I’m going to share about what happened during the pandemic. Because we know that the pandemic has really given a disruption for our life. We lost a job. We couldn’t find a job. We worry about our health. And the big things is: we couldn’t meet our friends and family. And somehow, for some people, the pandemic isn’t really give a big differences.  

Because they’ve been living in those circumstances for a while. Let’s think about marginal people, who live in their isolation, or homeless people who cannot find a job, or even migrants who separated with their family and friends. And yet, the pandemic gives some people an opportunity to start new. To reconcile with themself.  

So basically, this story is about the last one. Where it all started six years ago. It’s like finding a rainbow after the dark storm. So this is my story. It’s like either by chance or design, I move to Australia six years ago. It was November 2014 when I hand over my work and pack my luggage. I remember that month, my schedule full of farewell lunch and farewell dinner.  

So basically, like, I have farewell lunch with my coworkers, I have farewell dinner with my high school friends and another friends and of course I have this family dinner with all my big family before I move here. So that month, I felt really, really loved. And I realised somehow, this moving gave me an opportunity to see that actually there is a lot of people who care and who love me. 

And yeah. That really gave me a good attitude before this moving, and really excited about this. But actually, my first starting point of my migration journey, actually my last farewell with my family in the airport. It was my parents, my little sister and my two younger brothers. At that time, I can see my mom in tears, while she whispered to me and said, “be careful and don’t forget to pray.”  

There’s nothing I can say other than “ya Bu”, which is ‘yes ma’am’ in English. And then from my mom’s arms, I landed into my dad’s arms. And it feels like he hugged me so tight he did not want to let me go. And I had never seen how he cried like that before. And he just said to me, “I wish all your dreams come true.”  

So basically, that’s how I started my migration journey: with my parents’ blessing. And five hours later, from Perth to Jakarta, it became my very special transition in my life after I left everything behind back home. I landed in an unknown place, because I really don’t know about this place.  

What I knew just about all this… like the dangerous spiders from Animal Planet programme that I watched when I was young, or the kangaroo as a native animal. That’s basically what I knew about this place. But it looks like love and a sense of adventure really convinced me to move here. So the reason why I moved here, it’s because of my husband, who’s also present in here, at the back.  

This country boy from Kalbarri, he’s actually really good, to convince me moving here. I remember my first visit to come here for my holiday, he took me for a road trip to Stirling Range National Park for the Bluff Knoll summit. I remember we were staying in Moingup Spring campground, which is like, not too far actually from the Toolbrunup mountain. 

And, yes, that trip I was really, really impressed with what WA has to offer. And of course, I was really impressed by him. How capable he is to handle distance and all this road trip preparation flawlessly. So yeah I think that trip must be his plan to convince me to move here.  

Because instead of taking me to explore Perth City or a romantic getaway to an island, he decided on showing me the life that I really wished for, which is road trip, camping, adventure, nature, and of course spectacular beaches around here. And yes. Here I am, sitting with you and sharing this story. 

But then I realised migration isn’t the same, like travel. Yes, I always love the feeling to arrive in an indie, unknown place. Trying to test something new and exploring something different from back home. But again. It’s totally different than migration. So I remember, my first couple of months, I was struggling a lot though financially.  

My background was business strategies and development. Of course, I start treating my life like one. When I arrive here, I make all these doodly plans, start create a timelines and start creating the goals. But somehow, life slapped me on my face. And it hurt. Everything that I planned didn’t work because of my Visa condition at that time.  

And there is nothing I can do other than play along with it. So that is what I learn the first time. And then after that, again I’m still struggling with looking for a job. And of course as a career woman, I really have this satisfaction to provide for yourself, and then by staying at home without a job, of course made me feel insecure, I feel like losing my purpose, basically.    

And then, every morning I need to see my husband getting ready for work while I start asking myself, ‘ok, so, what is your target for today?’ And then I end up: breakfast, and then took all these train lines around Perth just to get a sense of direction in the city. And also enjoying the beach. It sounds really fun, and it sounds really productive, but sadly I did all of that by myself.  

So it feels like I was surrounded by people in those public areas, but actually I’m stuck in my isolation. And surprisingly finding friends in here was not as easy as I thought before. I would start asking myself, ‘am I not good enough as a friend? Or am I not fun enough to hang out with?’  

So then to make sure I’m not gonna get stuck in that question that I address to myself, I’m not gonna get depressed with all those questions, I decided that, okay, maybe I need to focus to nurture my relationship that I have with my friends back home. So that’s where I start playing around with all these digital platforms. 

