The Departure Lounge

Technically it was going through customs at the arrival lounge of Christchurch airport, but unfortunately for one passenger on flight DJ62 it was the last place she saw. After collapsing next to the baggage carousel, my friend Adam (a final year med student I was traveling with) and a few others tried in vain to resuscitate her for about half an hour. As another friend, my girlfriend and I sat there, watching on, waiting, the reality of what we were witnessing began to sink in.

Whilst the majority of Australians have a religion to turn to when dealing with death, for the 18.7% (2006 Census) of us with ‘no religion’ it really is the great unknown. It seems to me that death is something that we’re shielded from in the Australian mainstream. No-one seems to talk about what actually happens after you die in the media, you never really see people actually die on the television, and if you do actually hear about someone dying they seem to become ‘top blokes’ after death. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I found watching this person die quite shocking.

But maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked. I remember last year Mitch, a friend from work, was showing a group of us some videos taken from US Air Force planes of ‘targets’ being ‘neutralized.’ Naturally at the time I was appalled and was slightly concerned that the man in the same room as me had the desire to seek out such footage. Looking back at it though, it wasn’t as though my friend was actually killing the people. Death happens all the time, and should be accepted as something natural, inevitable.

Even though death should be accepted and not turned into some sort of myth, it should definitely still be feared. A recently made acquaintance, Tom, went to Vietnam before coming here to KL. He told me that whilst getting the taxi from the airport just after arriving in Hanoi he saw blood and bodies on the streets from road accidents. Whilst this might have desensitised him slightly, (although it probably just shocked him) he had every right to feel afraid, later on in his voyage, when the bus he was on was overtaking cars on the wrong side of the road, forcing the oncoming traffic off it. As an atheist I believe death is the ultimate fear, just as Muse says. It is an infinite abyss of nothing. All of your experiences, past, present and future, cease.

And this extreme ailment can come at any time. As Rimmer said in the Red Dwarf episode, The Last Day, the most warning most of us get about death is “Mind that bus! What bus? Splat.” With this in mind, I’m going to state the obvious that we should all make the most of our time as living terrestrial beings no matter what faith you are and no matter what views about death you have.

And thus, I’ve decided to travel to Malaysia to spend five of my valuable months. I am obviously hoping to have a great time but I think whatever happens, these months won’t exactly be going down the gurgler. Experiences and knowledge will be gained. My esteemed Yr. 12 maths teacher, Mr. Frost, once told me that knowledge never made anyone happy. This seems to be true but at the same time it does add interest to your life, a bit of colour. So that concludes the story of why I chose to go on exchange.

Oh, the other reason is that Monash gave us some money to do it.

Skip to the end: Life's short, make the most of it - travel.