I’M TWENTY-TWO. I’m making small talk with a man I’ve just met at a wedding. We go to the same university, which is how we both know the bride, but this is the first time we’ve crossed paths. We exchange pleasantries about our degrees and our jobs. At some point I mention the creative project I’m working on and his eyes bulge.
‘What? You’re making a film? Why aren’t you at writing school or film school?
It’s not the first time I’ve gotten this reaction. I open my mouth to explain, but he doesn’t let me get a word in.
‘Why are you a paralegal? Why aren’t you following your dreams?’
So I laugh politely until he’s done and I can excuse myself from the conversation.
I’M FIFTEEN. I need to find somewhere to do five days of work experience at a job I might want someday. It feels impossible that an adult would let me shadow them. I google companies related to the arts. I cold-email every place that has a publicly available address.
I get one response from a company called Fremantle Media. They offer me two days on the set of Neighbours.
Neighbours! I’ve heard of that. A legitimate TV show!
I’ve got two days covered, so I arrange to do the other three days at a barrister’s office.
Everyone is very confused that I’m doing my five days at two different places but there’s no rule against it. It’s allowed as long as I do twice the paperwork.
I love all five days.
Everyone at Neighbours is nice. The writer’s room have an argument over the pronunciation of pho so I teach them. The editor’s room ask if I’m impressed that Neighbours has a gay couple now and I tell them that Glee has one already. The actors tell me that Neighbours is great at launching careers, have I heard that Margot Robbie is going to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in the new Martin Scorsese movie? Surely not, I think. Not from a TV set in Melbourne.
The barrister’s office is in a beautiful skyscraper in the centre of the Melbourne CBD, one of my favourite places in the world. He finds me trials to observe and cases to read when he’s busy. He sends his secretary to court with me to make sure the content of the criminal trial is age-appropriate. He sends me home at five o’clock on the dot even though he’s still working.
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