Queensland

During the weekend, I travelled to Bribie Island, a remote island away from Brisbane. Amongst the 12 hour drive from Sydney, I saw Ballina, a beautiful secluded beach, I saw Byron Bay, I saw Brisbane City and other smaller suburbs across lower Queensland.

To understand a society, one should observe everything: its people in the capital city, the rural suburbs. These people in their local supermarkets doing mundane daily routines, in their work environments and of course, when they are revealing most of their true colours: not sober.

I was grateful for I could see Brisbane City from a quiet nook within a loud and chaotic weekend night environment. Brisbane looked like a shadow of Sydney, the Story Bridge resembling like a first cousin of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The hairline of front row buildings of the cityscape resembled that of Circular Quay. The people, dripped with weekend clothing causing scenes with the alcohol or whatever else they were on, wandering and partying around with pent up frustrations of their inner selves on the streets and on the waterfront. The changes from Bribie Island to Brisbane city was a quick one and definitely a big dichotomy: from relaxed and simple realness to chaotic facades. I don't think there is too much difference though deep within. We are all human and we can all get lost very easily amongst the chaos. We must not be too reactive.

Some brief thoughts there:

• The more people speak, the less they often know. They will speak more when confused or trying to make sense of something. This isn't a bad thing necessarily. They often speak about what they want: money perhaps, love, friends etc. What you know you truly have, you would not need to validate your ownership.

• As I grew up, I became increasingly a reactive person. Looking back into my childhood, I notice that I didn't get to respond to stimulus much and thus, never gained the tools to deal with new stimulus. The more reactive one gets with stimulus, the easier it can lead you astray as you are not composed and carefully dissecting it.

• We need more tests and challenges of our character. Once we come out of the other side, we know better of who we are.

• Outwork your self doubt. The ongoing ability to force yourself into work that you don't want to do is the key to life