Growing up in a Japanese family, hugs were never part of my upbringing. Even now, I don’t often hug someone. For me, It’s not an automatic expression of affection. I’ve always found it interesting, growing up as Australian as the next bloke but missing this particular social norm. It’s amazing how much our upbringing affects our lives, whether we realise it or not.
These days, I’ll still tend to avoid hugs but I’m no longer awkward in a ‘hug situation’. I was looking though some of my photographs from back in 2006 and found a copy of this drawing that my friend Merryn drew.
4 years ago, I didn’t deal with hugs well at all!
