Wow, I'm getting a lot of the same questions now that I've started making my moving plans known. (I wonder if Joe's had them too - I'll have to ask!) Just so I hopefully don't have to answer them all again:
1. Won't you get COLD in Tasmania?
Most likely. However, I'd rather buy a few extra clothes than limit myself to living my entire life in a single band of latitude. :D
2. Won't you get BORED in Tasmania?
No more so than in Brisbane. Not sure if you guys have noticed, but this isn't exactly the capital of Happening Stuff. In fact, in an artist's terms, Hobart is way more happening. And Melbourne is far closer to Hobart than to Brisbane, just in case I need an extra injection of Haps now and then.
3. What will you do for jobs?
I'm going back to uni for a while, most likely (have to fly down there and discuss course requirements with some sub-Deans first). Joe is going to try to find work based on the Cert IV in IT he's finishing at the end of the year, but if that's a no-goer, he intends to head back to TAFE to do a Diploma in the same. Yes, that means we'll both be students, and yes, that means we'll both be poor. Luckily we've both had plenty of practice at the latter. :D
4. Won't you be LONELY in Tasmania?
At first, sure - I was lonely in Brisbane at first too. That's what happens when you move: you start over. It's
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hammond who has shown me that it's possible to do this with grace and aplomb. He uprooted himself and moved up to Queensland a few years ago, knowing only a couple of people up here. Now he has a degree, a huge social group, a fiance and (next year) a job in his career of choice. Not only that, but he has friends scattered up and down the east coast, from his times spent living in different areas. So I'd say he is actually less lonely than he might have been had he stayed in one place his whole life. His freedom, confidence and sense of adventure are some of the things I admire most about him.
5. But isn't Tasmania all inbred hicks and farmers?
Not the Tasmania I saw. I notice most of the people saying this are the ones who haven't visited, though. (Mind you, we didn't hit the west coast and we largely avoided
Inceston Launceston. *cough* :D )
6. Didn't you want to go to Canada?
I did, and do. But it'll be years before I've got the savings to do a big move like that. In the meantime, this is the next-best thing. In a sense it may actually be a BETTER thing, because from what I can tell, Tasmania has everything I like about Canada, in a smaller space, closer to my family and friends. I have a feeling that even if I end up in Canada for a while in future, I'll still ultimately end up back in Australia. (I hear New Zealand is gorgeous too; I'm not letting myself check that out just yet lest I decide I simply MUST live there instead.)
7. How will you afford to live down there?
Have you see the rents in Tasmania? Drive half an hour out from Hobart and for what you pay for a shitty unit here, you can get a polished-wood wrought-iron numerous-double-bedroomed manor down there. Same goes for buying, come to think of it. We can live cheap if we need to. We can also live bloody nice if we want to.
I didn't write about any of this because I figured nobody cares THAT much about what I'm going to do, or not do... but I've had these questions near-constantly since I started telling people this plan! It seems like they all boil down to one thing: aren't I afraid that things are going to change for the worse if I move? Well, yeah, there's always that possibility. That's a possibility whenever you make a big change. But if I were scared of that, I'd never try anything new. Thus far I've never truly regretted a single chance I've taken.
I'm super looking forward to this, you guys! You have no idea! I want to learn to fish, and then to fly-fish. I want to have CHICKENS! I'd like to learn to sew, and make simply hippie clothes for myself - long skirts and loose tops in colourful fabrics. I want to take some classes in basic home repair and woodworking so I can properly wield essential tools in case anything goes wrong around the home, because right now I'm shit when it comes to those practicalities, mostly because I'm extremely unsure of myself. I want to grow berries in the yard and learn how to chop wood (though maybe I'll get Joe to do most of the latter, as long as he promises not to put an axe through his leg in the process.) I want to watch it snow outside the window. I want to live life at a slower pace, cook more meals, have less big shops around to fuzzy up my head. I want to sit out on the porch on summer evenings, bundled up (because the summers there will be almost as cool as the winters here) with Joe, having a few drinks and a few laughs, playing the music loud because no neighbors are close enough to be bothered by it.
And that's just the non-work stuff, don't even get me started on what I want to do for work! Ideas, plans, I has them!
Last night we went to see my friend Damien exhibit his prints at Bar Soma, a venue in Fortitude Valley. It was a revelation. Not his work, I already knew that was great, but his
reception. I sold him short, to be honest. His passion for drawing his princessy pin-ups and painting his locomotives... I always thought that an art career would beat that out of him and turn him into a dull working slob like the rest of us. But here he is, showing - and selling - his pinups, which are getting better and better. And he has become friends with Chris Sanders, he is making a name for himself here in Brisbane, and apparently the secondary Disney studio (Disneytoon studios) in the US which is producing a follow-up to 'Cars' called 'Trains', is using one of his train paintings as inspiration for character designs. Last night he was schmoozing with everyone, making friends left right and center... and that was just here, in Brisbane, at one small event. I was sitting with his sister and we watched him dancing about like Andy Warhol in his silly, over-the-top artsy getup, with paintbrushes shoved into the side of his goth-boots, and he just looked so RIGHT. It's because he believes in himself.
And the funny thing is, I taught him how to colour... Our drawing styles are very similar and we've got roughly the same level of ability. What he does is almost exactly what I do. Only he's making something of it. The only difference between he and I right now is courage.
I don't want what Damo has in the details, but I want his self-belief, more so because I had it once. Cowardice keeps me here. Cowardice has kept me crawling back to the security of employers almost constantly since Disney. To be fair, I struck out on my own freelancing (but in a clumsy, uneducated way, selling myself in all the wrong places) once before, and I helped Chris get his business off the ground, but since Disney I've never really thrown myself behind what
I can do. Not like Damo does. I haven't taken the risk.
I'm beginning to get really impatient with myself.
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writerinatardis, challenge 2:02. The prompt was "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter -- 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." --Mark Twain. (I was one of the winners - squee!)
worried
chipper
hot
pleased
artistic