The Day I Grew Up

I’ve spent my whole life travelling, following my family around for my father’s work. I’ve seen Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United Kingdom, growing up with my immediate family as the only consistent part of my life. In many cases, I’ve left friends and relatives behind, heading off to the other side of the world to live with a new community and explore unfamiliar cultures. I promised that I’d write, time and again, and every single time I knew deep down that I wouldn’t be able to keep writing for long. My future was always uncertain, and my relationships doubly so. All promising to write ever meant to me was drawing out a reluctant goodbye.

In 2011, however, I was finally old enough to step out into the world myself, to leave New Zealand and travel to Australia for university. For the first time in my life, I was called upon to take a journey across the Tasman Sea on my own. This time, there would be no family to keep me company. I won’t lie, it was a pretty terrifying time for me at first, making my way over to Adelaide to study. I had no idea whether I’d be coming back to see my family until after my degree was finished.

Still, as I stared out of the window at the Australian countryside, something struck me. I realised that I’d finally become an adult, that I’d taken a step out into the world. It was symbolic - a rather extreme act of symbolism, I’ll admit - of my leaving the nest. In that moment, my mind opened and I felt this burning desire inside of me, the realisation that I could travel anywhere and do anything I wanted driving me to push my boundaries. As soon as the plane landed, I dropped my things off at my hall of residence before immediately heading out to explore.

The sheltered life I’d lived up until that point, held under the auspices of my parents, had instilled in me a sense of travel being a controlled thing, but here it was something new, something incredible and limitless. Within the first week of my arrival, I’d already worn holes in my shoes from all of the walking I’d been doing, taking in festivals, architecture, the culture and people of Adelaide. It was a quiet city, easy to walk around if you don’t mind the occasional driver impersonating Speedy Gonzales. I loved the new experience, the challenge and the accents and the people. When I had to head back to New Zealand, I promised myself that someday I would start travelling again, that someday I’d explore the whole world and experience everything I possibly could.