I am Li Liangyan, a Taiwanese from the 70s. Now living in Australia, delivering food to subsidize the family, I didn't expect to earn an Apple phone after working for five days.
In my junior year, my mother persuaded me to drop out of school to become a full-time missionary. Although I didn't understand, I still followed her idea and dropped out of Chung Hsing University, which ranked in Taiwan's top ten, to go on a missionary mission in Australia.
After my missionary career, I chose to continue my undergraduate studies in the United States, after which I returned to Australia to pursue two postgraduate degrees and work as a quality inspector and developer for a health supplement company.
But who would have thought that I, who had worked hard for 12 years, would lose my job two months before the epidemic.
(My wife and I are in Sydney, Australia)
In order to make a living, I had to work as a delivery boy in Australia at the age of 44. I never thought that I would earn more than I used to earn!
Life is like a seesaw, if you are tenacious you will defeat the joke of fate, if you are cowardly you will be knocked down by the joke. I didn't want to be knocked down, so I had to run hard.
01
I was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1976. Kaohsiung used to be the second largest port in the world by throughput, but it is not as prosperous as it once was.
In addition to me, there are also brothers, sisters and younger brothers in the family, and our family of six lives happily. His mother was a primary school teacher, while his father worked in many industries, such as opening restaurants and Chinese medicine shops.
They were very open-minded and didn't demand much from me and my siblings. It was only when I was two years old that my mother joined the church, and I spent most of my childhood in the church.
(An old yellowed photo, the little boy in my arms is me)
As a child, I was very active and loved to play baseball. Although my mother wanted me to learn piano, she complied with my choice.
But later, I played baseball for a long time, found that I really did not have talent in this area, and finally gave up training directly. My mother still didn't blame me.
I went to school in elementary school and junior high school where my mother taught, and perhaps because of her, I was a class leader since I was a child, and my grades were naturally not bad.
In the middle school entrance examination, I was admitted to the best local high school - Kaohsiung High School, and there are many famous people in Taiwan who graduated from this school.
The learning atmosphere of the school is very strong, and I have a very happy high school life here. The college entrance examination was also admitted to the best university in Taichung, Chung Hsing University, majoring in plant pathology.
But in my junior year, I gave up my college life to become a full-time missionary under my mother's tutelage.
(My days as a missionary in the church)
Some people say that the most important label in life is your own name, but I don't think so. Growing up in the church made me feel obligated to be a full-time missionary.
But my plan was to start preaching after my senior year, and I didn't understand why my mother insisted that I drop out of school to go on a missionary career. So, because of the time, my mother and I had our first argument.
And this time, like my mother when I was a child, I chose to compromise. Life changes can often be instantaneous.
After dropping out of school, I worked a lot of part-time jobs to make a living, and also saved some living expenses for my future missionary work. Because missionary work is compulsory, without any wages and subsidies.
For most of the year, I worked as a tutor and went to restaurants to do odd jobs.
(The days I preached with friends)
02
Six months later, I was arranged to go to Sydney, Australia, to preach, the main job is to baptize the local believers who are willing to join the church, and usually help the local church to engage in some administrative and propaganda work.
There are many Chinese in Sydney, and my missionary work is mainly aimed at Chinese, and there are not too many problems with language communication. My two years as a missionary in Sydney has brought me a lot of changes.
Many times, I need to overcome my timidity and preach to strangers on the streets of a foreign land. In the process, I often suffered a lot of rejection, even ridicule and cold eyes.
But it is precisely because of this special experience that I can know how to stick to a thing, and can not care about other people's opinions and evaluations.
(In the United States, I can continue my unfinished studies in Taiwan)
In 2000, after my missionary mission in Australia, I applied to go to the United States to continue my studies at Chung Hsing University in Taiwan at Utah State University.
Perhaps the experience of two years of missionary work in Australia had a profound impact on me, and I still like Australia very much in my heart. In 2003, I returned to Australia for postgraduate studies.
But a year later, my father suddenly fell ill and passed away. As an international student, I was really embarrassed to let my mother continue to subsidize me.
In order to make a living, I have used my spare time to deliver pizza, delivered newspapers, and worked as a cleaner.
(At a health supplement company, participate in exhibitions with colleagues)
Those seemingly uneventful day after day will suddenly one day make you see the meaning of persistence. Before I knew it, 4 years had passed, and I had two master's degrees.
After graduating in 2007, with the advantage of double education, I joined an Australian health product company, specializing in quality inspection, product development and product development.
You may also know that there are many health care varieties in Australia, such as cranberries, grape seeds, vitamin C and cod liver oil, etc., the price varies from high to low, and I have also entered the outlet industry.
From 2007 to 2019, in the past 12 years, I changed three different health care product companies, and my treatment income was getting better and better.
But who would have thought that before the storm, it is often the quietest. After the popularity of health products, my company went bankrupt due to poor management.
I thought that with my years of industry experience, I could quickly find my next job, but I didn't expect that the epidemic broke out in 2020.
(Received honorary certificate)
03
This made me lose my way and fall into a deep doubt, where is my future?
During the epidemic, most factories on this side of Australia were shut down and had no plans to continue hiring.
In order to make money quickly, I chose the fastest channel to monetize: food delivery. At first, I worked part-time, delivering food and submitting resumes.
But then I found that the income from food delivery was actually very high, and I started working full-time as a food delivery. In the beginning, during my part-time period, I only delivered food on two or three platforms, one day a week, and I could earn about one or two hundred Australian dollars.
As my experience grows, I can now work on four platforms at the same time, sometimes making three or four hundred dollars a day.
