AustLit

''Seize the day' really fucked me up as a rule of thumb, growing up. My parents were strict when I was a teenager and whenever I was let out of the house for anything social, I would seize 'life' in a panic, not sure when my next chance would be. Carpe party, carpe sex, carpe Sambuca. As a fifteen-year-old I was having too much sex that felt like pain or like nothing; I was crying behind sheds at twenty-firsts and passing out under tables. When I had to stay home, which was often, FOMO made me feel physically sick. I felt like life was always happening without me.' (Publication abstract)