Last year I did a speech for a group of year 12 students.  I spoke about how we are all telling stories.  I spoke about how little of life we actually remember. 

It’s amazing how much that speech has come back to me in the past 12 months.  Yes, I was giving a speech with the aim to challenge and hopefully inspire some students.  But without realizing it, I gave a speech that formed a philosophy of how I want to approach my life.  It made me accountable.  I could not possibly live a dull life because what if people found out?  I would be a liar. 

So I set about continuing to tell a good story, one that would be worth reading. 

I realized at the end of 2010 that I wanted to travel.  That I would be unsatisfied and disappointed if I went another 12 months without leaving Australia’s shores.  I also wanted to do something that I believed mattered.  I had come to uni and my faith and my beliefs had been turned on their head, so I wanted to help people, I wanted to believe that these things still mattered. 

So I went.

I left Australia’s shores and I started to explore.  I worked for a non-profit who are doing things that I believe matter.

In 2011 I read more than 30 books.  2011 was a rediscovering of the power of story.  I met people who taught me to never feel ashamed of what kinds of stories I love, people who reminded me that Harry Potter is a great story and anyone who says otherwise is probably just a pretentious twat. 

I changed in 2011.  I didn’t realize it at the time; but I changed.  And it wasn’t “where” I went that changed me.  It was simply that fact that I went.  That I left.  That I got up and walked out the door.  I changed because I took myself out of routine, out of habit, and this allowed me to look at myself from another perspective. 

So I have learnt that from time to time it is important to leave.  Important if only so that when you return you are able to see that place differently.