So in 2009, I might have made one of the weirdest decisions I'd ever made. My mother decided to move from Caroline Springs to some motel in a country town called Kaniva. I think from memory it is the last Victorian town before you hit the South Australian border, heading towards Adelaide. And I could've either moved in with my dad or stayed with my mother. I chose the latter. It's not something I regret or anything, I quite enjoyed the twelve months I spent there, but something I'd have to say is that the people who I became friends with, I haven't seen them since I moved back to Melbourne with my dad about twelve months later.

I moved to Kaniva in Februrary 2009, into a motel. By that, I mean my mother purchased the motel, I wasn't living in a motel room, there was a seperate living facility. It was so weird when we first moved in. She had bought it off some old guy and the houses had that old home smell. There was so much dust and spiderwebs in just about every corner. I spent so much time cleaning the house from top to bottom when we moved in. It was about three full days of cleaning. I'm talking 9-to-5 here. And then unpacking all of our stuff took a few days more. Once I brought all of my stuff in, I settled in to my own bedroom and started setting up things like my bed, my clothes and my TV.

So there I was, a couple of days before I was about to start school (2 weeks after the school year actually started), in my room with my Playstation 2 set up. I can't remember what I was playing, it might have been GT4, but it's not important. I started school with these new guys who had pretty much done nothing I'd done in the city. I didn't feel like an outsider, but I felt like a nobody. Confusing, maybe, but hopefully you know what I'm trying to say. It was a little different, the way I had to talk to them.

At my old school back in Melbourne, I could just go up to my friends and ask them "Hey, what games are you looking forward to?" Now, there were only maybe half a dozen people into games. Although, to be fair, there were only about 100 kids in the school, and in the whole town there were less than 1000 people. I often thought to myself that there were more students at my old school than there were people in this entire town. Good group of kids, though. I haven't spoken to too many since I left there, and I haven't met anyone from there in person. If the town wasn't so small, I'd be able to go without bumping into her there, but I wouldn't want that.

But anyway, these kids were more outdoorsy than people like me. I hated that. Most people I knew seemed to live on a farm or something, and I'd often hear people talking about things like how their crops are going or whatever. If there's one thing I hate doing, it's gardening. And sometimes you'd have to go out with your classmates to the school's little farm and water the plants or feed the pigs. You'd want to wear these overalls to keep your uniform from getting dirty. It was awful. It was a new experience for me. I didn't hate doing it, but there was mud and dirt all over me. That's why I hated it. I don't like the feeling of being dirty.

Being at such a small school, everyone practically knew everybody. At most schools I've been to, you pretty much only talked to people around your year level, or thereabouts. Picture a Year 7 hanging out with a Year 12. It just doesn't work. There's nothing really wrong with it, but at first glance it seems worlds apart. Like, I don't even know anyone who was in Year 11 or 12 when I was in Year 7. But at this new school, everyone talked to everybody. I was in Year 9 at the time, and my two closest friends were in Year 8 and Year 11. No one said anything. I even saw most of the Year 7's and Year 8's hanging out with the older kids.

Another thing, for the first time, I actually genuinely enjoyed my Sport class. I had this teacher who was interested in getting us to play more unique sports. I was tired of playing soccer and basketball in my sports classes. Heck, anything was better than those two. Particularly basketball. I've always hated that sport. I don't get the rules at all. But for the first time, I played squash, I played lawn bowls, I played lacrosse, I did archery (playing archery doesn't sound right), heck, even handball. I played croquet once again (but for the first time in school). I pretty much monstered through croquet at first until others started to pick it up. We did play basketball more often than I'd have liked, though.

Nothing was better than when I was talking to my mate Damon about games. There were some kids who played them, but he seemed to be the only one who loved them about as much as I did. I spent most of my time with him in the library, playing Mario Kart DS together (or some other multiplayer game, but mainly that). But I didn't do much gaming at home. I was never home on weekends. My mother didn't like me being in my room playing games all day, so I'd have to go out. But I'm in the middle of nowhere. So I'd go to Ballarat every weekend or two just to find something to do. I might as well have gone to Melbourne, but it was easier getting back from Ballarat, so I could spend more time there.

I talked to my dad in the summer of 2010 and I decided to move in with him just before the school year started. I moved in with my dad in Craigieburn, back home. There, I met some of my best friends. I didn't even finish school there, but it's the only school I went to which I still regularly talk to people from. However, I didn't do all that much gaming in 2009, so this isn't a huge gaming episode this time around, guys. Not even a picture. I might add one later if I can find something of relevance. A pretty sub par episode, I know, but tomorrow's will be so much better.

Do you guys prefer playing single player or multiplayer? Let me know in the comments section below.

Contents:
Part 01 | Part 02 | Part 03 | Part 04 | Part 05 | Part 06 | Part 07 | Part 08 
Part 09 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15