Bridie Shephard

Moving Out

I've lived with my parents for nearly 19 years. My childhood home is rich with loving memories, nostalgic smells and unfortunately quite a bit of dust. My materialistic behaviours have made me an unwilling servant to capitalism, no matter how many times I buy 'Eat the Rich' stickers off of Amazon. My father and I both share the tenacity for collecting stuff. Myself favouring nerd culture and my father with a hobby for old books and war replicas. We both fill our personal spaces with memorials to our passions, decorating shelves and cupboards with nick-knacks and memories. But as I am moving out this year to head off to university, I need to pack all of my possessions into my 2012 Volkswagen polo. A relatively small car; that I bought second hand, designed for zipping place to place in the city. Not really designed for hauling my original trilogy Luke Skywalker shrine across outback Australia, nor any sort of journey set in a fiery dust ball. And unlike Luke Skywalker I can't hire a dashing rouge played by Harrison ford to sweep me off to other planets with nothing but the clothes on my back. This is more of a do-it-yourself kind of mission.