Just Resigned? Here's What To Do Next

I just resigned from my corporate job so I know this period can feel pretty uncertain yet liberating at the same time. Here are 10 ideas on what to do while you're preparing for the next season, just sharing this here with anyone who might be going through the same thing. 

1. Update your resume.

If you're planning to apply for another job, update your resume or portfolio before sending applications. Unashamedly list down all your achievements, awards, training certs and skills from your previous job. It's like a revenge method to get back at your previous employer you know? See, you did so much but alas they couldn't keep you. Also, forget about Linkedin because even Elon Musk thinks it's cringe.

1. Digitally cleanse your laptop.

Delete all files related to your previous workplace from your laptop, including old ugly work that you were forced to create or photos of colleagues whom you silently resented. Delete them from your shared folders, Google Drive, email, Whatsapp messages, calendar events, everywhere. You don't want unpleasant memories to resurface every time you stumble upon an old file. Just like breaking up with an ex-lover, you gotta do it cleanly and leave all baggages behind. 

2. Create a new music playlist.

You're now the main character in the movie of your life again, so choose the music to introduce the new person you've become. If you wanna feel inspired again, curate uplifting and happy songs to give your mood a boost. There's no need for depressing music anymore because your dog days are over. 

3. Exercise and sleep well again.

Too many working adults neglect their physical health once they get caught up in the corporate rat race. Get running, cycling, climbing, whatever it is to get active again, then get a solid nine hours of sleep every night to recover. This will not only get you in good shape, but also boost your mood, energy, and overall well-being. The best investment is in yourself, not your temporary workplace.

4. Do a life checklist.

It's time to set your purpose, goals and steps for the next season of your life. Having some direction in life gives you motivation and personal fulfilment, and you won't end up living as an NPC (non-playable character) like 90% of corporate workers. Learn to touch base with yourself and circle back to your purpose every time you feel lost, because you ain't got a boss to do that for you anymore.

5. Travel somewhere

Before you start the grind again, take some time off to travel somewhere. Kick off your curiosity about the world again, get familiar with fun and spontaneity, and create hope for your future. Alternatively, you can volunteer in museums or animal rescue centres for an interesting experience too. I can't wait for my Japan trip in November! 

6. Reorganise your wardrobe

Reinventing yourself involves a mindset shift, even better if paired with physical transformation. Clothing changes our self-perception, so buy new clothing to build the new identity you'd like to have moving forward. I'm putting on my new independent girl boss identity with more black outfits and statement accessories. See, I'm no longer that downtrodden worker in basic crumpled clothes! 

7. Pick up a new hobby

This is a warmup to break out of the repetitive brain-dead routine of corporate work. You can finally exercise brain cells and autonomy to try things again outside of your standard SOPs. Research shows that picking up new hobbies improves mental well-being and overall happiness. I'm going to try to start a podcast and continue studying Japanese for my upcoming trip. 

8. Catch up on dramas

I've a long list of dramas and movies on my watchlist but I'm usually too drained to watch them after work. By catching up, I also mean to reach out to long-lost friends and catch up on the dramas in their lives, but not too much in case you get emotional fatigue. Keep them posted on your upcoming plans too so they can witness your transformation.

9. Do a one-week detox

In an age where everyone's connected 24/7 and everything's instantly available, a detox is necessary to discover how to be fundamentally human again. Digital detox could mean abstaining from social media, online shopping, even phone calls and messages. Physical detox could mean fasting from sugary drinks, fast food and snacks. You'll gain plenty of free time to bask outdoors, eat nourishing foods, appreciate beauty in your surroundings. You'll slow down, feel deeply, be present, and reconnect with God and nature. Learn to take life offline too!

10. Write my life book

Do a deep dive on your life through reflecting and writing. I find it helps to untangle any unprocessed traumas and preserves memories in the way you want to remember them. I'm writing an autobiography with events starting from 21 years old onwards. I've roughly three more chapters to write before I close it off and begin the next season of my life. 

Faves from Flying Tiger

I happened to pass by Copenhagen lifestyle store Flying Tiger at Bugis+ level 2 and couldn't help admiring their cute and creative gifts! They're pretty affordable too. Here are my top 5 picks if I had to choose what to buy!

1. This sparkly holographic A5 book with a heart cutout for $9!

2. Another A5 book with embroidered eyes on its pink furry cover for $7.

3. This cute handheld watermelon mist spray fan for $2! They have many other designs to choose from!

4. The mug in the shape of a donut for $9! I was deciding between this or a cat mug.

5. This hugeass 35cm pencil for $6. I've seen Chinese influencer Lahong use this in her prank videos.

Bonus: All the ballpoint pens are all so cute! They're $2.50 each. That's all!

