Switch Magazine Issue Six Text

Switch Magazine Issue Six Text

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Team

Editor

Amanda Sherring

Sub-Editors

Alastair McGibbon, Jessica Dickers & Linn Ahlvik

Designers

Julian Grant & Amanda Sherring

Photographer

Natalie Evans

Foreign Correspondent

Sophia Skinbjerg-Eyles

Editorial Committee

Adrian Aloi, Alastair McGibbon, Amanda Sherring, Bridget McGivern, Cassie

Santoro, Gabe Rule, Jessica Dickers, Julian Grant, Kim Sinnott, Linn Ahlvik, Natalie Evans, Tex Miller, Sophia Skinbjerg-Eyles, Zakary Testa

Cover

Joshua Maxwell de Hoog

Production Services

Adcell Media

Thanks

Cr Jan Farrell, Mardi Janetzki, the Youth Development Team & Adcell Media.

Please Note: The opinions in the magazine are those of the writers and not the publication or City of Greater Geelong.

A Word From Us

It’s been a little while since our last issue and so we’d first like to thank you for your incredible patience. You are one of a kind! This issue is a bumper one for us, maybe it’s the guilt or maybe it’s just the impressive things that you’re all doing, either way, we are eight pages larger. As you flick through you’ll come across a travel photo diary by our resident photographer Natalie Evans, an article on completing study and entering the job seeker world and travel articles on Tasmania and Mexico. We’d also like to welcome a new section which we hope to revisit, our ‘My First Experience With...’, a feature that takes a look at the first time when we’ve all experienced some serious, and not so serious, things. This issue is drugs and alcohol. That’s all from us, we hope you enjoy the issue and we promise the next one won’t be quite so far away!

x The Switch Team x

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Get to Know: Ainsley Mason

Name: Ainsley Mason

Studying: Social science with a counter-terrorism major at Swinburne University

What Ainsley does/did: Volunteered in East Timor and then Kenya for two months.

How she got into volunteering: It’s hard to put your finger on where it all started. When I was a child I did Scouts and then didn’t volunteer for a while because that’s what kids do and then I started coming to GASP. In GASP we had some really good opportunities to engage in the marriage equality fights. A couple of years after that I was given the opportunity to go on the East Timor trip and I just took to it.

How she found East Timor: I’d been to Thailand before but it was just very different. Apart from the people I was travelling with I met one other white person when I was there. We’d be driving down the road and there’d be a crater in the road from a bomb that hit or something and they didn’t have the money to fix it. Or people would come up to me and tell me their personal stories and some of these things I just couldn’t even fathom and just to see so much strength in them was amazing.

What she learnt: Being in an environment like that teaches me to be a more loving, open and thankful person.

Ideal job: Working for a non-government organisation, I may study law after my course and go for a job at the UN in foreign diplomacy or something like that. Wherever I’m needed – I’ve got a good strong pair of legs and a good back.

Favourite movie: I’m a bit sucker for cheesy action films, I’m a big Tarantino and Rodriguez fan. It is really hard but Deathproof. It’s just girls kicking butt, it’s a great movie.

Guilty pleasure: Shoes. I’m a big op-shop junkie. And chippies, I’m vegan so there’s not a lot I can eat so definitely chippies.

First tattoo: An ampersand (related to Amanda Palmer song).

Favourite book(s): I really like classic children’s novels. The characters in it are really beautiful, like Sara Crewe from The Little Princess. She’s got the worst life, she used to be rich but was made a slave at her school and she’s just got the best attitude - so inspiring.

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PERFECTION by Alexandra Marshall

“We must realise that Allah has created us imperfect so He does not expect perfection from us. But He does expect us to try our best.”

