At the start of this year, I was talking with Justin Collins, the editor of a local newspaper for expats (https://harrythehorse.asia/). He was telling me about how he had moments in the past where it felt like life was taking sharp 90 degree turns. How from one moment he was in a typical 9-5 job, earning enough to keep himself living comfortably; and the next moment he was hopping from country to country, in a completely different job, living a completely different lifestyle. He gently cautioned that this wasn’t and isn’t a one-off deal, that eventually, inevitably, I too would take one of these sharp sudden turns in my life. I looked at him, half-expecting a chuckle or another esoteric movie quote, but there was none. He was dead serious. He knew -much more than I did that night- that I was due for one.
Less than a month later, I’m currently typing this article from my apartment in Sydney, studying for a degree that I didn’t even know existed, looking for odd jobs online so that I could maybe afford my groceries for next week. So, Justin if you’re reading this, less of a sharp turn here- more of a hairpin curve on the edge of a cliff.
I’ll spare you the details of what led me to making such a big move, because if it is as inevitable as Justin makes it out to be, then I’m sure you have (or would have) gone through the same motions as I did. What I want to focus on is what’s going to happen next. Because right now I am in a most peculiar position of not knowing what’s going to happen next. So occasionally throughout my next series of articles I’ll be rambling about what’s happening in the land down under, regaling you with stories and maybe even drawing simplistic(oftenforced) parallels with current events back home. All while trying to figure out my own place in the story. Plus, now that I know what to expect, I’ll be trying my best to willingly run headlong at the lefts, rights, downs and overs more than before- at least for the sake of a good article if nothing else. And you know what, I’ll even end this by taking a page from Justin Collins’ book and spouting an esoteric movie quote of my own. From the 1990 movie “Quigley Down Under” as Matthew Quigley is lost in the Australian Outback he says: “I don’t know where we’re goin’, but [at least] we’re makin’ good time.”
