slots for that benefit quickly dried up after two months!)

I chose to live near my college and found a place about a few kilometres from it. Some of my classmates, who manage to find accommodation that’s around $100 per week or so commented how expensive my place was (it’s about $150). But I save a lot on fuel (I don’t have a car) and transport because I either walk to college or cycle there. (I bought a cheap bike from Gumtree.) Plus, hello – unlimited high-speed Internet!

I mean, every morning I get to walk past houses like these:

Or this:

And the weather in August was still chilly but not too chilly, and flowers were starting to bloom … it was lovely to be out around walking or cycling in Adelaide.

I underestimated how hectic college could be, however. Classes run from 9am to 4pm every day. There was endless amounts of assignments, and there was one time where I woke up at 6am to complete work that was due at 9am!

I found the Aged Care course very, very fascinating and my respect for nurses and nurses’ aides (or personal carers) are certainly much higher now. This is why I’m so surprised and dismayed that many cultures look down on personal carers.

The first thing people think of when it comes to becoming a personal carer is this: “Yuck! I have to handle urine and faecal matter?”

I admit that when we started studying about personal care, and when shown confronting videos of how we’d literally take care of people’s toilet and hygiene needs, I wilted inside – I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But as the classes went on, my respect for the profession grew and grew. A great personal carer will make a great difference to their clients or patients. They are at the frontline of healthcare and need great physical stamina and emotional strength to do what they do.

It’s a really honourable profession, and they deserve more than what they’re getting now. And I’m not just talking about the pay, which (for a full-time staff member) is around $18 per hour, but the regard society has for them.

I once read a book about shit (yes, literal shit) – how we dispose of them over the centuries, the people associated with the task – that said that the closer some people are to the task of disposing waste matter, the lower their prestige in society. Yet, the task of disposing waste is one of the greatest technological advances of civilisation because it has improved mankind’s welfare and health by leaps and bounds. YET, the people associated with such an important task gets no respect.

Life is shitty that way, isn’t it?

Jul
18

By

Why I pursued my dreams, and why you should too

Category: Personally... Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Reach for your dreams, no matter how far away they seem.

My last post (Why I quit my job to move to Australia) hit a nerve. Apparently, it even inspired some people! (What, little ol’ me?)

When I told people that I was moving to Australia, many said to me wistfully: “I wish I could do that but I am married with kids / don’t have enough money / have too many commitments.” Many even said that I could do it because I was single, and with no commitments – like, only people like me could do this.

I’m here to tell you that’s absolutely not true.

I always tell these people: “You can do the same. It really depends on how badly you want it.”

The thing is, plenty of families have done what I am doing. Famous blogger Leo Balbauta of Zen Habits moved from Guam to San Francisco. He has six kids. Meanwhile, this family is travelling the world while making Penang their home base.

They weren’t successful because they were super rich or just plain lucky. Just like how I’m able to move to Australia because I’m single and have no commitments (I have an apartment to pay for). We came this far because of two things: we had a plan, and we were fiercely determined.

I’m not just talking about moving countries here. Maybe your dream is to be the best sushi chef there is. Maybe you want to save up enough to travel the world or have a “location independent lifestyle“. Maybe you just want to be debt free.

I’m here to tell you that you can achieve your dreams. And I’m here to tell you that you should try to go after your dreams and not give up on them just because it’s not practical or you can’t bear to give up that steady job or because of life’s circumstances.

For many years I lived life like this. I told myself that I should give up on my dream to write a book because it’s near impossible to be published and nobody in Malaysia, let alone the world, will read it. Moving to Australia? I don’t qualify for a visa, so forget about it.

I thought that I should be happy – I was in my dream job with great colleagues, earned good money, lived in a lovely bachelor pad (1000sqf apartment with swimming pool and gym downstairs). But I wasn’t happy because I wasn’t going after my dreams.

And life is funny – when you aren’t going after your dreams, suddenly people around you are. In 2008, my best friend, sister and two cousins en masse moved abroad. My best friend to Edinburgh, my sister to the Los Angeles, my cousins to Melbourne and Auckland respectively.

Inside, I petulantly protested: “Hey, that’s my dream! How in the world did you guys ended up living my dream?”

Eventually, I became too depressed to not go after my dreams and I did it (filed for a visa) to save my sanity. I thought that if the migration agent told me that I didn’t qualify that would be the end of it.

Well. It turned out that I just had enough points to qualify for an Australian residents visa.

