If you had asked me three months ago to describe myself, the word “indoorsy” probably would have come up. What can I say? I don’t much like the heat or the cold. I have a lot of environmental allergies. I’m not a fan of bugs. I like being inside.
But lately, something strange has been happening.
I’m at the end of my second week at my internship, and it’s fun! I like being a business lady, commuting every morning dressed in my slacks. I’m creating real content for the company I work for, and that’s exciting and fun.
But something about this desk job is way harder than I expected it to be. I mean, I went to school. I sat at a desk 8 hours a day every day for 13 years with no problem. What gives?
This week, I finally put my finger on it. I miss being outside!
This is a very big deal, ‘cause I have never felt an independent desire to just go outside, ever. But Australia has changed me.
Let me explain how this happened: over spring break, I did the most amazing thing I’ve ever done (possibly will ever do) in my life. I left Sydney on my own and travelled all the way across the country in 10 days. I went to south to Tasmania, west to Alice Springs, really west to Perth, and then came back to Sydney.
The trip was more than I could have hoped for, and this isn’t the platform for me to describe it in full (for the full story, keep an eye on my Medium page!) But I’ll say that I was awake before dawn more mornings than not, and I never missed a sunset. I made friends from all over the world - from Canada to Melbourne to England to Perth to the Netherlands to the good old USA. I went sand-boarding; I visited untouched wilderness; I saw the sun set on Uluru; I held a baby kangaroo; I swam in the Indian Ocean. I learned more about myself in ten days than I have in ten years, and there’s no doubt in my mind that, somehow, taking that trip changed my life.
Reflecting on my trip and the difficulties I’ve had adjusting to Sydney since, I realized that for an entire week, I rarely spent more than a few of my waking minutes inside. I was always out: feeling the breeze blow through Hobart’s Salamanca Markets, breathing the air at Melaleuca, stumbling around in the impossible heat of the Red Centre, watching the sunset on the Swan River, standing in Perth’s city centre, 12,000 miles from Knoxville, laughing out loud about how incomprehensibly lucky I was to be there.
For the first time in my life, the great outdoors worked its way into me. I have a desire now that is totally new to me, to not just travel the world but to explore the earth, to get dirt under my nails and dust in my shoes from as many landscapes as I can.
We’ll see if this change sticks once I’m back in the 95 degree, 85% humidity, world-record-pollen-count Knoxville summer.
But right now, as I sit in my office exploring my new business-lady persona, I can hear the outdoors calling me. It’s a sound I had never heard before.
Cheers,
Sophie
Posing for the picture all the bushwalkers take at Melaleuca, even though I cheated and took a plane.
Hobart, Tasmania from above.
With Max the Kangaroo at the Sanctuary in Alice Springs
Uluru, just before the sunset.
At Rottnest Island, taking advantage of the amazing Indian Ocean lighting.
Catching one last sunset on the jetty in Perth before it was time to head back to Sydney.
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