Natalie’s Story Being diagnosed with cancer at just 23 came as a big shock to me since I thought I had years ahead of me to achieve my life goals… My cancer was discovered when my osteopath (who I was seeing for chronic neck, shoulder and back pain) noticed a small lump on my left…
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I always like the window seat when I fly anywhere. I pretend it’s because I’m scared of flying (I am genuinely scared of flying but I could be sat on the pilot’s knee and I’d still be terrified) but it’s really because I like looking out of the window when we’re nearing the destination so…
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When I was younger, I used to think that being a perfectionist was a good thing. It meant that I knew the importance of working really hard and I could sacrifice the fun stuff for a higher purpose. Namely, getting good grades. Failure wasn’t an option. My ruthless study ethic meant I duxed high school,…
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For five nights last week, I had my own bedroom. My own bedroom. I’ve never really thought of myself as fussy when it comes to hostelling. As long as you give me a bed and a doona, I’ll be fine. But after three weeks (and counting) staying in dorms with at least six other people,…
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You may be one of my friends or family or I may have never met you but I’ve been thinking, and there’s not many other ways I can word how I feel about you. Whenever I see you, or hear of something great you did, I feel an exciting, refreshed feeling. There’s a weight lifted…
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Blood is thicker than water, but for some ethnicity is the deciding factor. That’s a bold claim but as a target of family racism, it’s something that I am forced to think about. I’m what could be considered ‘biracial’, that is, my mother is Anglo-Australian and my father is Italian. All racism is bad and…
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We dedicate this piece to those special women in our lives. Happy Mother’s Day, Mum(s). * ‘For nine years I grew up in a single parent-child household, but our home never felt empty. Mum’s chicken and lamb roasts were legendary and we always had plenty of friends to fill the seats around the dining room…
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If you’d asked me a fortnight ago where I’d be right now, sitting in a beautiful park overlooking Sydney’s Bondi Beach probably wouldn’t have been my answer. But it’s true – and I’ve got the sunburn to prove it. You may be asking yourself a few questions right now. 1) Who are you? 2) How…
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Just as Dr Frankenstein aimed to create the perfect man, my friends led me to dating app Tinder to have fun and/or find a decent one. And thus, we were all confronted with monsters. There is much to say about Tinder: it’s quick, it’s anonymous, it can be fun, but it also has a bit…
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Has anyone else noticed the terrifying lack of instructions on how to actually go about loving yourself? However, there is an overwhelming amount of life improvement lists upon which this handy trick appears. Invariably loving yourself pops up in the top spot, number one in a list of ways to make yourself happy or…
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Australians have always been associated with hard work and they say with hard work there is a reward. Many of us work hard to feed our families and to pay the increasing amount of bills. We give up our valuable time and forgo things we love knowing that in years to come we can retire,…
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There are a few distinctive events in life that have become inextricably linked in my imagination with their depictions in film and television. Fantasies of summer holidays, first dates, road trips or international travel always play out as picturesque montages with uplifting scores and glorious sunsets. Naturally, said daydreams gloss over (i.e. exclude completely) the…
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‘In 1982 I reported on fighting between Polisario Front guerrillas and Moroccan troops in the Western Sahara, and in 1988 had an adrenaline-drenched experience when caught in a South African artillery attack, during Angola’s battle of Cuito Cuanavale.’ This is Jill Jolliffe, writing in Finding Santana, her book about travelling to meet an…
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On the 9th of March 2014 my sister got married to her long-term partner. Personally, I’ve never really been a fan of weddings. I don’t think that it is necessary to have a public celebration to express love for a partner; and I’ve never been one to agree with conforming to religious or heteronormative traditions. However,…
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