Waste Paper?

In the last few months, I've been thinking more about my future than ever before. I got back from Europe, fresh from a world of adventure and culture with my heart set on moving to London. I wanted to do nothing more than pack up my life and venture into the big city and become a big girl, and live a life full of plays in the West End, shopping in Oxford St and being immersed in a busy world of independence.

Technically; I've done what I needed to do in Perth now. I've finished my degree, and bar my graduation ceremony in March(and my slowly dwindling down car loan) , I've got nothing left to hold me here. The longer I'm surrounded by people who are seemingly progressing into adult lives, the more I feel frustrated that we don't have to follow that stringent path of life.

Our culture is obsessed with the focus of paper. Paper dominates our lives: university degrees, marriage certificates, money, passports, citizenship certificates, tenancy agreements, deeds, bills. Why are we so focused on earning pieces of paper to define our success and happiness?


I was chatting to a friend the other day who has recently gotten married. Married in the sense that they love each other and it felt "right". I appreciate when you enter a formal commitment in that sense; but I'm tired of the endless conversation amongst people of feigning domestic bliss and the epitomy of their life's fulfillment resulting in wearing a white dress.

Live a little.

Perhaps I'm no where close to building a house, or having a baby, or even having a rock to show I'll (apparently) be eternally loved; but I've done pretty fuckin' good for a 20 year old. I've lived in 3 countries (thanks to my parents), traveled around 20 more, gotten a degree, made it without becoming a teenage mother, left when others wouldn't have, beared more pain than most would even comprehend, and still come out smiling.

I want my life to be fulfilled by laughs I share with friends, places I visit, moments that are sacred, whether that be staring at the Cote D'Azur (which I've done :D), or catching someone's eyes, or feeling bloody proud of yourself for something small and insignificant to someone else. I don't want to depend on paper to symbolise that apparently, my life is going well. If a home and a conventional, socially "norm" life is all that you've ever wanted, then love it. But your life should always be normal according to you.

All you've got to ask yourself is, do you wake up everyday with a smile on your face, or at least a speckle of hope that you can control your life and your happiness?

And if I've got to settle for paper... Give me plane tickets, love letters and books :)