We all belong here.

I was 19
When I cut ties with the people who raised me
Not because I stopped loving them
But because loving them meant losing me.

Everyone says
"You're so brave"
But no one talks about the loneliness
That comes after survival.

I sat in rooms full of people
And still felt like a ghost.
The world moved forward
But I stayed stuck —
in grief, in silence,
in the ache of being
unseen.

I thought leaving would free me.
But it unstitched everything.
I was building a new life
With shaking hands
And no one to hold the blueprints.

There were nights I nearly gave up —
Not because I wanted to die
But because I didn’t know
how to live without a map.

But then—
Connection came in quiet ways.
A friend who stayed.
A puppy who trusted me.
Someone who didn’t walk away
when I let them see the real me.

And somewhere in that
I found my voice.

I spoke.
Not clean.
Not calm.
But real.

And it saved me.

Because loneliness doesn’t always mean being alone —
Sometimes it’s the silence
after you speak your truth
and wonder if anyone heard.

This is me telling you:
I hear you.
You’re not too much.
You’re not alone.

And your voice?
It might just be the beginning
of your way back.

Loneliness for me is the staggering coldness of an empty block of land in the evening, a rural kind of coldness knowing my friends have dispersed to Melbourne and surrounds. Loneliness is knowing this small rural town of mine is quiet and still, withdrawn and barely functioning with lack of funding and opportunity. I’m lonely when I look out the window, I’m lonely when I look in the mirror, I’m lonely in my innards and my stomach. I’m lonely in experiences. It’s this hungry thing, loneliness. It’s like wanting to constantly fill the emptiness, wanting some hot meal to consume and yet having nothing to swallow. It’s a kind of ache that corrodes you. I don’t want to be lonely anymore

When moving schools, suburbs, sports clubs, and being placed into a completely new environment, it can take time to figure things out on how to move forward and that everything is falling apart, however with time we realise that we have everything we need and everything was just waiting to align and fall into place for us. The Paradox of Purpose
Perhaps a directionless existence indeed, however simply temporarily,
Like the struggle that remains until one’s character is finally changed,
Until the right door is found and the keys are correctly rearranged,
And everything is back once again to how it was originally placed

One of the reasons why I’m afraid of growing up
Is when I’ll forget how to spell your name
Or when our interactions are only memories
That can never ever be re-enact

They forgot to tell us;
Or maybe, they wanted to spare us the pain
But they never told us; how odd it is
To go from ‘seeing everyone everyday’
To ‘never seeing anyone anymore’

To wake up one day and realise that everyone is growing,
Into someone I don’t know
Probably someone I’ll never know

To have them smile and cry with others
But not me
Not with me anymore

Then to see myself moving away
From what I knew
From what I was
Cause I grew
And they also grew

Why didn’t the adults ever warn us;
That growing up was this heavy on our hearts.

This artwork represents interconnectedness through the organic lines and shapes. When we are connected we see each other. To see.