Tanjong Pagar Distripark galleries

Gajah Gallery: Days That Slip Away Untouched 

This is a solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Uji “Hahan” Handoko Eko Saputro. The exhibition continues Hahan’s investigation into the shifting relationship between physical reality and its digital mediation.

Prestige Gallery: Ink Becoming by Chen Hanqing

Chen Hanqing is born into a family renowned for ceramic sculpture in Dehua. As a 90s-born artist, he approaches artistic creation with a blend of reverence and curiosity for traditional culture. His paintings exhibit a coexistence of reality and illusion, incorporating post-modern spatial elements onto a foundation of traditional appropriation. Within the elegant and simple ink tones, a hint of modern and vibrant colours emerges, adding a contemporary touch to his work.

The Tiger Shows Its Stripes, the Human Heart Hides Its Wiles

Singapore Art Museum

I spent my Sunday visiting Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. The Cantonment train station on the circle line just opened beside the museum, so it's very convenient to get there! 

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness

This is the artist’s first major survey exhibition in Southeast Asia. The exhibition traces five decades of artistic inquiry and sustained conceptual exploration, drawing from a well-known line in the Heart Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text. The phrase “form is emptiness” articulates a profound yet direct insight: nothing exists independently, and we perceive the world in a certain way because of the definitions we have created for ourselves. The tension between appearance and reality has long been central to Sugimoto’s practice.

Tyrrhenian Sea, Scilla: Sugimoto has photographed his seminal Seascapes across over 250 locations worldwide. Each image follows the same compositional structure: sea and sky meet at a perfectly centred horizon line, with subtle variances in light, weather and atmosphere.

Theatres: This series features empty cinemas illuminated solely by their glowing screens.

Brush Impression, Heart Sutra: A monumental convergence of photography, calligraphy, and spiritual reflection, comprising of 288 unique gelatine silver prints.

Sea of Buddha: Capturing the 1,001 gold-leaf statues of Guanyin, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, the statues are enshrined at the Rengeō-in temple in Kyoto, rebuilt in the 13th century.

Dioramas: What at first seem like spectacular wildlife photographs are, in fact, images of natural history displays. Through careful framing and controlled lighting, Sugimoto transformed stuffed animals and painted backdrops, imitations of life, into images that feel alive. The works reveal the fragile boundary between appearance and reality, and the camera’s power not only to still life but to instill it.

The Living Room
This exhibition explores how museums might collect, care for, and re-present performance-based practices. Like the living room in a home, this exhibition considers what it means to create a space that is private yet shared, settled yet always in flux. More than a metaphor, it becomes a way of being: a model for how an exhibition might gather people, hold ideas, and remain open. Here, The Living Room invites us to think of performance traces not merely as static records, but as elements in a shifting space of encounter and exchange.

Allow me to introduce myself by Azzam Rahman: A performative installation with talcum powder, second-hand furniture and glass bell jars. 

Talking Objects
This exhibition examines the meanings that quotidian objects and everyday representations amass through use and circulation. Casting daily encounters in new light, the artists in the exhibition explore the emotions and value we accord to the material and visual world around us. It encourages us to take a close look at the world we inhabit and seek new ways of seeing, thinking and meaning-making. As we face an entropy of images, information and values, how do we talk with and about objects, and what do objects say of us?

Hungry God by Subodh Gupta: A large cascading pile of pots, pans, buckets and kitchen utensils makes up a shiny, towering sculpture. By using mass-produced stainless-steel utensils that become ubiquitous in everyday life in India, Gupta reflects on the transformation and representations of his homeland and captures the multitudes of definitions and conditions of contemporary India. 

Mang Emo + Mag-himo Grand Piano Project grew out of a cross-cultural collaboration that began in 2005. Reamillo worked with craftsmen from his late father’s now defunct piano-making workshop to create a work that is both sculpture and a functioning musical instrument. 

Third World Extra Virgin Dreams by Suzann Victor: At its centre is a used single bed; the site of beginnings and ends—where human conception, birth and dying take place. The bed performs as host and witness to an individual’s most private moments: sleep, sexual fantasies/fulfilment, dreams and nightmares. 

Maria Taniguchi: Afterimage

This is the first monographic exhibition of the acclaimed artist presented by a Singapore museum. Taking its title from visual sensations that linger in a viewer’s field of vision, Afterimage highlights recurring concerns that run through Taniguchi’s practice, including repetition, time, and labour.