Something Serious

I've nearly been here for two weeks now (that extraordinary milestone will be reached as of tomorrow evening) and I guess it'd be safe to say that I'm 'settled in', as far as knowing where shit is and having a rough plan for how things are going to work for the next month. I went out with the Adelaide crew on Friday night to The Liberty Social, a club with a chalkboard for a sign which houses heart-murmur-inducing bass beats, a dancefloor full of people who actually came to dance (more on that later) and a bar that, as far as I can tell, is mostly concerned with serving water. Friday night was fucking sick and reminded me what first attracted me to clubbing as a fresh-faced eighteen year old cast out into the world. Well now I have been cast out into the world once again, and further this time. I'm still as fresh-faced and stupid as I ever was, only now I know a thing or two about dancing.

Friday night was a night where it all came into place for me and it really hit home that this city is where I'm going to be spending at least the next few years of my life. Someone said – and the words spill out of the black, flashing haze for me right now, but no face accompanies them – that a few people have come over to Melbourne and made a go of it for a month or two, only to go back home, tail between legs and empty handed. It never even crossed my mind that such a thing could be an option in this adventure... even if I were to end up living on the streets, a rough induction to the gutter would be far preferable to the long road back to safety and easy living that waits back in Adelaide. I guess that's only privilege talking right now though, and maybe after a few nights under a newspaper I'd be ready to call it quits. The point is, though, it's not even going to get to that stage, no chance, no way, no how. Nope.

I'm really very grateful to everyone who has made the last two weeks so god damn easy for me, all the Adelaide crew who have been so quick to say, “fuck yeah dude, we're so stoked to have you over here”. I wasn't expecting to have much of a support network at all when I got here, but the fact that one was pretty much ready and waiting for me has made everything ridiculously easy – like all I had to do was pack my bags and the rest was taken care of. Words with Brodie and Desh on Friday night after the club put all that in perspective though, and it's clear now that moving over here from Adelaide really means the same thing to a lot of people. Making that first mental jump and pulling together whatever resources you might have at your disposal back home to get over here is not an easy thing to do... and that's why, once you're here, the hard part is finished. It's not as if Adelaide is such a worthless, dirty crap-shack that only the people who get out are worthy of recognition, not at all. But what everyone that has moved here in the last year or so does share in, I think, is a common sense of purpose and determination, and that comes from having made that first step and packed up shop for the long haul. That first mental step is like a filter that clears out the people who aren't interested in bettering themselves or pursuing a passion with any serious commitment. It weeds out those who are still more interested in partying and staying out late every weekend than seeing what else is out there, waiting in the world. That is not to say that everyone in Adelaide is stuck in that filter, wasting away their life doing absolutely nothing – not at all. Obviously there are plenty of people that aren't interested in coming to Melbourne, and are perfectly happy and able to chase their dreams from their city of birth, but it does mean that over here, while this group remains populated with people who have made the great leap, there is no one sitting around, wasting time, and talking about shit that is never going to happen.

As a side note, I am completely aware of the irony that I have just spent seven-hundred words ranting on about how good it is to be in Melbourne, where no one is talking shit.

Peace, Taco.