YA REEVES

It’s a Tuesday in April when I meet Ya at Sydney’s Circular Quay. She’s dressed as described in her message: cream work shorts, grey/brown striped shirt, a green messenger bag slung over one shoulder. “Looks like I’m from the country!” is the final detail in her text, and she does, in all those subtle ways. She strides rather than walks. There’s a broad generosity in how she smiles and laughs. She exudes friendliness, capability and action.

Her four days in Sydney are crammed: She’s renewed her passport at the German consulate; gone on long coastal runs with mates; and had a job interview with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). After our interview, she’s meeting with her publisher, Ultimo Press, to pitch her second novel.

The next nine days won’t ease off, either. Tomorrow, she’ll fly to Hobart for another AAD interview (this one a two-day interview for a Field Training Officer position), then a flight/train/drive combo will get her home to Mt Beauty via Melbourne and Albury. A quick jaunt to Ballarat to lecture at Federation University on Monday follows, before driving to Mansfield for a regular few days of outdoor education work at Geelong Grammar School’s Timbertop campus, and then returning home on Friday night.

It’s a hectic fortnight, giving an excellent overview of the disparate but related components of Ya’s life: friends and connections, teaching, adventures in nature, writing. It’s also a period with a lot riding on it. Ya says: “I might be rejected by every single thing that I do this week … maybe Ultimo doesn’t want the book, maybe I don’t get into Antarctica. But that’s OK, because the other things are just as good.”

ADVENTURE, CURIOSITY,