Survey in Days of My Destiny

Name: colour of water

Country: Australia

A food you loved as a child that you still love as an adult: Rice!

What was your favourite colour as a child? Purple - until my little friend decided to love it and make it her obsession, then I didn’t really have a favourite. I chose green later on, in my late childhood, when I realised nobody ever really chose green!

Current favourite colour(s)? I still like green. I love that trees and hills are green (in good spots at least, where it rains a lot!), I find looking at hilly green scenery relaxing. I think we are meant to relax with the colour green.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher

Did your career work out as planned as a child? Nope. I took a year off in my second last year of high school and worked. After spending a year in the real world, I went back to finish high school (just to cover my back) and continued working. I started uni at 21 and fell pregnant unexpectedly about 9 months later! After my first daughter was born, I continued to study and work part-time. I was determined to finish my degree. A few years after that I had my second daughter and I was ready to settle down for a while. Anyway my husband got a job interstate and my uni did not offer my specific (double) degree online or via distance education. So that was that. I thought about maybe learning to become a photographer after many people were telling me on facebook that I have a real talent for it but decided to keep it as a hobby. My father-in-law suggested I study to be a Teacher Aide. I thought about it for a few months and then bit the bullet and chose to study for that! I’ve been a Teacher Aide now for about 2 years and next year I will be studying at uni again… I’ll be studying teaching!!!! Lol. So I will have come full circle, except that in these last 10 years since first starting uni, I have learned so SO much more about myself and I will now be studying the kind of teaching that is more relevant to my skills and values.

Did your parents tell you anything they wanted you to do? Well, they always encouraged us to get high paying careers. Dad always suggested that we become lawyers or doctors, simply for the fact that studying for such careers is so much easier in Australia than Chile, where both my parents are from. They also figured we’d be better off financially that way. I was never interested in those kinds of careers though and I knew from very early on that I would follow whatever my passion would be.

What did you believe in as a child? I believed in happiness. Spreading happiness.

What kind of music did you like growing up? I liked R&B which was totally the in thing in the early 90s when I first started even paying attention to music lol! I enjoyed that genre the most until I was around 15 and a major life change influenced me to enjoy punk lol.

What kind of music do you like now? I like all sorts of music. The only music I definitely do not enjoy is any music where the “singer” is shouting. If you’re shouting, you’re not singing.

What was your favourite season as a kid? Spring! I was born in Spring so I naturally chose it to be my favourite season lol. I also loved that it was never too hot or too cold in Spring.

What is your current favourite season? Still Spring :)

Did you collect anything as a kid? Not really. I tried to collect Tazo cards when they were around but I didn’t really succeed. And actually when I was 5 I enjoyed collecting smooth rocks after my school friend taught me the difference between “rough” and “smooth” using pebbles lol.

What do you collect now? My daughters’ drawings for me!

Did you ever eat something so much as a kid that you can’t eat now? Not really

What is something you were scared of as a kid that you are still scared of today? Cockroaches!!!! Though I’m nowhere near as bad as I used to be.

Name some random childhood memories that you still think about time to time: I sometimes remember the times when I’d sit in the passenger seat of mum’s car at the age of .. maybe 4… and she’d be driving. While driving she’d hold my hand and just rub her thumb across the palm of my hand. It was so nice. I could feel her love so strongly in that gentle touch. I think about that when I hold my own daughters’ hands in the car.
I also think about the times when my brother and sister would have to clean the yard at home. It would take us forever! We’d make it interesting by taking turns with singing a song each. While one sang, the others had to clean the yard lol. We were such a musical family!! Or sometimes we’d motivate ourselves by aiming for a goal (eg rake all the leaves in a particular section) and then we’d do some form of exercise, usually run around the house once or twice and then keep going with the yard cleaning lol. It’s pretty cool to think that we came up with those ideas, actually.

What did you spend time doing as a child?
Laying on my bed, watching the clouds. Looking after my younger siblings. Playing guitar. Playing basketball (or trying to haha) in the backyard. Climbing the big tree out the front. Going to church. Visiting my cousin and staying up till late.

What do you spend your time doing as an adult? Reading. Occasionally playing guitar. Hanging out, doing not much. Going online. Sometimes clearing the hedge out the front (I find this task to be so incredibly relaxing). Going to the gym here and there. Sitting on the deck.

Describe yourself as a child: I think I was pretty daggy around those I knew. I was shy and would take a while to warm up to people. If my sister was there then I’d let her take the reigns and do the socialising. (I find I still do this sometimes with L.) I was always compassionate, feeling others’ sorrow and not wanting to cause anyone pain.

Describe yourself as an adult? I think I take life seriously enough to do what needs to be done (work, not harm anyone, etc). Within the 4 walls of my home I still am a big dag, talking in different accents randomly, or talking really posh, etc. I seem very outgoing - when I first meet people I am definitely friendly and enthusiastic and I can make conversation easily. It takes a while to really get to know me though, because after that first conversation where I’m all bubbly and outgoing, I tend to be more awkward, wishing I could retreat into a shell. So it takes a few goes for my sense of humour to come through. Being a mum has helped me talk endlessly about stupid nothings. I’ve learned that this holds its own value. It used to drive me absolutely crazy because the everyday/nothing conversations I find to be quite shallow. I used to want to delve into people’s minds a lot and find out what they were REALLY feeling and thinking. But as my kids get older I just don’t really have the energy for it with other people lol.

Have you ever broken a bone? No

Have you ever dislocated anything? No but I twisted my ankle pretty badly at the age of 14 while running away from Jono (the hypo kid in our grade lol). My foot landed in an inconspicuous hole in the ground that was covered by long grass and ouch, did it hurt! My foot was swollen and bruised that night so we went to hospital to get it checked out. I can’t remember the name of what happened, maybe a hairline fracture or something like that?

