My dream, for when I am old and confined to my bed, is to be able to say that I have been places and seen things beyond the conventional happiness of a tourist itinerary. 

By December last year, I was in the city of my birth with slivers of a fractured extended family. By January I was travelling to places I have been before and don't remember, and cities I've only seen printed on maps. I fell ill and traveled anyway, built a snowman with a cousin I met for the first time, took part in petty feuds and received results for exams when I didn't make the most of my opportunities and news of an acceptance to a university where I can. 

Yesterday I melted away in face of heat and humidity and overwhelmed relief to be home in Sydney. Tomorrow I will spend my first full day at Sydney University and next week I will turn eighteen and be responsible for those things children never think about and teenagers avoid but I am excited and hopeful to live 2011 with no regrets.