I started to do these virtual hangouts with my friends. It was like 2015. From Facebook Messenger, instagram, WhatsApp, Skype. You name it. I just liked to try everything just to make sure I can keep up with them. What I learned from this: everyone has their own preference to choose their digital communication platform. 

And what I can do. I’m just adjusting myself. Because I’m the one who asked them to do this kind of friendship. To do this kind of relationship, which is virtual. So that’s what I experienced about this kind of virtual hangout with friends and family. And then after that, I didn’t realise I did that four years.  

And because of that, I started to get to know all these platforms really well. I start understanding about how the social media strategy works, and how this platform technically works, and then I have the opportunity as well to embrace the digital era. That’s where I decided to study again in here. To pursue the career in that industry.  

And actually, there is a reason why, maybe, it will be a good opportunity for me to find friends and establish myself in here. So long story short, maybe after two years, I study. I really enjoy it. And then I decided to start my freelance business in design. So at that moment, I experienced what is called working from home.  

Of course, as a freelancer, I don’t have this privilege to have a proper office, or I don’t have money yet to hire a space for my work. So basically, what I can do is just set a basic space. Just my desk in my bathroom, and then also just having my laptop. But the things that I experienced during that day—I think it was 2018, which is my second year of study—it was really, really difficult actually doing the working from home.  

Because that’s my first time and there is not much conversation yet or discussion about working from home’s problems or challenges, stuff like that. And then sometimes I share this problem to my husband or my friends, just some stuff like, ‘look, I think I really have a problem about these boundaries, trying to find the space between home: where I eat, sleep and work in the same space.’  

And also like, sometimes, when I’m doing the working from home, I have that feeling of craveness, that I really wanna getting ready, ride a train, and then just say hi to everyone in the public area, in the train station, just to get a new face and a new view as well. Which is what I feel during my working from home experience.   

But then, I think my husband and the other friends, they didn’t really get it yet. Because actually, for people who are working in the office, they really want to avoid that. Because you need to, they don’t wanna just keep getting up early just to drive and then you’re stuck in the traffic. So when I share my complaints, it sounds like, ‘I wish I can do that! Like what you do!.’   

And I think that’s my experience about the working from home before this working from home trend started. And then in December 2019, I remember that when I just graduated from my study, and like all of us, I decided maybe I’m going to take a break for now. Because I was already a graduate, and I’m also doing my walking from home. So maybe this is a good time for taking a break; enjoy the holiday. 

And then in January 2020, I was so pumped. I was ready to look for a job and using my new title as a fresh graduate. I remember during that month, in the mid of January, because most of the businesses start opening in mid January after the holiday, I remember from that January, to the February, to the just more, I kept knocking the door in a few design studios around here.  

I was introducing myself and also offering my work, and my skill. Because actually and surprisingly, at that time, a lot of businesses or organisations in here, not really aware about what I’m doing. So what I’m doing is a UX designer, user experience designer, and at that time, a lot of companies, a lot of businesses or organisations don’t really have this awareness that this role is really important in their organisation.  

Maybe you are familiar about the role of UI/UX designer. But what happens with that role, basically working to design the interface of digital platforms. Either websites, apps or something like that. That’s basically what happens in the industry, where my role is actually totally different with that.  

Yes, I still have the skill to designing the interface, and using all this wireframe software to create that design, but my focus is actually in the user experience, which is focusing on how human behaviour works with the digital platform or with specific products or brands. In that time, actually I was struggling.  

Back to zero again. I don’t have a job and then I’m still working with some freelance jobs in the graphic design, which is not what I’m looking for, but for he sake of just to survive, I’m doing that. And I remember, in March 2020, McGowan starts really, seriously talking about this virus from Wuhan, China.     

I think that’s really the special starting point for me. Because in there, I realised how other people start living the same way like I did. Stuck at home, isolation, working from home, and all the stuff like that. And that’s the opportunity for me to realise that actually I’m already prepared for this situation.  Yes, I’m finally working.  

I’m really better in this situation, and I help my husband as well with how to adjust to working in this environment. And then another thing, another point from that—somehow this pandemic has become an ambassador for my work. It’s starting to make other businesses, organisations realise how important about the digital transformation, and how important it is to understand how we, the human, interact with the digital platform.  

So it’s not only you just create the brand, you just create this website, but you don’t really care about how the users are going to use it or interact with that. So yes, that’s why I said why this pandemic became a moment and an opportunity for me to reconcile with myself.  

Because in that moment, where all of us were kind of stuck, and we think we cannot travel around, there is no opportunity for us, actually that is a moment where we can step back and think again what we actually want to do, and the other opportunities that we can explore, and maybe there is an opportunity for us to chase something new. We can find that rainbow after the dark.