What influences you? What influences what you do, what you wear, what you eat, how you behave, why you cheer, cheer the red and the white?
I remember in a very Sinead O’Connor moment, I shaved my head.
In Year 10, I got my formal dress made so I looked like Brenda from Beverley Hills 90210.
And then there was my hockey stick; I just had to have the same stick that Hockeyroo Katie Starr played with. It was a must, a want and a need all rolled into one very fine piece of wood.
Brett fell in love with Aussie Rules because he was around footy rooms and watching his dad play from a very young age. He barracked for the Sydney Swans as a kid because his dad played for the Burrumbuttock Swans. He wore Adidas Romes (white runners with three blue stripes) because his mates did and he wanted to have ‘quick-hands’ on the football field just like Greg Williams so he worked on it every day (and it continues to be a high priority for Brett and a major part of his job).
For me, influences were the scariest part of Indhi starting big school. Starting school is probably one of the biggest changes we experience in life and I didn’t know how I felt about strangers having such an impact on my baby boy. As he grows and learns, so do Brett and I, and whether these new influences are good, bad, ugly, beautiful, soul-lifting or heartbreaking, Brett and I will be there.
Eight days down and close to 13 years of compulsory schooling and countless influential, defining moments left for Indhi! How exciting.
And for the record I have actually been organised for every one of those eight mornings… Hooray! I have even surprised myself. But as I learnt with the first day of school… enough about me.
Hayley Kirk
Also-known-as-The-Other-Half
Hayley and Indhi
