Moving to the outback gave me courage to do things never dreamed of

My first meeting with Alice Springs/Mparntwe was through a school-assigned novel in 8th grade, in Peshawar, Pakistan. It was Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice, about an English woman's survival of Japanese prisoner camps in World War II and her journey to the Australian outback.

The story made a deep impression on my adolescent mind, and I vowed to go to Alice Springs someday.

Unsurprisingly, I forgot all about my glamorous outback plans and instead went to Canada to pursue higher education.

After 15 years of snowy winters, corporate jobs, and a marriage that came to its inevitable end (not surprising when you elope at 23), I hauled myself across the world to start fresh in Australia.

I had visited Australia before and fallen in love with its sheer beauty and coffee.

I landed in Melbour