Born to be a Gypsy

I was the sweetest young girl that you could ever meet. All cream and beige blonde hair and large, innocent eyes; I looked at the world – and everyone in it – adoringly. I was told that I never threw a tantrum as a child and that I was always happy and smiling – perhaps that is why my father called me ‘Sunshine’ back then. I took in the world around me like a breath of fresh air. My parents moved a lot from the moment I was born, and throughout my childhood, due to their respective goals and careers. We worked out years ago that in the 14 years that I had been alive, we had moved about 16 times; although granted, some of these moves were within the same town or city. Still, I moved more than the average child and I often later joked that I would have to go on a tour of Australia in order to visit all of my childhood homes; there were so many, and they all held so many precious memories. At times growing up like this bothered me. I would see films or television shows where the characters were basically born and raised in one house – one family home – and as adults they would return to this home, and even to their own childhood bedrooms. 

However, my parents loved to follow their dreams – whether it was building a boat; owning a hobby farm; building or buying a new house; chasing an exciting career opportunity. I’m not sure whether it is through nature or nurture that I am now the same. I feel like I was injected with the need to move and change from my childhood – or is it just in my genetic makeup? As an adult, I am now thankful for all of the places that we have lived and all of the people I have met in each new location. Every place is a new adventure; every person is someone that I may get to know. I have been asked where my favourite place to live is, but each place that I’ve lived has been special to me for different reasons; beautiful for its own unique qualities. I have lived in urban, rural and remote areas; and I’ve lived both coastal and in the highest snowy mountain ranges. They have been a mixture of breathtaking; wild; exciting; tranquil; peaceful; crowded with people; and isolated. I love it all. I miss it all when I leave. The only aversion that I seem to have is to the suburban life. I tend to either like the excitement of the inner-city or the grounding quality of nature. Wherever I am though, I tend to get ‘itchy feet’ when I’ve lived somewhere for a few years, much like my parents used to. I’ve even had a workmate say to me that I need to settle down somewhere, sometime. Perhaps I will. For now though, I am still the gypsy that I was raised to become. An adventuress. Nevertheless, between the ages of 7-16, I was raised predominantly in and around a medium-sized coastal town in northern New South Wales, and that is where the story truly begins.