Читать книгу 5 Seconds of Summer: Hey, Let’s Make a Band!: The Official 5SOS Book - Литагент HarperCollins USD, Ю. Д. Земенков, Koostaja: Ajakiri New Scientist - Страница 18

One of the things I can tell you about growing up in Australia was that I never stayed in one place for too long. My dad left when I was two, and me and Mum moved around a bit, from home to home – sometimes we even lived in caravan parks. At times I had to meet new friends and get used to new homes, which was pretty tough.

Most of the time, we were in a place called Windsor, which was about an hour and a half out of Sydney. When I started at primary school, I was a good kid, but I used to get into trouble with the teachers loads because I was very loud. Every report card said the same thing: ‘Ashton gets distracted a lot. He should concentrate more.’ I guess I just wanted to be funny and I loved being the centre of attention.

Luckily I was pretty smart, otherwise I would have been in some serious trouble with Mum. She was kinda strict when it came to schoolwork and if I played up, or didn’t do well in classes, she wouldn’t stand for it. She could be pretty frightening sometimes, but I knew she was only doing it because she loved me and wanted what’s best for me.

Living with her was great, though; she encouraged me to do so many things away from school – stuff she thought would improve me as a person. I played football, which I loved, and I did acting classes. The one thing I was really good at was swimming, but it was hard work. As I got older and the training became more serious I used to swim seven days a week. I’d finish school in the afternoon and then walk to training. I’d come home really tired and then I’d have to get up early the next day to go swimming again. It was intense. Now the smell of chlorine makes me sick.

I tried to be good at everything I did when I was in primary school – that was my attitude. It’s the same now: whenever I go out and play a show with the band, I want to raise the bar, I want everyone to come away thinking, That’s a great band, or, That dude’s a great drummer. Back then, I wanted to be the best at all the classes. Except for Maths – I was absolutely awful when it came to numbers – English was pretty cool because I enjoyed writing stories. Later, when I went to high school, I loved Science. I thought it was fun because I could blow things up, cut cows’ eyeballs open and do other weird stuff.

At times it was hard for me and Mum because we were on our own. We didn’t have a lot of money and we’d struggle to eat from week to week at times. But that became a normal thing to me. I’d go to a friend’s house and they’d say, ‘What do you want for dinner?’ I’d tell them, ‘Oh I’m fine, I don’t want to intrude.’ I was used to living on a budget but that was my whole childhood. We did what we could to get by.