Story
Unwired
It was a feeling of liberation, the same kind when you get home and unzip your pants and take off your bra. Except I wasn’t at home and running around…
I Moved Countries For a Holiday Fling
I’d only ever seen my grandma cry once, back when I was 12 and my grandpa died. Yet eight years later, as I walked towards my departure gate, I looked…
On Relationships as a Traveller – A Note to My Younger Self
It is September and you’re 19 years old. You’re sobbing in an airport terminal – because you’re not sure you want to leave anymore – and filling in a survey…
Uncle
I felt a surge of magnetism from the rock as soon as I pulled into the national park in my dust-encrusted van. I’d just taken her five hours off-roading on…
Pooped in Peru: A Tale of Kindness
This is a story of community, kindness and sharting. I arrived around midday at a little surf town in the north of Peru called Lobitos: a place where the desert…
Why I Had to Leave the Small Canadian Town I Grew Up In
When you leave the place you’ve called home since you were nine years old for a country where the people live upside-down on the other side of the world, a…
Lost and Found at Home: Confessions of a Trapped Traveller
“Will you be okay on your own?” the driver asked me, pulling to a stop. “I’ll be fine, thank you.” I’ve been doing this for long enough. I yanked my…
From Where, If Not Here? A Tale of Displacement
This piece was inspired by the many conversations of my travels. The distant coastline falls beyond the view of the pier from the boundary of the hostel. Behind the partition,…
I Left Far North Queensland With a UTI and a New Family
My eyes are blurry from the tears and I’m squirming in my seat. My nose is a faucet under my facemask. I’m struggling to control my sniffling so my neighbours…
Naked, Sandy and Slightly Afraid
It’s 9pm on a Saturday. Joel and I sit on the couch in the shared common room of a North Queensland hostel. I tilt my head back and close my…
The War on Terror is Ending in Afghanistan. But the Terror Will Not End.
Every night my father awaits news on Afghanistan. He listens to Al Jazeera report that western troops have withdrawn their occupation of the country. He interchanges between news stations. He…
“Absolutely Not An Alcoholic”
Am I an alcoholic? Some might say that if I have to ask myself this question, I probably already know the answer. I sit here writing this with a margarita…