Paradise Lost, Found, Lost Again and Renamed.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! The Great Oz has spoken!" 


What if Dorothy didn't want to get back to Kansas? What's so great about Kansas anyway? Family, o.k. I'll give her that. I was never lucky enough to get randomly transported to that magical land of the weird, colorful, and characters. But I did however find a place in books, movies, and T.V. shows called Australia, ironically enough sometimes called Oz for short. If I had to remember my earliest Oz related memory, it would have to be sitting for as long as I could pouring through the handful of books my primary school library had on the subject. This far off land full of bizarre creatures, extreme weather, tumultuous history, and a map full of places that just make you laugh. I think most people thought I would 'grow out of it'. Contrary, the more I learned, the more I loved this fascinating Terra incognita and it fueled me. Fueled me to appease my family's desire for me to acquire a university education, work and save up to go wander the place to see what I could find, and while it's opened the pathways for me catching the 'travel bug', I feel like I haven't really traveled all that much. It doesn't feel exactly like I'm a visitor here. It seems like a jumping off point. What I've found from my wanders is that the reality of this place is far more emotionally, culturally, ecologically, and spiritually diverse than I could have even dreamed. It cannot be boiled down to a singularity of flora, fauna, place, person or feeling. Its why the cassowary crossed the road, its the pigment splattered transit lines of everywhere people have something to say, its tripping over a 2.5 meter long rock python on the way home from work in the jungle, its a 184000 hectares of sandbar island, its the accidental brush with something called a stinging tree ("sting" my ass it freak'n burns!), and the trillions of other sights and experiences this place is busting at the seems to share with the world. 
This place was overrun with the British Empire's cast-offs and thrill seekers. They took over, called it home, and now think they have the right and responsibility to regulate who can live and work here. As much as I don't want to come to terms with that reality, I also don't want to learn the reality of being inside a jail cell. 

Toiling in the name of love has always been a virtuous path by most culture's standards. While returning to University this early wasn't my original plan....I lost those a ways back...it does hold the most potential for doing what I love where I've always wanted to be.