Antipodean goodbye

3 years, 2 months and 15 days.

The timespan between two flights: a tiresome one touching down in Sydney Airport ending the Kangaroo Route and the another heading for the Java Sea in just a few hours.

Three years can be hard to condensate, let alone recount. They represent a complex blend of faces, moments, experiences and lessons. Some good. Some bad. Some necessary.

I came to Australia days after graduating from high school, leaving behind what I called home for 18 years: friends, my mother tongue, parental warmth and restless curiosity for the world beyond it. What a decision that was, one of the best I will ever make.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Australia was then an exotic escape from the ordinary; a laid-back refuge for 6 months of English lessons and, if luck allowed, the perfect place to harvest a few amusing stories involving Aussie sheilas and booze. I was very young.

Luck allowed for more than that. In a couple of months I began to realise that Australia was, above anything else, a land of opportunity. People from all walks of life and corners of the world getting together. An imperfectionist young nation always in the making.

I felt I needed to become part of that and so I did. My parents, faithful sponsors of this big adventure, agreed to support me. A decision I will eternally be bitterly thankful for. I was to spend the next 3 years doing my Bachelor’s degree here.

From there Australia shaped my career goals, my life aspirations and myself. I am no longer a foreigner here. Australia is now a part of myself.

Personally, I also feel part of Australia. Every new friend has made it even more welcoming. And I’ve made a lot of friends. Mates, girlfriends, classmates, flatmates, neighbours… hundreds of faces that will forevermore personify the golden memories I will so much nostalgically yearn.

To my parents, to all of you and to Australia… thank you for these three wonderful years.

I promise I’ll be back. Keep me a spot.

Edu.