Loveridge

Tyler Loveridge

Emily Litle

ENG 121001

12th February 2023

Scott’s Head

Perched up high in a tree, I look down at my pursuers, their obliviousness amusing.

As they get further away from me, I take a sigh of relief, the thrill of evasion filling me with

adrenaline. This is one of my earliest memories as a child, something I can still remember

vividly to this day. I was three years old, and along with roughly twenty other children, I was

playing the classic hide-and-seek game of Spotlight. As the years went on, this became

somewhat of a ritual whenever we would visit Scott’s Head, which is a coastal town in the

Australian state of New South Wales. Since around the 1970s, everyone on my dad’s side

has been going once a year and camping in the caravan park right next to the beach.

Typically, this looks like 50-plus family members and family friends spending a week

catching up over board-games, drinks, and lazy days at the beach. Since I didn’t live in the

same state as my dad’s side of the family, this one week in a small town was usually the

only time I was able to see them all year. Not only is the location significant because of its

natural beauty, but it was also the place where I would make memories with family

members as well as see some for the last time. Scott’s Head helped me understand the

importance of having a connection with family, and how it is the most precious thing

humans can experience. Some people in this world have no family at all, and my

experiences at Scotts Head have made me appreciate this.

In this modern world, we often get too caught up in the stress and issues of

everyday life, causing us to lose focus on what is important and what is not. One of the
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best ways we can re-ground ourselves is to be immersed in nature. Depending on where

people grew up, this might include mountains, forests, or even certain weather conditions

such as snow. For me, it’s the beach. The Scott’s Head caravan park is situated right next

to a peninsula, meaning there were two separate beaches on either side of the caravan park.

One was a long stretch of open beach, which is typically the one people would spend the

most time at. The other beach was a small bay; however, the waves would get much larger

there so it was usually only occupied by a few surfers. Being this close to the water meant

there was never a day when we wouldn’t go swimming. A typical day would consist of

waking up and going to the beach, coming back to the campsite to eat, and then repeating

– from dawn to dusk. Having lived in coastal towns basically my whole life, the beach was

a massive part of my life growing up. It was a place I was able to go to relax, catch up

with friends or spend the day with my family. The fact that Scotts Head was able to

combine my love of the beach with my connection to family is what makes it so

significant.

We all have family members whom we wish we could see more often, however, due

to certain logistics it just isn’t possible. Back home, I lived in the state of Queensland,

while all the family on my dad’s side lived in the state of New South Wales. To put that

distance into perspective, it would be like studying at Otero and having your family live in

Las Vegas – it’s not an everyday type of trip. Since they all lived far away, Scott’s Head

would act as a meeting place for everyone, as it was somewhat in the middle. As such, it

helped me to re-establish connections with family members whom I had not seen since the

previous year. Everyone knows the feeling of not seeing someone we know for a lengthy

period of time, and the first interaction is always a bit awkward. For me, this was usually

the case with my cousins. Currently, I have around 9 cousins and step-cousins, with their

ages varying from fifteen to their thirties. The lengthy periods we went without seeing
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each other meant that although I knew the person well, often their whole life had changed

in the year I had gone without seeing them. Sometimes they initially felt like a different

person. However, this feeling was always fleeting, as one hour into the first night, it felt

like we were all caught up again. This taught me the significance of maintaining a

relationship with your family.

Although Scott’s Head harbors a lot of good memories for me, at the same time it

holds sad ones. Aunt Tric was what you would call an icon – she was among the original

family members to start the Scotts Head tradition in the 80s. Sadly, in 2021 she suffered a

stroke and passed away. Although I was young for the majority of the time I spent with her

(so my memories are few and far between), I still remember watching her play cards every

year at Scott’s Head. She was an avid cheater and would always let out a hysterical laugh

whenever someone sent accusations her way. 2022 was the first year she wasn’t there, and

although she was only one of many, her absence was indescribable. One of the nights we

all sat around in a circle and talked about her – stories that would make you laugh, and

some stories that would make you cry. Although I have had multiple deaths in my family, a

lot of it was when I was very young, and so I was incapable of comprehending it properly.

Being seventeen at the time when she died, I had a level of emotional maturity that meant I

could comprehend it fully, and it definitely instilled in me the fragility of life. Her death

reinstated in my mind that nothing lasts forever. Life is precious and you never know when

a goodbye will be the last.

A connection to family, such as the one that I have established through my experiences at

Scott’s Head, is something that I have over time learned to appreciate immensely. Places such

as this one are often thought to be memorable because of their pure beauty. Although this is
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certainly a contributing factor, it is more the memories made with new and old family

members, some that are still with us and some that aren’t, that create true meaning. Memories

made with family, such as mine of playing spotlight, are things that I will take with me to the

grave. There are many things in this world worth living for, and family is one of them.