Module 2: FRIENDS

(Page 17) Resource sheet 2

FACING THE TRUTH

Australia

As a teenager I liked to spend my time in the school library with half a dozen others, while all the 'real men' were out playing football or cricket. At my school, anyone who preferred books to sports copped a lot of flak. After a couple of years of this I decided I needed a new image.

The first step was leaving that school. The second was putting on a tough biker look. I bought a black T-shirt and Levi jeans, grew long hair and made up a new past, which included various wild, totally untrue adventures.

A few years later many of my fantasies had been realised. I'd gone from the biker image to student radical, to drug-dealer, to alternative life-style commune dweller, but without finding any lasting satisfaction. Each new scene I got into seemed to be equally a sham. I felt as
though I was a sham - underneath the mask of coolness, a lonely sham. So I began a new search - for truth.

In facing truth, I had to look at the lies in old relationships. Talking honestly with my parents was the beginning of a new understanding and friendship. Returning stolen property and acknowledging crimes broke through the hatred I had felt towards society. With this honesty came a new freedom and a vision of society built upon honesty and care, rather than ambition and fear.