Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer
My Life is Disastrous.
I’m 31 and I live at home.
In a granny flat.
On the wrong side of town.
I’m a single gay man and I’m horny all the time.
Canberra is my home and there is no one to fuck in this town.
I am a teacher too. I work in a high school and mostly my students are little toe rags who have no passion, talent or ambition. Respect, empathy and concern have bypassed these kids. In fact, I think these traits may have got lost on their way to this satellite suburban nightmare. My boss is a prick. The kind of person you wouldn’t piss on if they were engulfed in flames.
When I’m not shackled to the teenage asylum I make pictures and I write stories. My artwork doesn’t sell and I’m not yet published. My mum likes my writing though, and so does my grandma. They both encourage me to keep going. And I do. My mum also likes watching Sam and Kochie on Sunrise. Her taste is sometimes questionable.
My dad and step mum stopped talking to me shortly after I turned 30. They had a fight with my big sister and accused me of taking sides. I have become collateral damage in this war. I recently found out that they moved out of the family home. I don’t know their new address. I don’t know where they live anymore. My brothers are in their late teens and early 20’s and I don’t see or hear from them anymore either. I’ve been cut out of the family unit.
4 weeks ago my little sister on my mums side was in a car accident. Some fuck-face on the Hume highway swiped the car she was travelling in as she returned from a weekend away in Sydney. She spent 2 nights in hospital with 3 of her friends who were also injured. Sadly one of the girls died at the scene of the accident. Laura is now in therapy. She’s working hard to deal with the haunting of this deeply traumatic experience. As a result of the tough time she’s experiencing her relationship with her boyfriend is showing signs of stress and fracture. She’s spending a lot more time back in the family home again. In the weeks following the accident the story featured on the news and it made the front page of the Canberra Times. I’m still hopeful that i’ll soon be published too.