UNKNOWN

Now I’m not Muslim, I’m an Atheist. But that quote - in my opinion - is one of the most accurate things I have ever heard, and I don’t even know who said it. Whoever or whatever created us, did not create us the same. Living organisms were created to reproduce offspring, some with abnormalities and differences. We were created to evolve, and to change, to learn and to develop, to do our best. We were not created perfect. So why is it that we continue to convince ourselves that it exists? We work out, and eat well to get the ‘perfect’ body, we clean, and organise to have the ‘perfect’ house, we date to find the ‘perfect’ partner, we study to have the ‘perfect’ job, we do all these things to have the ‘perfect’ life.

In our society, we are so consumed within this false and unrealistic idea of ‘perfection’, that we don’t see what’s around us. We don’t see the imperfect. We are so focused on this idea of ‘perfection’ that we block out whatever is not. We refuse to see the homeless that are there because we believe in the ‘perfect’ idea that there’s enough money to go around so that everyone can be rich if they try. There’s not. We refuse to see that (according to the ABS) the 21.3 million tonnes of landfill that was created by Australia alone in the year 2007 is there because we continuously have to consume more products to achieve ‘perfection’, and we ignorantly tell ourselves that we can do this forever. We can’t. We refuse to see that according to World Bank Data Women aged 15 to 44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria. This is happening because we, with our unmeasurable power, are doing nothing about it, and we naively believe it will just stop. It won’t.

We were not created to be perfect, we were created to do our best, and our worth, according to Peeta Mellark in Catching Fire the movie (not the book), he says, ‘Our lives are not just measured in years. They are measured in the lives we touch around us.’ We are created to do this, to be our best. Not submerged in stereotypes, unrealistic expectation, and money, but to look after the earth, and its inhabitants. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and one another.’ So let’s make that reflection an imperfect, yet beautiful one.

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Up In Arms by Bridget McGivern

In a town such as Geelong, it can be hard for new musical talent to garner attention. And with the rise of shows such as X Factor and The Voice producing countless ‘one hit wonders’ - whose rise to fame is swift yet short lived - for bands to break into the music industry, a lot of hard work and dedication is needed.

However, for Up In Arms, an emerging, young band from Saint Joseph’s College, the potential and the determination is clearly evident, as they attempt to shed the apparent limitations of their youth. Since their formation in 2013, lead singer and frontman Macka Heard, banjo player Riley Harman, keyboard player Jeremy Pryzlak and double bass player Sebastian Rawson have moved away from their status as a mere high school boy band, and have the musical talent to prove it.

As I sit down with Macka and fellow bandmate and cousin, Riley, the smiling faces of the pair - as well as their charismatic nature - immediately make me feel like a part of Up In Arms. For this up and coming local Geelong band, playing music is something that individually they have been doing for many years, and something that comes to them without effort. With an EP on the way, and more and more gigs under their belt, big things are appearing in the future for these boys.

Since their childhood, Macka and Riley have been playing music together, beginning with playing drums on the floor as toddlers. So in 2013, after recognizing their aptitude in the world of music, they knew it was time to make solid foundations and build on their talents, and so along came Jeremy and Sebastian, and thus Up In Arms was formed.

With influences drawn from bands such as Mumford & Sons and Of Monsters and Men, and a policy against writing cliche love songs, Up In Arms is clearly different from your typical school boy band.

“We don’t want people to judge our music just because of a label that’s been thrown on it,” explains lead singer Macka. “It’s better if we just let the music do the talking.”

With the recent student organized charity music festival Tri-Umph under their belt; a massive audience of 5,000 students as well as special guests conquered, it seems that for Up In Arms the future is bright. Riley describes Tri-Umph as, “The motivation we needed to write our own music, to move away from playing covers in front of our parents and families and create our own sound”.

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“I want to be able to play music all the time; to be in the band and not have to do anything else,” says Macka. “To create a fan base of dedicated music lovers who appreciate our sound is the dream.” However in an industry where the competition is high, it can be hard to stay motivated to pursue that dream.

As Riley explains, for him; “playing music is more of a hobby than a job”. With an auto engineering course under his belt as well as playing in another Geelong band Revolution, Riley has a lot on his plate. However he does not want to put all his time into Up In Arms in such a fickle industry as the music industry.

