Simple Times

Let me tell you about when it was just simple times, of good memories that I hold dearly during high school with friends and family. During this time of global unrest, it's allowed the opportunity to reflect on those simple times. The town of Caroline Springs situated in the mid-west of Victoria, Australia. Like many small towns in Australia, there is a mixed bag of patchy land and developing properties from both local and overseas investors.

The nearest bus stop from my house here me and four friends were considered the regulars of this stop by the bus driver. Every day me and these boys would wait here to go to school, the nearest train station or just simply another stop on this particular route. Our conversations varied from the latest meme we discovered, what homework we had and the occasional gossip in the school cohort. We never realised when it would be the last time we waited there together. Simple times.

Caroline Springs Boulevard a long strip of tarmac that connects every small village. At the heart of this road lies Caroline Springs Square, the town hall, local shopping market, and a street for restaurants or "Streat" as it's known locally. Here, you'd find an abundance of students and their cliques coming for a feed after class, most popular meals were the $5 pizzas from Domino's and Subway's $7.50c happy hour meals. Me and my friends had our last meal there as seniors and we never knew. Simple times.

The gallery joined with the town library, as a kid, I never was really intrigued with what was in the gallery, however, the library was a different story. After eating on "streat" with the boy's we would come to the library, to buy there notoriously cheap milkshakes and rent out their Playstation 3's. Facing each other off in a competitive but hilarious game of WWE. During the gaming time the thought of homework, issues we had at school, what to eat for dinner never crossed our minds, we were simply focused on trying to beat each other. Me and my friends went to this library for the last time and we never noticed. Never the less simple times.

The main lake that sits in the middle of town. If ever we weren't feeling the vibe of going to the library to play games but didn't to go home yet we could walk the lake. Mostly to help burn off and help digest our full bellies from all the food we ate and others just to kill time. Other than walking we would sometimes take one for the stray supermarket trollies and either ride them around or push them into the lake as a far as we could typical juvenile behaviour. Walking around the lake was also mostly done by couples as a tiny date. Walking around the lake to this day still has a calming effect but me and my friends would never realise when the last time we would walk together be. Simple times.

Now that I am older I have come to realise what an eventful childhood it really was, surrounded by friends that were on the same energy as me, although we have all gone our separate ways I'm sure each every one of us looks back on the same memories. It's quite interesting to hear as well that the pass-times me and my friends indulged in are also being done by the younger generation, I guess it must be innate in my town. Now that I am older I have come to appreciate the smaller things around me that I took for granted such as the Tap sculpture at the lake or the growth of different nationalities and why at school the teachers would always pay homage to the Kulin nation the Indigenous custodians of the land Caroline Springs now occupies. It's all these small aspects that allow me to call this place home and though not of Australian descent I am still able to appreciate Australian culture and its values.