A Walk through My Day: Everything was alright until...

June 30th, one of the busiest days I see at the Immigration Office.

I spent so much time in it waiting in a queue, my phone died.

It's another hectic day as I spent my life jobless and partially clueless. I've gone through the entire schedule in my head the night before while I was lying on my bed, assuring myself that everything would be fine. Well, at least we all know that things don't usually go as planned.

Here's a peek at the day of an unemployed person. I woke up at 8:57 in the morning as there's an online writer class I wanted to attend. The class was scheduled for 9 pm EDT which was 9 am in the place where I live. In order to do my 6-hour-of-sleep-daily rule justice, I woke up just in time to look for the Google Meet link and requested access. Then, I had one side of my earpiece on while I walked around the house, picking up things and stuffing them in my bag.

The meeting ended around 10 in the morning. I got ready and left for breakfast. Everything was great and I found out that I've lost 0.6 kg over the weekend! It's another thing to be proud of.

After breakfast, I head straight for the immigration office. I had to extend my Alien Residence Certificate (ARC) as it is the last day I'm legally residing in this country. What in the world was this jobless person doing that she's too busy to renew her ARC way before the deadline? "Exactly!" She replied. Well, there's no cure to her procrastination so let's move on to something worth discussing.

Throughout my seven years in Taiwan, I've been to the immigration office more times than I could bother count. I noticed that it's normally packed on dates such as February 28th, June 30th,.. the dates our student ARC usually expires. Thus, I made a bold assumption that there are way too many people like me.

I arrived at the office some time after noon, where I took a number and asked for a form. The lady told me that there were 40 people before me! I thanked her, shrugged and looked for a table to fill in my form. Then, the waiting game started. I sat amidst people of various nationalities, marveling at the fact that those working at the office had to handle so many cases in a day.

I had one side of my earpiece on as I binged my favorite podcast while I harvested some crops on my Township game. People came and went. A Chinese lady beside me asked if we need to have a photocopy of our passport to renew our ARC. A Muslim family sat in a corner while their daughter walked around the place. Some foreigners sat at the back and had a conversation in English, which I assume was about ESL teaching and business management from the keywords I caught involuntarily. Time passed by and I started to feel anxious. I had another place to be before my appointment at 4 pm.

Finally, it was my turn. Thankfully, the process was quick and I left to collect my TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) certificate. Everything was cool as I rushed into my appointment at 4 pm sharp.

At the end of the appointment, I was so pleased with how the day turned out to be. It was 5.30 pm and my phone's battery was 8% at most. I was positive I could reach the public library before my phone died. Then I would finally sit and charge my gadgets while I work on my writings.

God forbid! After a ridiculously long ride on the metro packed with students and workers heading home, I stood in front of the library building with my jaw hanging, staring at the notice on the main door.

"Open till 5 pm for today."

I rolled my eyes. Thank god it's Monday. The library closes at 5 pm on Mondays.

I went back to the metro. Somewhere on the way home, my phone died. I sat at the corner looking dead while I studied those humans around me. A few who had a seat were napping while almost everyone else was using their phone! Video call, candy crush, poster design,.. I managed to catch a few things they were doing on their phone.

So that's how I look when I have my phone.

It's amazing how our eyes were glued to small rectangles in our hands.

Long time ago, we held newspapers and books in our hands on the train.

Today, we tapped away on our phones.

What will we be holding in the future?

Writing habit: Daily Post Challenge

"Learn literature but write rubbish."

That was once written on my Instagram bio. It's such a short sentence but the corresponding context behind it was way bigger. Here's a little background story to back up any further analysis.

I'm a writer wannabe in my twenties. When I was in school, I loved reading fictional novels and I started writing my own blog when I was twelve. I maintained the blog for four long years, where I was actively blogging and blog walking. However, life got in the way and I started busying myself with academics, part time jobs, and those thousands of lessons and competitions I registered for.

Somewhere between 2020 and 2021, I started downloading novel apps on my phone. They were addictive and I couldn't stop reading. Then, I found out that I could actually write my own story and publish them on the app for the other users to read. Just the thought of creating my own characters and navigating the story made me excited. I spent days and nights in between classes and jobs writing chapters after chapters. However, regardless of all that excitement, I found myself ditching the hobby once again.

Early in 2024, there were some complications with the company I was working at. I lost my job and almost went to jail. That'll be a story for another day. At that moment, I had nothing with me. All my laptops were confiscated so I couldn't do the usual designing and editing. I lost everything overnight and was too mentally tired to look for a new job. That was the second time in my life I decided to stop looking for a job and start freelancing. Without my laptops, there wasn't much I could do. I borrowed an old laptop from a friend and started writing. I found a platform and decided to do it seriously. I wrote a story outline proposal and submitted it to the editor. Upon receiving the signing agreement, I delved into it straight away. I wrote at least a thousand words everyday for a fortnight.

That much was easy as I was having my winter break from university. I had all the time in the world to sit in front of the laptop everyday. Things started to get hectic once classes started. That was my last semester so it was crucial to pass all the courses or I would not have my graduation certificate. Thus, I started falling behind in my writing again. It came a time where I almost ran dry. There wasn't any income for a month and I started to cut down on food. Once again, I started looking for a job.

I graduated from university last summer and started working full time at the job I got earlier that semester. It's the first time I got myself a job that required professional training and skills. In order to maintain a good performance in the job, I dedicated all my time to it.

Fast forward to May 2025. I left my job and fell back into the cycle of trying to do freelance but gave up and started throwing resumes. I picked up the novel I left last year and continued writing. After all that happened, I wanted to really write and dedicate myself to it. However, because of all that happened, I didn't think I deserve to call myself an author or a writer. "I'm not qualified." "I write rubbish." "I'm not professional enough." Thus that intro replaced the title 'writer'.

As of today, I'm still jobless but not hopeless. I had time for myself again and everyday, I continue to learn and try to better myself. So, here's a new blog for me to nag.

"We are what we repeatedly do."

I may not be good at it. I may still lack the skills I need to be a good writer. That's why I need to do more. Practice makes perfect. Here's the first day of my daily post challenge!