I really struggled editing that chapter about New Zealand but I think I’m satisfied enough with it now. It’s funny but you might not realize how certain little moments in your life may have influenced you until you look back and write about these moments. I didn’t think much about the day or two that I spent in Christchurch in 2011, following the disastrous earthquake, but now I’ve realized that this had had a huge impact on me. I only witnessed the aftermath of it all- shattered infrastructure, a crumbled city center, and a lot of traumatized people, but it made me realize how short and precious life is, and that everything you’ve ever worked for can perish at any given moment.

This was one of the cumulative events that led up to me quitting university to travel through the middle of Australia, backpack through Indonesia, sail in New Zealand, hitchhike across the US, and then go to Mexico and New Zealand again before coming back to Sydney Uni in 2012. I learned a lot during that trip, so it was a very valuable time of my life (definitely more valuable than all that time I spent at Sydney University :D ).