The summer that changed everything
In this Herald series, we asked prominent artists, comedians, authors and journalists to write about their “summer that changed everything”.
Skateboarding made me realise: I’m a writer – I need my wrists
I wanted to learn something new, something hard, and be gracious at sucking at it. And everyday I got on that skateboard, I fell. I fell several times each hour. I broke my wrist twice.
- by Jessie Tu
Opinion
As I walked down the aisle, what was that sinking feeling?
There was rain on her wedding day but the sun eventually came out for a tiptoe through the beachside park.
- by Jenna Price
Amid bushfire’s smoke, there was kindness everywhere you looked
As the fires raged, we huddled in an evacuation centre with 100 other people: it was Armageddon-like.
- by Samantha Selinger-Morris
Taylor Swift helped me through one of the toughest times of my life
My pregnancy was not an easy one, but there were some days of magic – including three glorious hours singing at the top of my lungs with some of my closest girlfriends (and 96,000 others) to Taylor Swift.
- by Victoria Devine
Shelter from the storm of Africa
At the southern Italian port of Brindisi, I bought a map of Africa and set off on the trip of my life, which felt like a long-running Bob Dylan song.
- by Peter FitzSimons
How my fake ID led to a baptism of warm beer and rock’n’roll
What a week in Sydney that was: I caught the train home feeling like I had been dumped by a big, sweaty, wonderful wave.
- by Callan Boys
I joined the next idiot tourist procession at the hospital
With Eurail passes and no plans, these “serious girls who had studied hard” were ready to cut loose, and Greece was calling.
- by Jacqueline Maley
Apocalyptic skies, a homecoming like no other
Returning to a very different city, I had a new job, an apartment, friends and was free to enjoy life for the first time in a long time: all solidified by an eerie beach experience.
- by Kumi Taguchi
The summer I traded for five weeks with a French family
From blue cheese and frog legs, to learning Latin in French: here’s how I fared being thrown into a French winter with the vocabulary of a two-year-old.
- by Millie Muroi
Discovering that motherhood has a strange way of stretching love
Outside, the city was baking, but my world had just narrowed and widened to just my boy.
- by Kate Halfpenny
The single phone call that changed my world
On one hot summer morning 20 years ago, events on the other side of the planet intruded in the most shocking way.
- by Nick Galvin
From the Rolling Stones to a nosey parker, I eventually found my perfect job
When Niki Savva ended up in the nation’s capital she had the most exciting, dramatic and news-sodden time in her 50 years of political reporting.
- by Niki Savva
When my fiance broke up with me, he said my moods were to blame
Swinging alone in a hammock designed for two at an exotic beach resort I began to feel hopeless. Until I saw him.
- by Kathy Lette
I wasn’t in on the matchmaking plan that worked a treat
The bride wafted by with a sly eye that was not for me but my later bride-to-be.
- by Malcolm Knox
It’s my party and I’ll philosophise if I want to
There was no dancing, so was my 40th birthday party a failure? Or was this a disguised farewell to both the times that had been and the people who had experienced them with me?
- by Sean Kelly
Tight lines between an old man and a young boy
Beach fishing is akin to crossing the desert in search of an oasis. For one week in 1986, my grandfather and I took that trip together on the NSW South Coast.
- by Shane Wright
Grand discovery after dazzling days and carefree nights
It was a summer of wild adventure through Europe: dancing on rooftops, swimming in fountains and sneaking into Roman ruins at midnight.
- by Jordan Baker
New fatherhood, collective grief and an endless summer on the road
The fatal felling of Phillip Hughes reinforced the fragility and preciousness of life for this cricket correspondent and first-time parent.
- by Chris Barrett
Summertime and emigratin’ ain’t easy
Emigrating is an exhausting summer pastime. To do it once is challenging, twice could be considered madness. No more ping-ponging for us.
- by Tim Barlass
Maggie’s movie star moments on trek through America
Gen Z’s ability to romanticise even the most mundane situation, like an overnight Greyhound bus trip, is a useful skill that served Maggie Zhou well on her West Coast adventure.
- by Maggie Zhou
A road trip, mix tapes, crosswords by torchlight. We were destined to be together
She thought I was annoying; I can be. But our weekend getaways evolved into week-long adventures.
- by David Astle
Get out! And do it before you crash into 40
Robbed twice, bitten by a dog, pushed in front of a train and “hit” by a car: this comedian certainly arrived in London with a bang.
- by Reuben Kaye
When the Kingswood was my king and I felt free
Despite a near-miss, Liz Hayes’ driving ambition won through.
- by Liz Hayes
It was 60 bucks with glassed-in fins and my mum gave me half …
A brutal, salt-ridden learning curve for the young Markus Zusak was well worth it.
- by Markus Zusak
Don’t sneer at fellow Australian holiday bogans lest you become one
I had always been faintly sniffy about bogan Australian tourists in trouble abroad. You’ve seen them on the news, right?
- by Michelle Cazzulino
Teen acne, too tall, too loud: I was that weird kid who wanted to make people laugh
I should have felt like a freak, but I felt like a perfectly acceptable person. Until I didn’t.
- by Michelle Brasier
The summer a shaggy Mr Optimism arrived
Monte, a golden-haired cavoodle, was born in Orange one shimmering, hot January before he headed west – Sydney’s inner west, otherwise known as Cavoodle Country.
- by Michaela Whitbourn
Didge heroes, crocs and adventure in an adopted homeland for ‘concrete Koori’
I was entrusted with carrying a baby on my shoulders across a murky estuary, ensuring we didn’t become lunch for crocodiles.
- by Blak Douglas
Snow bound for icy Moscow winter from Sydney summer heat
Deborah Snow worked as a Moscow correspondent at a time when the Soviet Union had just dissolved, Boris Yelstin was in power and tensions were high. It was also where she met her future husband on an unlikely helicopter day trip.
- by Deborah Snow
‘When the fire came, my neighbours beat it back’
Richard Glover was reading live on ABC Radio the latest fire evacuation orders on January 4, 2020. His property was on the list.
- by Richard Glover
Deafening cacophony when it’s the Big Day Out in your backyard
You know it’s bad when you opt for a Motorhead rock concert to get a bit of shoosh from the summer wildlife.
- by Wendy Harmer
Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-summer-that-changed-everything-20250101-p5l1hc.html