"We live in each others' pockets," that is how Keyon describes the social relationships around Public Outreach. He elaborates by saying, There are at least two of us hanging out at any given time, so everyone always knows what is going on with everybody else." This quotation might lead you to equate our social circle to a high school cliche where gossip travels like wild fire and rumors reflect envy and animosity, however that could not be further from the case. Our little PO family is extremely non-judgmental. We have the openness of travelers and the familiarity of longtime friends. Everyone comes from a different life on a different continent but instead of separating us, it actually enhances the mutual curiosity and respect: bringing us closer together.
I am simultaneously amazed by how quickly I was able to develop a niche in Sydney and how soon I am planning to leave it -- really, how quickly we will all disperse. After spending the holidays together and enjoying consecutive beach days and socials, it is implied that the gatherings are ephemeral. Most of us foreigners; all of us young. Our group is like the perfect ocean wave, there is no sense in trying to freeze time because the very nature of the wave is to be ridden out. You can only hope the next one will be as good.
When I first decided to move to Australia I got a lot of crap from people. I was afflicted by the implicit messages that haunt every American graduate: How dare you believe that you can graduate from college only to skip out on the internship-work-for-free-culture. Don't you know that you have to prove yourself to the work world before it accepts you in. Life is not easy. We are in the depths of an economic crises and you think that you can just leave the country to get by on what? Chutzpa and dumb luck?
I have been accused multiple times of trying to extend my youth. This might not seem like a big deal but in the United States it is actually one of the worst things that a person can attempt. Extension of youth is the eighth deadly sin right after gluttony and sloth. Americans are so afraid of raising a generation of directionless slackers that the fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Any decisions made by young adults with the aim at travel and self-discovery are automatically disparaged as short-sighted and immature. Paradoxically, due to our aging demographic, there is a common saying that forty is the new thirty and thirty is the new twenty. If this is the case then twenty-two gets to be the new twelve. I never had a bat mitzva, but maybe Australia will make me into a woman.
In ten days I am flying to Tasmania for an incredible adventure, and after Tassie? Who knows? I am happy to say that after surviving seventeen years of semesters and back-to-school days, my life is no longer a set of assignments and arbitrary deadlines but rather an expanse, laid out before me, vague as East Bay fog and clear as a horizon line.
Keyon, the sage of Sydney's streets! I miss his little insights. I was just describing his accent to a British dude and yesterday, saying it was good cockney that belongs in a Guy Richie movie, so pretty close. Good post too, I can definitely empathize with guilt trip you get laid on you for not wanting to throw yourself straight into the grind; people seem to hate that the rules they feel trapped by aren't followed by everyone.
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