From then on, I just took one step at a time. When I finally received my visa last year, I was shell shocked. I had dreamt for a chance like this for so long that I just couldn’t believe that I have achieved it.

The same thing about my author dreams. I had written 26 children’s short stories that was published by The Star eight years ago, I wondered if anybody would be interested to publish them.

The old me would have said that it was too hard, no one’s going to be interested, so just give already. I didn’t this time. Instead, I called up a publisher and asked for them to look at my stories.

They did. And they were interested in publishing it.

All it took for me to get this far was to make the first step. A phone call. An appointment. A Google search. Take the first step. Then the next, and then another until you reach the finish line.

You can achieve your dreams. You just have to give yourself a chance. Sure, you could fail. But failing isn’t going to kill you. When you fail, brush off the dust, get up and have another go at it with another plan. That, or you accept that you had a good go and maybe it’s time for another goal.

You can achieve your dreams, and you should try.

Because life is too short to live life on autopilot. That’s something I realised when a colleague of mine passed away from cancer early this year. It shook me because a month before I left for a vacation, I saw her, smiling and in seeming good spirits, at the office.

At that time, I was getting cold feet and wanted to back out of this whole “move to Australia to get an unconventional education” thing. Then, my cousin’s cancer came back, and then a couple of people I knew died from cancer. It was as if God was reminding me that this could be me.

So, I swallowed the ball of terror in my throat and handed in my resignation on June 1, 2012.

Mind you – I didn’t do this without a proper, sensible plan. I’m not an advocate of people who have zero in the bank and decide to go gallivanting around the world. Or with people who take a six figure student loan just to study in a fancy degree without a guarantee that you’ll graduate with a job that can help you pay that debt back.

Go after your dreams, but also be sensible about it – and that’s the subject of another post.

 Photo by penywise.

Jul
15

By

Why I quit my job to move to Australia

Category: Personally... 20 Comments

June 30, 2012, was my last day at The Star, the newspaper that I’ve worked for as a journalist for 12 over years. This decision did not come easily as I loved my colleagues and bosses and the work that I do. I was also hugely aware of the privilege I have – that I could work as a journalist at a time when thousands of journalists are losing their jobs left and right in the West.

But quit I did, and I will be leaving Malaysia for Australia on Aug 3.

My friends all wonder if I’m migrating. If migrating means moving to another country, then yes, I’m migrating. (And yes, I have a residents visa, not a tourist visa, so I won’t be playing hide and seek with the border police.) But in Malaysia migrating has heavy connotations, one of which means “I’m tired of being Malaysian and ditching this country for good.” And that’s not me. Malaysia’s not perfect, certainly, but I love being with my friends and family here and career-wise, it’s been good for me here. I’d love to return one day. I’m just not sure when yet.

So, what will I be doing in Australia?

1. I will be studying and upgrading my skills.

I pondered about my future the last few years and realised that I wanted new skills – especially after reading about the fates of laid off journalists. I wanted to have more career options and to be more marketable.

At first, I thought about getting a Masters. I flirted with the idea of doing an MFA in Creative Writing, but found out that most MFAs cost at least US$30k.

Around 2005, I made a vow to myself never to get myself in debt ever again after years of paycheck-to-paycheck living. For a year, I worked overtime and cleared RM20,000 of debts: credit card debt and a car loan. Since then, I have lived a debt-free life except for my housing loan which I hope to pay off aggressively by the time I’m 45.

So, the idea of forking out RM90k (and that’s just for tuition fees) to sit for a graduate degree that does not guarantee better career outcomes seemed pretty batshit crazy to me. To me, a degree has to have good Returns on Investment or it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

And the masters degrees that are worth taking will cost me at least RM200k. (Choke.)

A good friend advised me to study short courses instead. It took me some time to dispel my Malaysian, prestige-hungry mentality (I want an MA or MBA after my name!) and agree that that’s the wisest thing to do. So, I hope to be taking these courses in Australia (I may not take all of them):

The goal of all this, of course, is to I develop to be a writer that can write for modern technologies such as blogs, websites and to perhaps start freelancing as an editor one day. Also, to enhance myself spiritually :)

2. I would like to get Australian working experience

Here’s the thing. Things are pretty tough job-wise in Australia, and I don’t have great hopes of landing the same kind of job I had. However, I’d like to discover how it is like to work in a foreign culture. The great thing in Australia is that you can get working experience while volunteering and there are community radio and TV stations where you can volunteer your time. In fact, I used to volunteer at a community radio station when I was a student in Perth. It was a blast, and I think this is an excellent way for me to get experience in the broadcast industry. Meanwhile, I’m willing to do any job to keep the money flowing in.