What do you like to do on your days off? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!!!! Ha ha ha!!! Except I can’t get away with that. I usually clean the house first up, then if I feel like having a home day I might watch a movie or play guitar and usually after that it’s time to go and pick up the girls from school. If I feel like being out and about but alone then I might visit random shops. If I feel like being social then I might drop in to see mum or go for coffee with my sister or try to meet up with a friend (though the on-call nature of my work makes these last two difficult).

Do you like to cook? What can you make? I don’t particularly like cooking. I find it a nuisance, to be honest. I can make almost any dish if I follow a recipe but I take forever to make it. I don’t mind cooking if there’s some groovy music playing in the background and there’s that kind of happy, jovial, relaxed atmosphere and it’s more like “I’m cooking because that’s exactly what I feel like doing!”. If I’m cooking because well, we need to eat, but we’re all tired and cranky and it’s just one more thing that needs to be done, then.... my interest is pretty freaking low. There’s cooking as a chore and cooking as a joyful thing to do. Big difference!

What homemade cooking did you love growing up? I still sometimes remember mum’s chicken soup from before I was 10 years old. That was yummy. I also loved plain rice and lentils mixed together, with oil and salt. I love that, to this day.

How old are you? Just turned 32 last week :)

10 years ago, is this the way you thought life would be? Not really. At 22 I was just married and although I knew we’d have kids someday, I didn’t expect to have kids until I was about 31 or 32. At 22 I’d done a little bit of travelling and I wanted to do more of that. My husband was interested in buying a home more than travelling, and I was interested more in travelling than buying a home. I started uni, figuring that well, I might as well get my career underway if we’re not going to travel, and I thought that maybe we could travel as a celebration when I finished my degree. And then about 9 months after starting uni I fell pregnant with my first child. So when she was born, I’d recently turned 23.

10 years ago, what was life like? Ten years ago exactly...... that takes me to November 2006. That year was pretty cruisy. I’d married that year and my husband and I were living in my parents’ house because mum was overseas and dad was up the coast for work. We had cheap rent. It was the perfect set-up because we were pretty broke. L was an apprentice and I was working casually and studying. I actually had 3 different jobs that year lol! For my first job of the year (massage therapist in the city) I’d catch the train in to the city and carry my massage gear around with me. Sometimes they were long days, other times they were short days. I’d have lunch at the botanical gardens in the city. I’d come home exhausted. I ended up quitting because my own health was suffering from carrying all the heavy gear and my boss wasn’t very nice. She wanted money so bad and didn’t want to let me have a day off to go see somebody to fix my own body. (?! Contradiction! We actually had an argument on the phone and I quit. Not nice.) My second job of the year (reception at a government department), I’d catch the train in to work and back, work long hours and then come home tired. I’d go for a walk. I always wanted L to join me but he never wanted to so I’d often walk alone in the evening. I’d look up at the night sky and hear the sounds of people getting dinner ready as I walked passed their homes. For my 3rd job, well I’d started studying at uni then and I worked as a receptionist at a motel. It was nice, I finally found a nice boss (my first ever really nice boss!!) who took me under her wing.
In my spare time I’d hang out with L. I’d watch him shave, listen to his music, we’d go places in his van. It only had the 2 front seats in it, so we’d chuck a mattress in the back and just go anywhere and crash the night. That was fun. We’d have BBQ dinners that we’d cook on the balcony. The BBQ was one of our wedding gifts. We spend that year just being goofy and so so happy. Everyone was so generous to us at our wedding and everything we had was a gift from someone or other. We went to parties and had parties and drank and had fun. I spent a fair few mornings hungover, although not as badly as in previous years. I was starting to get over that horrible hungover feeling. I really had enough one morning when I couldn’t even keep watermelon down. Watermelon! One of the easiest things to eat!!! Lol.
Even though we were broke, life was pretty chilled and happy. We had fun. We were getting to know each other really living together as a married couple, so we were kind of in our own little happy bubble. So nice :)

Where do you think you will be in 10 years? In ten years...... I’ll be 42.... I’ll have a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old.... where I’ll be I think really depends on where my daughters will be at in life. At this stage I don’t even know which high school they will attend. We may need to move homes depending on where they go, I don’t know. High school life is still 3 years away. It’s so hard picturing 10 years from now. 10 years ago, picturing 10 years into the future was so much easier because there were no kids to consider. I think that at 42, I will have kept on working where I’m working now (because I love my job, I have finally married my passion and my job, yay!). I would have been studying part-time, or maybe I would have given that up and chosen to homeschool my kids (though at this stage the stronger pull is to do my studies). We’ll most likely still be in this house. We may have added a room or two to make life easier for us (there’s 4 of us in a 2 bedroom home at the moment). I wonder how mum will be in 10 years’ time. I may be looking after her, or dropping in as often as I can - something I don’t do now. I will have hopefully squeezed in an airplane trip at least once, even just to New Zealand! Please?! Lol. No more kids though, that’s well and truly settled.
I feel like in 10 years’ time, life will really be just beginning for me, and I’ll have teenage/late teenage daughters, which will be exciting. I think I’ll have gone through some storms with them and maybe we’ll be coming out the other end, looking at the rainbow and going from a mother-daughter situation to more, mother-friend. I hope that’s the case anyway :)
I picture myself making healthy choices for myself the way I do now, except maybe just exercising more often. Doing more of the things that I love to do. Maybe walking in rainforests more, or climbing a couple of mountains here and there.
We’ll see what happens in this next little decade :)