Freedom..

At the moment, I have ultimate freedom to, essentially, do whatever I wish. I recently turned 18 - which for the UK, means everything is open to me (except 21+ bars!) and I’m legally an adult. I finished my exams last Friday, so I’ve officially finished secondary school and just need to wait for the results in mid-August.

As most of you know, I have a ticket to Melbourne for the 30th August - one-way. That’s right, I am moving to Melbourne for the forseeable future in just over 2 months time. The majority of people my age will be moving out to university halls, working through a gap year or in the case of some, doing organised travelling. I know only a handful of people that will be independently travelling through a gap year. But travelling for an undetermined time is significantly different to leaving the home and family I’ve been with for 18 years, and moving into a town I have never visited (bar a half an hour stop in the airport - I didn’t leave the plane), with people I have not lived with before (and 2 that I haven’t met), in a house I won’t have seen.

For several of my friends, it is sinking in that I will be leaving - and that we’ll only be seeing each other once every few years. For me, it is nowhere near close to sinking in. For my friends, it is simply that I will be leaving. For me, I am leaving all I know, and moving into an unknown, so it’s understandable that I can’t feel the same feelings of missing them - I have so much to look forward too at the same time!

In preparation for my trip, I have 2 large packing cartons ready almost ready to go. They will leave before me, and probably arrive after me. In them will be the majority of my life posessions, although I am leaving a significant amount of things with my parents in storage - children’s toys and books etc. So although it is just about 2 months until I leave, my room is already appearing empty and the walls bare. I have several packages to post to ahead of me as well, but in the ’secure’ International Sign For of Royal Mail, as I wish them to stay as safe as possible (as it is highly unlikely that they’ll fit in my suitcase with me - several years of photo negatives and a year’s worth of darkroom work. )

In other news, I have potential new jobs - at a pub and a coffee shop!

So the move is getting closer, and it still hasn’t sunk in. I’m sure as the date approaches, these entries will become more and more jumbled.