Week 12 — WE GOT PAID
Finally we have made a little more progress
I had been looking for something Arya could do and get paid while learning to code for a while but made not much progress. I have tried talking to my work and see if we could offer something, they were supportive but there were just nothing available that he can do; I have tried talking to the tech recruiters but found out they are mostly hunting for senior roles; Arya and I have tried to sit down and apply to a bunch of administration jobs but nothing came back. I ran out of ideas. It was too hard for me. I thought I had it hard coming to a new country, getting a job and becoming a software engineer, but I did it in the time frame of years, and my parents happily paid for my everything until I was able to support myself, so I could afford to do an unpaid internship which led to a job. But now we are trying to do those three things all together in months, there is no room to play. I didn’t know what to do anymore.
Just when I was so lost, I got a call from Christine — my previous landlady when I was in Hobart, and she told me she is working on her startup idea and asked me if I was interested in building the app for her. Usually I don’t do side projects for money because firstly, coding for 40 hours a week is fun, more becomes a chore; Secondly I sell myself out 40 hours a week so I can live, and I want to keep the rest of me to live and be a human being. Perhaps also I never had to worry about money so I was never driven by money. But this was the time I really felt some money could be good, we could really use some buffer to the harsh reality. I wanted Arya to have this project, he could get paid and more importantly it is a good opportunity to learn, but he is three months into coding and not independent enough to take the project alone. So I made a weird offer to Christine and her team — I would join her team and do 16 hours with them every week, and Arya will come onboard and work with me, spend as much time as he can, and they can pay me for the hours I do but instead of paying me, they pay Arya. They took my offer and were super supportive of what we are trying to do.
Now we are at the second week into the project, which means WE ALREADY GOT PAID for the first week of work we have done. Arya is on some good pressure to learn faster because things has finally picked up a little bit. And for me it was also interesting to try out some new tools and libraries that I don’t get to do at my job. I couldn’t imagined a better situation than now, I have finally felt a little easier since we started doing this.
It is moments like this make me want to believe in mysticism. Things do work out in the most unexpected ways. I would have never in a million years thought in my travel I would meet someone who seemed nothing related to what I do could end up doing me a big favour and offering me something I really need and I just could not appreciate more. At that time when I was in Hobart about a year ago I was in such low point that I thought everything I did was a mistake. But if those moments didn’t happen, would I have this moment? Maybe everything does happen for a reason that goes beyond my comprehension. I don’t know.
