A Love Letter
Dear Australia,
I will miss you. I’m sorry we have to part ways, but I know if I don’t go now, I won’t go ever. And I can’t live with the what-ifs.
I will miss your wide skies and clouds that go on forever. I will miss your beaches and the way that the sun reminds me how pale I naturally am.
I will miss the countryside, though I am a city/beach dweller at heart. I will miss how Melbourne bustles and how Flinders Street Station stands so bold and marvellously on a summer’s day.
I will miss the happy memories that I have made here, all the laughter and love. I will miss the familiarity and how the words bogan and reckon and fortnight are so easily understood. I will miss the lovely friends I have made, especially those over the last 4 years.
Sometime in the future I will miss you like never before. I will miss all the good things and probably some of the bad too. I will listen to Cold Chisel and Paul Kelly and Crowded House and they will transport me home like they have so many times before.
I want you to know though, that some of what I’m leaving behind I don’t want back. The isolation and the feeling that I don’t quite fit, they can go into the Pacific and stay forever more. I won’t be needing them, and I’d prefer if you didn’t hand them on to someone else.
You will always be my home, the place I grew up and the place that helped shape how I saw the world. You are a blessing through all your faults, like home is to so many of us no matter where we were born.
While I’m gone, I hope you will keep making progress and remembering that your people deserve equal rights. I hope that you will be a wonderful place to come home to (whenever that time comes) and somewhere that your people can feel safe and loved.
Please keep the people I care about as safe and well as you can.
Love always,
Dannielle
xx
and then the light switched back on
It’s no secret that I’ve been feeling lost. In fact I blogged about it here, here and here. It’s not been a really fun time for me. But after I wrote that last of those 3 posts, I started to feel better. That light switched back on in my head and I knew what to do next.
It’s time for some changes, I have big bold goals again and it’s time for me to stop hoping for them and for me to actually get a plan to make them happen. There’s this thing with big goals though, they take money – sometimes lots of it. That’s why I’ve made the decision to do whatever it takes (just like my friend Mariella did) – even if it means making my tiny business a part time thing while I finance my dreams.
I won’t be doing anything creepy, in case you were wondering, just taking on a job working for someone else. Whether it be part time or full time.
Life is too short to wait for things to come to you, sometimes you have to rearrange your priorities so that you can make things happen quicker. It might mean that my blogging suffers, but it’s a risk that I’m willing to take.
I’m keeping my big goal close to my chest for now. When it’s closer to happening, I’ll let you know. I’m even thinking up ways where you can be a part of it too! (it’s fun i promise)
So for now I’m just happy that there is a goal ahead of me and that lost feeling has gone. Having a purpose is everything and it feels great. Even if it does scare me at times.
P.S. I ran my race over the weekend and while it was overwhelming, I’m glad I did it. See here for a picture of me after the race.