“Television shows such as The Voice and X Factor are ruining the music industry,” Riley remarks. “Audition shows rush the winners immediately into the spotlight. They produce acts with no staying power and make it so much more difficult for other people to make it in the industry.”

But there is still hope for local bands like Up In Arms. “In towns like Geelong people want to see local talent thrive,” Macka clarifies. “But unfortunately not many people want to pay to see a band they don’t know the lyrics to.” Riley adds. Macka and Riley both agree that the key to their success in the future is exposure, especially to young people via social media.

“Starting from where we are now is difficult, but we get advice from other bands who have been in our position, and we are motivated by even the smallest successes, such as finishing a song or playing in front of a supportive, appreciative audience.” Macka says.

It is obvious that for Up In Arms, despite the challenges they are facing, their genuine love for music and talent drives them to aim high. Up In Arms with their earthy, young sound are yet another credit to the musical talent already present in Geelong. Stay tuned for big things from this band in the future.

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Memories of My Future by Adrian Aloi

I watch the ash fall from the sky. Some of it lands on my nose, and a shiver runs down my spine. I look around at my once peaceful town – it’s cracked and broken the buildings now no more than rubble. Once, they gave the town class and character. Now, they’re reduced to nothing but rocks, pushed back into the earth from which they came. But worst of all - worse than seeing my childhood house in ruins, worse than even the mushroom cloud of ash that rose high into the sky above me - was what was staring up at me. The cold, lifeless eyes of a child. I know those eyes, I thought to myself. They were my eyes; my cold eyes, burning through me with their gaze. This was not how things were supposed to go. This was not how my life was meant to end.

This is Hiroshima; this is how I died.

5 days before

School was cancelled today - sort of. Instead of classes, all students aged between 11 and 14 were given the day off. We were told to go around the town and with the help of a few adults; we were to pull down certain houses. We were making something called firebreaks.

“I don’t understand. Why we are doing this?” I asked one of the adults as he walked past.

“Because we have to,” he replied simply.

“But I don’t understand! How is taking away people’s house helping?” I asked. “What is a firebreak? What is it meant to do?”

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“It is to stop fire,” he replied.

“But why is there going to be fire?” I asked, feelings my face warm up at the lack of answers.

“Look after Tokyo we can’t ris-“ he said, stopping mid-sentence as if giving something away.

“What happened in Tokyo?” At last, some information!

“Nothing, forget I said anything. I’d better get back to work,” turning his back to me he walking away. Well that was helpful, I thought to myself. It doesn’t confuse me more at all.

I was working on pulling down a roof from a house when the thunder began, rumbling off the mountains. It grew louder and louder until it seemed to be all around me. I scanned the sky above, and saw nothing but blue skies. I looked around in confusion, what was happening. There was no rain, no clouds, no lightning.

Where is this thunder coming from? Looking around my eyes fall onto the man I was talking to before.

“What is going on?” I screamed at him, struggling to make myself heard over the roaring noise.

He didn’t hear me. What was he staring at? Following his gaze, I saw the source of the sound. It was an aeroplane, soaring through the sky towards my home.

“A plane!”

I turned, startled by the sudden outburst; an older lady who had been helping with the firebreaks had spotted it. She was screaming as loud as she could.

“It’s a plane!”

“Run!”

Voices from all over the town took up to screaming.

“It’s the Americans, coming to destroy us like they did Tokyo!” A panicked voice cried out.

“Get inside, hide the children!” Someone yelled. I couldn’t will my body to move. Fear coursed through me, and my body wouldn’t respond. People surged past me, pushing and shoving me out of the way in desperation. Still, my body was frozen. The plane shot over head, dropping thousands of little pieces of yellow paper. They were drifting down from the sky, falling gently, like snow from the heavens. They fell to earth and covered everything - from mounds of dirt to the houses we had yet to pull down.