I am an 18 year old girl from Australia.

My upbringing was super standard. Suburban town, average sized school, cool parents who made less than average income (on and off welfare since forever), but always provided for me.

I think I've been pretty sheltered. I've coasted through life for the most part. The worst thing that happened was my aunt (dad's twin sister) died in a car crash when she was 37. I was only 7 when it happened but I still think about it now. She was an exceptionally wonderful person and I think everyone who ever met her would agree that she made their lives richer.

Not long, after we adopted a kitty (you know how sometimes, a cat just shows up at your house and decides it's living there? that happened) and she was a lovely cat. Sometimes we wonder if she was sent to us by our aunt.

My brother and mother fought a lot, my brother had a lot of issues with aggression, but since he moved out we're all getting along now. It definitely made my childhood a bit tumultuous and stressful, and I'm glad that no longer something I have to deal with.

I was always naturally good in school, I got pretty high marks all through primary and most of high school without having to study much. I put effort into all my assignments and exams but not much outside effort. However, I got really bored with people praising me for how smart I was all the time. I kind of really didn't care about that. I wanted to be praised for being creative. However, my primary school never encouraged creativity much at all, and being lower-middle class my parents didn't have any money to send me to any dance, music, or art lessons.

So at age 12 (thanks to excessive browsing of deviantart) I decided, man, art is so cool. I'm going to be good at drawing! Since then, there's a lot of patches where I stopped and got lost along the way, and a lot of times where I was drawing but not learning or improving, and a lot of times where I just got lazy (laziness is, without a doubt, my worst trait.)

My first cat died in my second last year of high school. She was suffering from severe kidney problems and in a lot of pain. I'll never forget how much I loved her.

I got a second cat the next year, my last year. We adopted him from the shelter at about 6 months old - he was $20 even after being vaccinated and having all his shots! A for-sale kitty. His name's Talon, he's a mixed breed tuxedo and a total troublemaker. He's got a killer hunting instinct but usually he's just a big baby. I adore him.

But I was always reminded of the passion I have for the arts. After finishing high school, I applied for a course in Creative Industries (you do some core units about making connections in the industry and setting out a career path, then you choose two majors, or a major and two minors out of creative disciplines) in a capital city about a seven hour drive from my hometown. I got accepted, but decided to defer the offer for a year so I could work, save up money and support myself living down there.

That year - last year- was boring. Working in a newsagency, waking up stupidly early on a Sunday to move giant stacks of newspapers; ugh. But not at all a bad job for a basic retail job. My bosses and coworkers were all nice people and I was working about thirty hours a week. What I regret was not dedicating nearly any of that time to creative stuff. I cried art block and then wasted all my time off on the internet.

Now, I'm in my first week of university, living in a little apartment student house type deal. I'm studying Interactive and Visual Design as my major, and Animation and Music and Sound Production as my minors. I'm really going to make good study habits and throw all of my heart and soul into transforming my work from something decent into something amazing and marketable. I'm probably going to have to get a part time job eventually but I want to get into the swing of this first.

I miss my family, and most of all my cat, but I'll be going back and visiting them every holidays. I really believe I made the right choice by pursuing the degree I wanted, instead of doing something a lot more vague and more of a catch-all multimedia degree at a less-good university back home.

There's a ton more I could add in there, especially about my friends and other relationships, but I'm sick of rambling about myself. This is the basic story of me - so far!