When I worked for a health supplement company, I got about $60,000 to $70,000 a year. When I delivered food full-time, I found that I could make 2,000 Australian dollars a week, I could actually buy an Apple phone, and I could save 100,000 Australian dollars a year.
(44-year-old me, in order to make a living, chose to deliver food)
But the job of delivering food is still more dangerous than being a quality inspector. Delivering food in Australia is completely different from delivering food in China.
In domestic food delivery, everyone generally rides electric cars and shuttles through the streets. In Australia, only in urban areas can you see delivery workers riding electric vehicles to deliver food.
And most delivery workers, like me, choose to drive. This is because Australia is a sparsely populated country, and Australians generally live in the suburbs, very far from the city.
We delivery workers can only choose to drive a car, which is relatively safer, more time-saving and labor-saving. However, even when driving food delivery, I have experienced several serious car accidents.
Most of the suburbs of Australia are bungalow buildings, the lights on both sides of the road are very dim, and the road is not very smooth, there are many ups and downhills.
Several times I went to the customer's door, and when I looked at my phone, I accidentally rolled down the slope in front of the customer's house, and my hands and legs were all broken.
(In Australia, food delivery, generally choose to drive)
For the sake of my own health, I now also set myself a weekly delivery time. Work up to eight to ten hours a day.
During the day, I usually deliver food from 8:30 in the morning and deliver it to about 1:30 noon. Dry from half past five to about half past eight in the evening.
In this way, the day is about five hours, the night is three hours, just about eight hours a day, throw away the fixed costs of car insurance, fuel costs, platform fees, you can earn about three hundred Australian dollars a day, equivalent to almost 1400 yuan.
If you can insist on delivering for ten hours, you can earn about four hundred to five hundred Australian dollars a day. Of course, doing any job is not as simple as you think.
The wind and rain are blowing, the sun is scorching, and the delivery staff in the service industry have to deliver the food on time. But compared with domestic delivery boys, Australian delivery staff still have better income.
(In our spare time, my wife and I also go to the restaurant for a sumptuous meal)
04
A Chinese delivery boy I know, who has worked in Australia for five years, has earned about 1.6 million yuan, and returned to China some time ago.
If I hadn't been in this business, I probably would never have thought that the delivery guy could make so much money! In recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, my takeaway work has not been particularly smooth.
In March and April 2020, Australia was locked down for a month. From July to October 2021, the city was also closed for about 3 to 4 months.
After the emergence of the Omicron strain, the number of vaccinated people in Australia reached almost 90%, basically completely open and no longer controlled. Of course, as a takeaway platform in the catering industry, the management is still very strict.
The platform requires our delivery staff to wear masks during the delivery process. When picking up food, also stay away from crowds and maintain some social distancing from others at all times.
(My wife is a music teacher and usually teaches children to play the piano)
Usually, I leave food delivery at my customer's doorstep and opt for contactless delivery. Stay out of touch with customers and protect yourself at all times.
Every time I go to get takeaway, I always pay attention to disinfecting the insulation bag and spray more disinfectant on my hands. But even with such caution, I contracted Omicron in April 2022.
In fact, when I was infected, I thought it was just a small cold, and the symptoms were not obvious. Until a few days later, after my wife Aimi developed symptoms of fever, she tested and found out that she had the new crown.
At that time, I just felt a little tired, and I did the test together to find out that I was also infected. In my experience, once infected with Omicron, there is no need to panic too much and stock up on medicine.
Be sure to drink plenty of water and rest more. Usually pay attention to wearing masks, maintain social distance, wash hands and disinfect frequently, and do a good job of these protective measures, you can still protect yourself to a certain extent.
(Generally, I would choose to leave things directly at the customer's doorstep)
Now in Australia, basically everyone I know has been infected with the new crown once. Australia now has a cumulative number of infections of more than 11 million, and the total population is only more than 25 million, basically nearly half of the people have been infected.
There is also a joke with us, if you don't have a friend infected, it means that you may be alone in Australia.
Some people say, "A hometown cannot keep the body, and a foreign land cannot keep the soul." "Before the pandemic, I would go back to Taiwan every year to visit my family. But in the past three years of the epidemic, my wife and I have not come home to see it.
We miss our families very much, we miss our homeland. Now that my mother is retired, my sister is the only one living with her in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
My brother, who was three years older than me, also died two years ago. My brother used to work in sales, often traveling back and forth between countries, drinking and socializing was commonplace, perhaps too tired, suddenly died of illness.
For a mother, the most painful thing is the parting of life and death, and the white-haired person sends the black-haired person.
(Family dog, gave birth to a litter of cute babies)
05
Just like the unexpected and not knowing which will come first tomorrow, my wife and I cherish our lives very much now.
My wife, a native of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, met me at the Shanghai Church when I first went back to the mainland in 2010.
Six months later, we got married and lived together in Australia. My wife is a music teacher who mainly teaches children piano and violin, and I usually take care of my income from food delivery.
We have a plan to return to China in a few years to better care for the elderly on both sides.
After all the experiences of unemployment, I feel that life is like a track, and unemployment is like driving yourself from a half-run track to another track, and you need to start running again.
But whether you run halfway or start over, the end point is the same, the important thing is to live in the moment, know the goal, and enjoy the running.
(Going to Disney with my wife to see a fireworks show)
I hope that everyone who is facing unemployment or about to lose their jobs like me will not be anxious and not confused. Life is a long way off, and a failure is nothing.
Perhaps when God closes a door for you, He also opens a window for you.
Every job can be the best job, and every day can be happy!