My dad always said to me that “you learn outside the classroom”. The classroom to him (after Primary School), was a way to create robots for the degree factories. There was no learning happening there, just do as your told type of obedience.

“You would have to write an essay on a topic that’s been picked for you, a summary on a book that’s been picked for you and a book which you also had to read. You are taught a history that some faceless person decided you needed to know.” That’s what my Dad said.

“Where are the life skills about taxes, the share market and the property market?” my Dad would say. “And teachers are meant to plant the seed for expanding your mind. Not enclosing it.”

As my dad put it, he had to learn/figure out what to do. And when it came to money it was an expensive mistake, because he was financially illiterate. There was no one around to teach him or show him. Only people to get rich from selling debt.

And he would tell me, how many people learned to change a tyre for the first time was when they got a flat?

Its all trial and error.

Like when you pick up that hammer and chisel and decide to do some chiselling. When you start doing this, you realise that you are pretty crap at it, because you end up missing the chisel and hitting your hand with the hammer. It hurts like a MF, but you learn from it and suddenly, you are an expert at using a chisel with a hammer.

And the best form of learning is music. You know instantly if you are doing the right thing or not, by the sounds. If you hit a bum note, the feedback is instant, telling you, “hey, hang on for a second there, you hit a F# instead of an F”.

By learning it opens the doors to forming an identity.

Heavy Metal and Hard Rock music opened up my eyes to a lot of things and the songs opened up doors for my learning. The imagery of the album covers and the lyrics of bands, it more or less set the tone for the kind of movies I would also gravitate to.

And the community I grew up in, also assisted in my identity. Creating a metal and rock lifestyle. And then we grew up and got out of the town and now that community is so fragmented.

But it’s still a community.