Character Analysis: A Letter Belonging

Assessment Task – Belonging

Dear Mum, Dad and everyone else who have been a part of my life so far,

If you are reading this letter, I’ve probably already left Cobar and started my journey to find somewhere that makes me feel at home, somewhere that I belong. I know that this is most likely going to come as a massive shock to you, but I feel going and discovering new places is something that I really need. I've also written this letter to you because I feel it’s best not to talk over the phone now as this may be a hard pill for you to swallow. I’ve written this letter, to offer you an explanation for my decision. As I said before, I know this is probably going to be hard to take in, but all I’m asking is that you accept my decision and
support me through this time. Cobar will always be my hometown, but I don’t think I can go on living here anymore. Now that I’ve finally finished school, I’ve got the chance to find somewhere where I belong, where I can make a living besides working in the mines every day for the rest of my life. In other words, its as though throughout out my childhood, I’ve been like a fish, confined to my fishbowl. Now that I’m older and able to make my own choices, I’m ready to figuratively jump out of the fishbowl and explore the massive ocean that awaits.
I want to see the world and find a place that I can call my new home, make a living, raise a family and fill
this void inside me and finally feel as though my life is complete, feel that I’m in a place where I belong.

I’ve decided to leave, because for the majority of my life, I’ve had this empty feeling inside of me, making me feel as though something was missing. As a kid I never really thought of Cobar as somewhere I’d stay for my entire life. I could never accept the thought of Cobar being the place where I belong, my interests were as far from what was on offer here as you could get. I’ve never really seen much outside of the country scene before, I never got to go and experience what life is like in the city, or experience other lifestyles or cultures besides the life of living on a massive property with nothing but coal and oil mines everywhere I look. The thought of knowing that there is a whole world out there for me to experience is the main contributing factor causing me to make the decision to leave.
When I put the whole situation in perspective, there really isn’t anything here for me that can satisfy my needs. No professional sport ever comes out here, there is next to no options when it comes to education after school, no job openings here for jobs I’m interested in applying for. In short, there is really nothing here that I'm interested in, I don’t belong in this place where I can’t live the lifestyle I was born to live.

So I’ve decided I’m going to try making a living in a city somewhere, some big city like Sydney, the Gold Coast, or Melbourne or something.
I’ve always been attracted to the city life, just hearing about it from my friends who have been to places like Sydney, has always fed my dreams of experiencing the city. From all the stories I've heard, city life would be a perfect fit for me. I’ve always been the impatient type, you know that. I've always complained that life in the country was too slow for my liking, and now I’m finally going to experience a more up tempo lifestyle. I’m gonna go to uni and train to become a teacher, hopefully a PE teacher, or if that doesn’t work out for me, something else along the lines of sport of some description. The possibilities on offer in the city are endless, who knows where I’ll end up. I’m going to finally be able to do the things I’ve never been able to do, like go to the beach, watch my favourite sports live, play the sports I love but haven’t been able to do because of how remote Cobar is from
everything.

I’ll always keep in contact with you guys, and I’ll always visit whenever I get the time. Cobar will always be my hometown, but I’m too different from the lifestyle there to ever feel like it’s the place for me. This is the biggest experience I’ll ever have in my life, finally being able to say I'm in a place where I completely belong.