Posts Tagged ‘journal’
Looking at all of the life you’ve lived so far, can you pinpoint one time frame or instance that you feel truly contributed to your growth as a person? This may be a turning point, a positive or negative experience, a moment or collection of moments that stand out in your mind…something that changed you as a whole.
I was born and raised in a country town with a population of about 10,000! We lived in town until I was 7 and then we moved to the farm.
I don’t remember just how old I was but for one family holiday my parents brought us all to Sydney (I think we were here to go to a museum). It was insane, as we drove down Oxford St we had to wind up the windows as these innocent country kids couldn’t believe what their eyes were seeing. We spent a few days in the city exploring museums, Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour, all the standard tourist stops. By the end I was hooked! I knew this was for me and I wanted a part of this place.
In my last year of high school and met a guy! He grew up in an even smaller town (pop. 1,500) and I really never saw us moving very far away from our families. We got engaged, finished high school and I went to business college. When I finished my diploma my dad saw a job advertised with his company in the Sydney office, I applied and got the job and moved, at the age of 19, to the big smoke!
I was chatting once to my Mum and she mentioned that when I was younger I wanted to live somewhere with my own fridge (I lived on my own) where I could hear sirens (my first apartment was right near an ambo’s).
Moving to Sydney has given me so many opportunities that I would never have had otherwise and I often think back to our first trip here and how I knew it was the place for me. In an aside, I had a very similar feeling a few years ago in London … maybe
The older we get, the more certain we get about who we are and what our purpose is. For me, a lot of it is still unknown, but as I make my way down my own path, I have begun to realize that there are indeed some inevitable truths that I know for sure. On your own blog, write a post that talks about “the one thing you know for sure.”
The one thing I know to be 100% true is that nothing ever works out as you hope but most of the time it works out for the best, so hope for that.
A year after moving to Sydney I applied to go to university and I didn’t get in (note, Australian university years are February to November). I was gutted. To be honest it was fairly arrogant of me but having just called off a wedding I had a lot invested in getting into uni. In the hopes of getting in next year I went to TAFE.
The next year I applied again and didn’t get in.
The next year I applied again. While I was waiting to hear from UAC Rio Tinto Coal where I was working for decided to close the Sydney office. So only a few weeks before Christmas we were all told we were out of a job. Only a few days later I heard that I had gotten into the University of NSW Bachelor of Arts (Media & Communications). Talk about good timing. Being retrenched meant I was getting a great pay out that would help pay for uni, plus because my role was considered key to the change over I didn’t finish work until uni had started.
In a double bonus, I met my darling Richard at uni. Had I gone a few years earlier I might never have met him.
Journal Day prompts are written by Danielle at Sometimes Sweet. I thought I would catch up on the Journal Day posts.
For the weekend I am away I thought I would catch everyone up on my Journal Day posts. I really love this series and am thrilled to be a part of it.
One of my favourite blogs Sometimes Sweet posted this idea about journal day. She’d provide a prompt and then her readers could write a post from there and then add some/all of the post as a comment on her blog. I love the idea so thought I would join in… even if I don’t always post it on her blog.
Describe a “first” (first date, first lie, the first time you experienced something, first time in a particular setting, etc). Include as many details as possible to paint a picture.
I had pretty much decided on the morning after the night we got together that I was in love with Richard. I just knew it, it was all so easy and we had a good laugh and I knew instinctually that he would do his best to always be good to me. Of course, you can’t say “I love you” to a man that you have just started dating, scares them off apparently. So as the women’s mag advice goes I decided to wait for him to say it first.
Three months in and still no “I love you”. I am not known in my family for patience so that I hadn’t cracked and said it first is quite the achievement let me tell you. One night we were at Richard’s snuggled in bed and I was trying to get him to say it (don’t judge). He knew what I was trying to do but he wouldn’t bite. Eventually I looked up at him and said “I like you, more than just as a friend”, he looked at me smiled and said “I love you Alys”. I don’t think I had ever been happier, my face hurt from smiling so much.
When eventually I finished smiling he explained to me that the walk we were planning for the next day down through the park he was going to walk me to a pretty spot and tell me that he loved me for the first time. Trust me to ruin something! Still its a wonderful memory of the first time we told each other we were in love.
If you had a free pass to go back and change anything in your past, with the promise that it would only affect you positively, would you do it? And if so, what would you change?
I love this series created by Danielle from Sometimes Sweet. Definitely jump over and read her touching post as well as some other great writers. So many of the posts agree that regrets are a waste of energy and I agree. All the coulda, shoulda, woulda’s in the world won’t change things all we can do is the best we can in the moment, learn from our mistakes and successes and be proud of who we are warts and all.
That said, if I could I would go back and spend more time as a teenager in my parents home with my siblings.
At the age of 19, after finishing business college I applied for and got a job in Sydney. It all happened so fast, and I was so excited. Here I was this girl from Muswellbrook, this little town in rural Australia moving to the “big smoke” to my first real job. I got the job in January, went to the Philippines in February and then moved to Sydney. On Sunday 18 February 2001 my dad drove me to Sydney* and I started my new life.
It was years later when my nephew Harrison was born that it hit me, I had missed it. I had missed my siblings grow up and create their own lives. And because I missed them grow up and I live so far away I often feel I am a guest in their lives. Its my fault, they were just kids when I moved away, and I can’t blame them for me not being there and the effect it had on our relationship. I adore my siblings, they are amazing people and I am glad that I know them but if I could, I would go back and be a part of their teen years and be a part of them turning into adults.
*in an aside when Dad drove me to Sydney we took the wrong exit and ended up going across this incredible old bridge. I feared I would never find the bridge again well 5 years later as I headed to Richard’s 21st party I went over that bridge and once again it changed my life.
