This year was the first year I voted. I’m 18. I voted at Manly. It was Manly public school, the primary school. I went by myself. I bought a book so I could read it in line.

Manly is sort of split. We have Tony Abbott’s conservative base but that’s mixed with hippy eco businesses and surf culture and nice little cafes. But then that’s mixed with a KFC on the corner and that’s weird.

I felt lucky to be able to vote. I know there are places where I can’t or where people don’t take the opportunity. So I suppose I feel partly hopefully when I think about democracy but then considering the last election felt instantly disenfranchised. So I feel mixed and at the moment it feels like a balanced between crushed and resisting.

SCENT

sausage sizzle, primary school, the smell of hope (sea breeze or a fresh spring smell) balanced with halitosis or stale air like a dryer that’s been left on too long.

By

isobel milne