If you are in my situation tonight, or if you are experiencing something similar, then you know how it feels fight for your own survival and goals. I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to fighting for my own survival, it can be very hard to prioritize my goals. When you’re thinking only about survival and making ends meet, goals suddenly feels like a luxury, doesn’t?

Right now, I’m doing most of my fighting at the bottom three levels. As for personal goals and aspirations, well, they really feels a little far off [for now].

Thank God for the SG60 Vouchers

Anyway, the SG60 vouchers finally became available for redemption today. First thing after I got to the library, I did the redemption, and immediately, I was able to use some of it to purchase a pack of lozenges from the nearby NTUC supermarket. I also bought a pack of cashew nuts because when it comes to supermarkets, the minimum voucher value is $10. Since I am not an elderly/senior in Singapore, like most folks, I received a total of S$600 in vouchers today. S$300 for other expenses (most food, basic necessities at selected partners), and the other half at supermarkets.

As someone that has struggled so hard trying to make every dollar count, you can bet that I will be doing everything possible to make this SG60 voucher count. This has arrived at such a crucial time in my life because right now, I’m sort of stuck in limbo.

That First Lull Period Post-Project

Now that my first project is almost done (in the midst of a handover and integration support duties), I am in that period of waiting (looking) for the next opportunity. So far, there hasn’t been anything concrete yet, so you can see why I’ve been feeling rather anxious and worried. Honestly, this isn’t my first time going through this. See, as a freelancer for nearly 20 years, I haven’t always been doing it all the time. For me, freelancing has always been more seasonal. This is actually only the 2nd time that I’ve made a decision to want to do this full-time. I’m choosing to do it full time, well you can read it here.

Anyway, everytime that I chose to step back into freelancing, I remember the beginning periods usually feel something like this. But I won’t lie this one was way harder than any of those times before. It took me a lot longer to finally find something real and yeah, now, I’m really looking forward to the next one.

This morning, I did take some time to prepare a proposal for my client. I sent him options for what I believe is the best way forward to the Satori PageBuilder project. And now, I’m just waiting to see what he thinks.

Focusing on My Portfolio v2.0

And so, I decided to use this time to focus on beefing up my Portfolio v2.0. True, it really isn’t much right now. I mean, apart from my school project and a few other side projects that I have created, the PageBuilder and the Satori UI are the only two things that I feel are showcase-worthy. It’s why I decided to take these two days to build it up. I started it yesterday, and then finished it today.

Satori UI is actually not my first attempt at crafting and curating my own custom UI components. Before I lost my first portfolio, I had already spent many years collecting and building my first set, named, “Blaze UI”. What I hope to do now, is to take all of my past experiences, all of my lessons and observations and then combine them together to build something better.

There’s a reason why I chose the name “Satori”. In Japanese Buddhism, it also means “enlightenment”, “understanding”, and “clarity”. Speaking as a UX engineer and Front-end developer, those words resonated very deeply with me.

Anyway, if you are interested to go take a look at what I have done so far, here is the link: https://satori-ui.vercel.app

Anyway, I’m really glad that I’ve chosen to use this time wisely and to build this showcase site. Over the last couple of days, I was reminded of all the times when I had an idea 💡 about something that I wanted to build, try or do, but then I kept procrastinating and telling myself that I would have time for it later. But I never did. Those formed a large part of my existing regrets today. So, now that the showcase page is up and running, even if it’s not perfect right now, at least I have managed to create something. Like “Blaze UI” from before, I will gradually improve and enhance it over time.