3. I want to travel.

I never took a gap year. It just isn’t in our Asian culture to do so. But living and working in Australia would allow me to experience Australia in a different way. In order to travel on a budget, I’ll be using Helpx, a work exchange programme where you work in exchange for free lodgings and food. The best thing is – you get Australian work experience at the same time! Most of the work is on farms, but you can volunteer at cafes and bed and breakfasts too. What a wonderful way to experience Australia!

Jan
25

By

I made my friend’s dog a celebrity

Category: Personally... Leave a Comment

Okay, I exaggerate. :)

But seriously, did you realise that at the bottom of page 2 of The Star’s Star Two, there’s this little section (we editorial folks dub it “the playbox”) where journalists write anecdotes about their lives in the paper? Well, embarrassingly, I didn’t.

The only topic I could think of writing is the fabulous two-week vacation I recently had in Adelaide. And my friend’s dog!

And on Friday, you’ll read about my misadventures (more like lack of adventures) with wine.

Jan
22

By

Don’t listen to that inner critic

Category: Personally..., Writing Leave a Comment

You suck! So says the inner critic. - credit: Ambro

Everyone has it. That little voice inside them that tells them that they’re no good. That they better not even try at all because their efforts will be fruitless. When I interviewed Margaret Stohl a few months ago, she told me how she once went on a writing tour with many “wise writers”. She asked them, “At what point did you stop saying that you’re a bad writer?”

They responded: “We’ll tell you when that happens.”

“Everyone I know feels the hater. No one is immune,” she said to me.

Yes, I can tell you right away that despite having written professionally since I was 18 or 19 (I started stringing for The Star and was a freelance copywriter while I was in college), that “hater” is still whispering things to me. It’s always telling me to stop trying. To just give up and forget about this “writing thing”.

Yes, everybody has an inner critic. The difference is whether you give it power to paralyse you.

For many years I gave my inner hater too much power. I listened to it. I agreed with it. It took a personal crisis to shake me out of my stupor. And I found myself asking myself, “Why the hell am I listening to it, really?”

I told the inner critic, “Thanks for your input. But I am going ahead anyway.”

And I begin to find my wings again. I dared to dream once more.

So, just tell your inner critic to shut it. You’re going to benefit from it, trust me.

Photo credit: Ambro

Dec
4

By

2011 reflections

Category: Personally... Leave a Comment

I cannot believe that in less than 30 days, it will be 2012. It just felt as if the year whizzed by me while I wasn’t looking.

2011 was a tumultuous and exciting year for me. I faced many of my fears head on and realised that they can be conquered. I learned to appreciate my family and friends more. I also improved my health immensely (shed 20kg!).

In the writing department, I had a clearer idea what I wanted to do. For a long while I was looking here there everywhere, wondering what I should do to bring my writing to the next level. Being a lover of far too many things, my biggest challenge was learning what to focus on.

2011 is the year that I realised that I am, by nature, a journalist. I love exploring my world and writing about it; my fascination with the world and my love for writing formed a perfect marriage.

How was 2011 for you?

Dec
12

By

What I’m reading in December

Category: Personally... 2 Comments

Maybe it’s some kind of mild ADD, but I can’t just read one book at a time. I don’t even stick to the same genre.

Bill Bryson’s At Home was surprisingly dry. I’m more used to Bryson’s hilarious travel books, so I kept expecting him to crack a joke or something. Still, fascinating book about how history and technological changes have a direct impact on the structures of our home. I wish I can keep awake reading it though.

Susan Boyle’s memoir exudes the optimism and bubbly nature that we were introduced to in that You Tube video. Pleasant read.

And I’m already missing Michael Crichton. Since I’m struggling to write my own novel, I now appreciate what skill it takes to write an engaging story, and Crichton certainly has that zing that made him such a bestselling author.

Carol Berg’s Transformation series is something I’ve been meaning to read for the longest time. The first paragraph hooked me in already.

With weeks’ of leave coming up, I can’t wait to finish all these books!

Mar
19

By

BookXcess – new store opens!

Category: Personally... Tags: , , 3 Comments

Today, BookXcess opened its new store. It’s bigger, better and filled with even more cheap books.

