Breaking Free

Epitome of Choices

Who would have thought that at a youth ministry seminar towards end of our last school year, that I would meet a boy who changed my life, not that I fell in love with him but his ideas and opinions about the society and time that we live in ultimately changed the way I think about my life. At the time I attended St Marie's Catholic College for girls, and he attended Ashfield High, which was the public school for boys. During the seminar we were given the chance to meet with the other students attending, this is when I met Charlie. After the seminar had finished Charlie and I decided to walk down the road to the local milk bar, when we arrived at the milk bar Get Back by the Beatles was streaming through the open windows, the shop was filled with teenagers trying to escape the afternoon heat with their friends. Charlie and I found an empty booth and ordered some milkshakes, we started talking and Charlie told me about his family and how they lived in the Aboriginal enclave just outside of the city, and how no one in his family has ever attended university. This is when he told me of his plans to be a lawyer to support his people when they are taken to court. During our conversation he asked me of my plans or ideas for my future, I all but blurted out what my parents had planned for me.

"Well, my family own a big uranium company here in South Australia and I will probably have an arranged marriage with an heir to a coal company so that our company can accumulate more financial opportunities."

Charlie was taken aback by the way that I opened up to him about what my parents had planned, he looked lost in thought when I quickly blurted,

"I honestly don't know if I want to marry someone I don't know or take over the company, I just want to live a humble, calm life."  

That's when he sat up straight, looked me in the eye and concurred,

"Marie, you shouldn't have to comply with everything that your parents want for you, and on top of that why would people want to rip precious ores and minerals from the ground where they belong? If you don't want to follow in their footsteps, then don't. Be your own person and create your own path."

I let the words sink in as the Beatles played in the background, I didn't realise that there was such a possibility for me to have a life of my own. Charlie seemed to be the only person that I have been able to relate my thoughts and feelings to, it may have been the way that he was so passionate about his culture and the land he lived on, but I felt comfortable around him, it was like I finally had someone that I could talk to.

That evening at dinner I was listening to the conversation that my parents were having about the company's shares, and the aboriginal people in the city,

"I must say that Aboriginal compound down by the main street is making this city look dirty, they should be moved on."

My mother looked absolutely disgusted at the thought of the natives. My realisation had set in now, I did not want to live a life completely surrounded by people who do not care about the people they are with and the beautiful land they live on. After dinner I went up to my room and sat down at my desk where a pile of university handouts was located, I looked at what they had to offer, that's when I saw how many opportunities there are for a career and lifestyle. After a few hours of browsing through the courses of different universities my eye was caught by a course in in the Science Faculty and it was called a Bachelor of Health Sciences. The next day I went to the Student Assessment and Enrolment officer and changed my classes before I convinced myself otherwise.

My parents were never home when I get home from school but for some reason, today they were both sitting in living room when I arrived at my house. When I entered the room my father looked up from a pile of papers and set his dark brooding eyes upon me.

"If you were not happy then you should have come and spoken to your mother and I about it and we could have dealt with the issue, instead of changing in to harder classes that you will struggle in."

I didn't think that the school would contact my parents about my change of classes, but it's the end of the year and if I don't apply now, I won't get into the course.

"Dad... I mean Father, I have decided that I want to go to university and get a degree so that I can help those in need of health care."

This however did not go well with my father, he stood from his chair and stood over me with a furious expression in his eyes.

"Marie, if you do this we will not support you and you will have to pay the expenses on your own."

My eyes flicked from my father's livid expression to my mother's apprehensive guise, not completely convinced that they were serious about this; when I saw that the emotion in my father's eyes hadn't wavered I straightened my back and looked him in the eyes.

"I am going to do this with or without your support, it is the path in life that I want to take."

Two months later I was walking through the gardens that surrounded the university buildings, I could smell the sweet fragrances of the roses in gardens running along the path and big eucalyptus trees towering over the gardens with lush, green mounds of grass around them. I made my way towards the lecture building but after a few minutes of walking through the halls I realised that I must have taken a wrong turn, I looked up and could see a sign over the doors saying UEA Law School. I definitely took a wrong turn, as I turned around I accidentally ran into another person coming down the hallway, papers went flying and I quickly bent down to grab them before they got stepped on. The other person was also scrambling for papers muttering to himself how he was late and everything had been going wrong, with a pile of runaway papers I looked up at the young man, he looked so familiar it then dawned on me... it was Charlie.