Alright, lets stop putting this off and finally write a post.
Last year I went to Northern China and this year I went to Northern Territory. I'm not going to write a massive post about how great my trip was because really they're a dime a dozen on the internet (and dare I say it with everyone's friends.)
It has been amazing to explore the history of places which I've grown up with. I've always wanted to understand how, at the very least, the cultures of the two countries which I have grown up with came to be.
Every country and its culture has its own unique characteristics. For every great success, there are great embarrassments. In a trip through the Northern Territory, it is hard to avoid the issues surrounding the indigenous population of Australia.
I asked multiple times what visitors to Australia most enjoyed about our country. They spoke of the friendly people, the great weather and our lifestyle. When asked about what they disliked about the country, they spoke of being unable to drink in public, the food and the lack of substance in the countries culture.
Every person can list the great aspects about their country, but to explain the origins and where they came from is a far more difficult task. In engineering, we try to understand the origins of each equation. To understands one's culture, we need to understand how the culture came to be.
A country's culture shapes the behavior and lifestyle of her people. For this reason, both the trips were something I wanted to do. As Australians, its very easy to worship our sportsmans, bag out Tony Abbot and be proud of the country that we belong to. Its easy to sit back and say we're proud to be Australian but without understanding where the country came from and how it was formed, then that pride seems to be a little hollow.
And with pride, we need to understand our mistakes and when it comes to Australia there has been no greater mistakes than how we treated our indigenous population.
I just read Alice's post because it came up on my dashboard. She's the only blog who's kept it together longer than I have. I'm going to copy and pasta an excerpt from her latest post across because she writes better and we've shared very similar experiences when it comes to blogging.
Her full post can be found here
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I really try to open up on my blog, I think telling people how you feel is one of the bravest things you can do. But opening your soul to people is hard to do. I've done it a small number of times, and I've been burned, I'll say it, and you probably know when I have been (hint: abnormally high number of posts during those miserable periods). But everything starts off as a leap of faith I guess. I tell people something, and they respond - sometimes in really touching ways.
Anyway, blogging. People have fallen in and out of it over the years. I've watched, I know. I'm glad that I stayed though, even though it has definitely gotten less frequent in the last 5 years, and there were periods when I pretty much gave up. I don't resent those who have stopped because sometimes it's hard saying things publicly on a blog, also people get busy and they just can't find anything meaningful they'd like to write about.
But I'm here, and I think, I always will be. I don't think I'll ever stop writing things down because it's been such a big part of my life since my early diary-writing days. They say that if you've been friends with someone for more than 7 years, you're likely to be life-long friends. I wonder if it's the same with blogging? If I keep blogging until January next year, is it likely that it will become a lifelong thing?
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Seven years is a very specific number. I mean, why seven years, why not 6 and half or 7 and half. Either way its a long time. It is a long time for one large argument to ruin everything, for some pettyness to creep in and to find out each others flaws and people to simply stop caring. There's a million and one ways to let a friend "irreparably" down in seven years.
(The irony of me reblogging your post after you moved away from Tumblr is not lost on me)
I also had a ball. At yet another ball (punsssss). I know its been a while, but you know, whatever. No, I'm not going to write some magnificently great cool story about it but I do need to say thank you to a few friends.
To Chris, thank you for helping me design and paint the original mask. It was really great seeing how bad I was at painting and how little general knowledge I had when it comes to painting. Thanks to Steph for doing some of the finer brush work and all the equipment. Money was saved that day.
And to Andrea, for organising a wonderful night. You looked dazzling as always.
I don't have a lot to do these holidays, so if anyone is bored and looking to hang out...
~TastyJacks~
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