For those new to the store – it’s located in Amcorp Mall, PJ.

The reason why it’s beloved by Klang Valley (and beyond) book lovers is because the books there are always cheaper than normal bookstores; you can get books as low as RM9.90, and we’re not talking about old, dusty copies here. You get brand new books for Rm17.90 a lot of times!

The new store is four times bigger than the old store, and is located just two stores away from the old lot.

Here is the new store in its full glory:

Just how big is it? How about this:

Or this?

When I visited the store during lunch time, they were still some empty shelves. The magazine section is not fully stocked yet – apparently they’re moving their magazine store up into that corner – and there were a few rows of empty shelves waiting for books.

Fantasy lovers would be happy to see the Fantasy section.

Though I wish there was more variety … but I’m a greedy book consumer and also a particularly fussy fantasy reader so … it’s tough to please me :P . Lots of Terry Pratchett books though. Somebody must like him a lot. Maybe Eyeris managed to convince Book Xcess to bring the books in or something! (He says No, when I saw him at the store.) Oh, if you spy books by Jeniffer Fallon, do buy them – especially if you’re into fantasy politcal intrigue. She’s top notch, and I blazed through her Lion of Senet series while  sitting cross-legged on the floor during my 23-hour flight to Los Angeles. Good times.

I also saw a number of beautiful picture books for kids, a young adult section (lots of Garth Nix books) and an extensive range of chick lit books. If you’re into Dan Brown and Danielle Steele, their books are going for RM9.90. Grab ‘em quick.

Happily, I bought about six books, including a cook book, something I swore I’ll never buy again. But that monster is about 2kg heavy and only RM35! And it’s a step-by-step picture thing, perfect for cooking dummies like me.

Dec
29

By

The inconvenience of books

Category: Personally... Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

That’s what I was thinking when I was reorganising my 600-book library yesterday, and this New York Times article seem to echo my thoughts: Books You Can Live Without. 

People — some authors, some not — were asked how they would go about spring cleaning their libraries. Some admit that a lot of the books they have could go, but they’re there because “I like the idea of it being on my shelf.” How true. I get a little thrill and my pride flares up when my guests freeze in my library and exhale in amazement: “Oh my God, that’s a lot of books.”

But I’ve come to the cold, practical conclusion that “less is indeed more”:

1. My library is my favourite part of my home, but making it look presentable is a bitch. For months now, books lived on the floor in half-torn paper bags — my futile attempt to organise my books into “to donate” and “to sell” stacks. With my sister coming back from the States soon, I thought I’d better do something before she comes home and thinks I’ve been living in a pig sty. My best friend told me once that looking at my library is like looking into the eye of chaos. I agree — with books spilling out and shelved without much of a system, I have a migraine just looking at it.

To start my arduous task, I had to draw a chart to segregate my books into “have not read” and “have read but will read again” and “will never read again”.

Shifting around a few hundred books is a good workout though, but it’s been two days, and I’m still not even half way done! I think I need a month to do this right.

2. What do you do with  books you no longer want to read again? Speaking of books I will never read again — why did I buy them in the first place?

If I asked myself some really tough questions, like “Would I read this book again?”, 3/4 of my collection would’ve either been donated or sold. But the problem with being in Malaysia is that it’s extremely difficult to sell your books. Most Malaysians are just blardy stingy.

I once nearly choked when someone demanded that I sell her my brand-new, donkey-ear-less Jodi Picoult novel for Rm5. And I already priced the book at a steal: RM10.

But if you want to sell your novels briskly in the Malaysian 2nd hand market, be prepared to sell your books for a song. Some 2nd hand bookstores even buy your books by weight! I once sold about 5kg of books for … RM10! Heartache!

3. Oy, the dust. When books get old, they get moldy, dusty and smell funny. I’m allergic to dust, so I’d be sneezing my head off when I read my old books. As a result, I have to sell many of my too-old books because I literally can’t stand them anymore. And I’ve not even mentioned the creepy bugs in them.

I may soon take the cruel step of selling or donating off 3/4 of my library and turn to the sterile but dust-free world of eBooks.

I forsee a future where my library would just be two simple shelves containing well-preserved hardcover books I worship (James Herriott’s books, World War Z!) and read again and again, while an ever-shifting presence of rented or borrowed books will occupy some of my shelves.

And I’d be reading most of my difficult-to-obtain books from my Sony eBook reader. More on that later. :)

« Older Posts