Reflections
Back
Originally from Perth Western Australia, I lived all of my childhood here and spent my entire secondary education in Perth. I studied photography and design in school but never put as much effort into it as I should, I loved Perth, it was full of friends and family alongside all my childhood experiences.
But I wanted more, don’t get me wrong Perth is a gorgeous city full of kind people but I knew that in order to grow I needed to expand my views and meet new people. I needed to see what else was going on in not only Australia but the world.
So on a whim I applied interstate to study in Melbourne, I didn’t tell my parents I had applied and I took a leap of faith, out of 6 preferences I was accepted on my last preference to RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) to study business. I didn’t really comprehend the impact this choice would have on my life and I couldn’t have been more grateful to be accepted.
Melbourne
The switch from Perth to Melbourne was like nothing else, I spent the first month just looking up, Perths tallest building was a small apartment building here.
Melbourne holds a special place in my heart, I moved to Melbourne in early January of 2021 as an 18 year old who had no place or sense of community in the city, I found the challenge of moving to a city so overwhelming, each day trying to find pieces of my friends in strangers. I kept asking my self the same questions, Why did I move, What do I enjoy and Why do people like me?
These questions remained in my head constantly over the next few years, years that were full of lows but also highs, and without the lows I experienced I would never have appreciated how good the highs felt, My first year in Melbourne was easily my worst, I spent 6 months living in Melbourne before moving back to Perth to avoid the Covid-19 lockdowns, I was ready to give up on Melbourne, but I promised myself that I would go back and stay one full year.
The year I gave myself was full of personal develpment for me, I started working at the Melbourne Comedy Festival as a bartender, originally I was only meant to work for the next 6 weeks with the possibility of working at the university bar (The Oxford Scholar) after but once my 6 weeks had finished I heard nothing, so I basically harassed my poor manager Anthony until he told me I’d have to talk to the new bar manager if I wanted to see if I could work, needless to say, I got the job.
I loved this job, nothing else in my life so far has developed my interpersonal skills as bartending has, I’d always been good at talking to people but once I started having to do it for work it really pushed me to have to expand my skills. I started to realise that meeting new people and discovering ways to breakdown social barriers with people was something I’d always enjoyed but never got to work on actively. My actual bartending though? for the first year I was horrible, I could talk but I was definetly not a good bartender.
I found myself enjoying the responsibilities of living alone in a new city, it felt like I was really becoming an adult, I realised that this maturity and growth was the whole reason I moved in the first place, I needed to experience discomfort in order to develop in my adult life. As my life in Melbourne continued to expand I began to find my place in Melbourne, my lack of trust in myself and self doubt faded with time and for the first time I felt like everything would work out fine.
University flew by and before I knew it I’d finished my 3 year degree, not without the occasional hiccup but I did it, my family had never had a university graduate so this was a big deal to my family, but for me my achievements had really come from everything outside of my life in university. I started a business with my roommate creating content within the hospitality and nightlife scene in Melbourne, formed my own friends and network from the ground up and continued to try and chase my passions and interests.
By mid 2024 I was getting ready to leave Melbourne, uncertain but excited for a fresh start, looking to continue developing myself both in my personal life and professional life.