how did yearbook bring out so much other stuff

Helena and Cinda are both having to fill out surveys for their yearbook. Doesn't that just hit home the fact that there's really not long at all until this stage of our lives are over? Looking at Cinda's answers, I remembered that she was in the same class as me in year 7 and 8. I don't really remember talking to you much during that time, Cinda. Do you? But I still talk to you while I'm not really talking to the people I was talking to in year 7 and 8. Is it a sign of my advanced years that I get so nostalgic at a drop of a hat or a sign that I'm just a person that always thinks too much? No matter which one it is, it's led to this long introspective piece of rambling after the cut that you are under no obligation to read.

I think that every time I was thrown into a different set of people, I was separated from the old set pretty throughly. I don't talk to any of my schoolmates from kindergarden to year 3, because we're separated by an entire ocean. I don't talk to my primary school friends anymore, because I moved house and our lives never intersect anymore. I'm not talking to many people from my old high school anymore because there's no longer that link of going to the same school. Thank whatever higher being there is out there that we're still communicating through blogs.

Aside from that, as I get older, I do feel like I'm able to stay more linked with people that I'm not be able to meet face to face regularly. No matter what you say about technology bringing the world together, when I was 9 I simply didn't have the access to those technology to keep in touch with my classmates in China. There was one girl that sent a letter to my home in China and had my Grandma bring it to me when she came to Australia, but that's a fairly time-consuming and frankly inefficient way, especially for young children. On a completely unrelated note, when I left my Chinese classmates gave me going away presents from their own private stashes of pretty stationary (only the girls, of course), which was quite nice of them, considering the very short notice (around half-an-hour, even for me). We didn't exchange phone numbers or email address because we didn't use them to communicate with each other. It was a boarding school so we were together for a lot of the time, and during the holidays we simply didn't know what was going on with each other.

I think that it's definitely true that when you were young you were less afraid because you didn't know what to fear. When I was making the decision to transfer from schools I was pretty reluctant to be away from this familiar community of people I built around me. When I was coming to Australia I didn't even think of it, though there's a lot more reason for a girl who doesn't know English to fear not fitting into an Australian school than a girl who had already been in the Australian education system for 7 years.

I mean, when me and my Mum first came we lived in a 2 bedroom flat with no bed, no tables and no chairs. We bought the cheapest breadstick (not even loafs, it was old stale-ish breadsticks) Woolworth had and a vegetable and beef soup was something of a treat. We had no idea how to get around and we mistook the sign pointing to the library as the name of the street. Mum didn't have a stable job and I understood almost nothing of the lessons taught in school and neither of us knew English. Mum told me she was pretty scared at the time, but I was just perfectly happy to be doing what I was doing, eating food that was pretty bad compared to what I had in China and reading books from the library. I felt no apprehension whatsoever! If the older me were in that same position, I don't know if I could have taken it as well as I had. At the very least I'm more likely to have seen my Mum's worries, which would have affected me. But of course, the past is always seen through a nostalgia filter, where it seems we tend to only remember the good. But it's a good mechanism for us to remain positive and optimistic, qualities that are both very important for leading a healthy, happy life. I for one can't wait to be done with this year and be able to look back on it fondly.

But this has gone on long enough, I think, so I'll stop my rambling here and leave you in peace. This had no structure and no point except for me to put whatever went through my mind into writing.