ROT//FLOURISH

The gravity of pressures and anxieties of that come with every stage of life, awkwardness of adolescent, uncertainty of 20s, leaving you feeling like you have only two options, to rot or to flourish. As we age and grow, cycles of rotting and flourishing are constantly occurring.

14

'The scariest thing is people telling you it's going to be scary, it's really annoying."

"Everyone always makes you do things, at home, at school."

"When I’m 18 I want to live out of home, I think Chloe (his sister) will probably live at home forever."

18

"I thought you’d get to an age where boys are not creepy and gross, but they are still creepy and gross after high school."

"Theres like an unspoken competition from the people around you, well like I’ve already gotten into this course or this job. It’s not even that you care that much about what other people are doing but it’s the constant comparisons."

"When I am 25 I think I will look back at this age and think, why didn’t you do more? Why didn’t you put yourself out there? Everything would just be funny by then."

24

"It feels like being a bit lost, its a double edged sword, I don’t have it all figured out so I can dabble in everything, but then also I don’t have it all figured out, so the existential crisis creeps in."

"Everyone asks ‘what next now you’re finished uni?’ well I don’t know, I'm more interested in who I'm going to be."

Insta: @mik.gra__

Website : Mikaela Foster

Thank you to Chloe Foster, Jack Foster, Jack Louis Pardy, Maeve Daly, Charlotte Vaadzs and Morganna Magee

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Bunurong people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which this work was created , and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this book.
I also acknowledge the long history of artists and storytellers that were here long before us and will continue long after. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.