Humans of UniSA: Zoe Vaughan

Interview and feature image by Nina Phillips 

When you’re from the country, you either leave the place or you don’t leave the place. There’s no in-between. Funny that. Look, Loxton is fine. It’s a good little town, but for what I wanted to do, and what my personal goals are, it didn’t really align. That’s probably the nicest way to say it. Obviously, I love all the friends I made there and all the people I met and my family and everything, but for what I wanted to do I just… it wasn’t, like, the place to be. Unless some miraculous thing happened, and Loxton urbanised and became some metropolis.

Ever since I was quite young, I wanted to be a journalist. Don’t ask me why, it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. Maybe blame it on Tintin? I don’t know. I was a little obsessed. He was like this cool journalist who wrote articles, but also solved crimes. It was either going to go one of two ways: become a detective or become a journalist. And I was like, ‘I don’t want to get shot at.’ But I mean, if I become what I want to become I might get shot at anyway. Wahoo. I’m kidding, I’m kidding, I’m kidding.

It’s just always been there. I’ve always been like, ‘I’m going to become a journalist.’ For as long as I can remember… I never went through a teacher phase or wanted to be an astronaut or anything. Which is weird for an eight-year-old to be like, ‘I’m going to become a frontline war journalist.’ Ask my parents.

Nowadays, I just want to see where it takes me. Hopefully, somewhere cool… Yeah, not Buzzfeed. Wait, don’t say that though! Just in case just they give me a job opportunity or something!

The more I’ve gotten into my degree the more I’ve gotten into film, which I’m taking as my sub-major. It’s an aspect of my degree I didn’t expect to enjoy so much. I decided to study film because, you know, I like watching movies and learning about how they’re made. But the more I’ve gotten into film, the more I’m seriously considering it as something that’s more than just a hobby or an interest. I guess a way to combine what I’ve always wanted to do with what I’m starting to get into with film would be through documentary making. That would be really cool.

Ah, my exchange. I had a “great” exchange experience. I was going to be studying at Cardiff university, which I still am just at home, online. Then COVID-19 happened. Just my luck really… 

I had two months in Cardiff. I had literally just made two months before I left. It was quite surreal. You go from going to Birmingham or Nottingham or Manchester on the weekend to just sitting in an empty flat by yourself… It happened so quickly. In two weeks, the majority of the university population had left, and it was eerie walking around a country that has millions and millions of people and not seeing anybody around. I almost got stuck there too… My flight got cancelled and the borders were closing very quickly. But I’d made lots of friends during that time, so I did have places to stay if I needed. I could imagine it being quite daunting for people who were there and didn’t have anywhere to go.

It’s sort of annoying to come home and be told you’re not allowed to go home. But at the same time, you have to do it. And quarantine wasn’t that tough really… Out of all the hotels in Adelaide, I had a pretty nice one… Two weeks of sitting around and catching up on tv shows and movies and being like, “I should probably do assignments,” and then just not doing them… Now I’m at home doing pretty much the same thing.

Isolation? It’s a lot of time to think about things, which is good and also bad… Life. What does it mean? What are we doing here? All that sort of stuff… When it gets really late, I’m like, ‘Ah well, time doesn’t really exist in isolation, who cares anyway.’ It’s like I’m in an airport. Time doesn’t really exist in airports; everyone’s on their own schedule.

I’ve been trying to do some, ugh this is so lame, I’ve been trying to do some creative stuff.

Writing, mostly. It’s weird. I don’t really consider myself a creative person. Even though, I mean, I’m doing a double degree with English Lit. To me, there’s a difference between a person who is creative and a person who does creative things… And it’s never going to go away. Probably. Unless something happens and I hit my head too hard and I wake up and I think I’m like Picasso or something.

It’s silly. People are like, “just use the c-word,” and I’m like, “I don’t want to use the c-word!” Maybe on my death bed… I just, I don’t think I’m there yet. Still a work in progress… I guess that’s the whole point. I’m never ever going to feel complete. But I hope that one day I reach a point where I’m, maybe not complete, but content with who I’ve become. That’s the dream really.

 

This piece was originally published in Edition 34 of Verse. View it in its original form via ISSUU.

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