Page 69 - Marie Claire Australia (January 2020)

REAL PEOPLE
T H E S TAY-AT-H O M E T E E N
N I KO L E , 33
I come from a South-East Asian
background, and we joke that if
anything hits the news, it’s going to
be hyped 10 times by our community.
The fears and paranoia about the Y2K
Millennium Bug (based on a potential
global computer crash when digits
clicked over from 99 to 00) were
pretty hilarious. I had never seen the
Asian grocery stores so busy. Everyone
was stocking up for the apocalypse.
My mum bought canned food, rice,
two-minute noodles and a gas stove
in case the world shut down! My
family has lots of friends but the
fear kept them home. We had to
be with each other, waiting to see
what would happen.
That night I was in my pyjamas with
a silk robe, hanging out on the couch
with a blanket. I remember looking at
our microwave and every electronic
device obsessively. The TV was on,
the big moment came and ... nothing.
It was quite a shock. Then, what are
we going to do with all this rice?
Nikole (right) spent
New Year’s Eve 1999
in her PJs at home with
her family (pictured far
right at back).
PYJAMAS AND ROBE, HOMEBODII, HOMEBODII.COM.
Who I am now would surprise me
then. I was meant to finish my degree,
become a married lawyer with two
children and follow the path of a
respectable Asian girl. Instead, I moved
interstate (from Adelaide to Melbourne),
which was a really big step, and started
breaking away from cultural norms.
I didn’t finish my degree, I moved in
with a partner and I landed a job in PR
(I wouldn’t have even known what that
was as a 13-year-old piano student).
But I feel really good about
my life. I’m 33, single and I love the
independence that comes with being on
your own, succeeding at your job and
earning your own income. My parents
taught me to always ask, how can I do
things better? I just did it my own way.
“EVERYONE WAS
STOCKING UP FOR THE
APOCALYPSE. MY MUM
BOUGHT CANNED FOOD
AND A GAS STOVE
IN CASE THE WORLD
SHUT DOWN”