In 1980, my journey to becoming "Neuage" began at an astrological meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. A group was planning a trip to conferences in New Zealand and Australia, but I lacked the funds. Undeterred, I secured two credit cards to cover a ticket. After a series of adventures, I arrived in Auckland, then Sydney, where I met a woman from Adelaide. Our initial connection was rocky, and we parted ways after three months.
Later, she contacted me while passing through the U.S. for a Transcendental Meditation event in New York City. I offered her a place to stay, and we ended up driving across America together. By Arizona, tensions flared, and I dropped her off at San Francisco’s airport. I headed to Hawaii, hoping to work as an on-radio astrologer, but the gig fell through.
A month later, she called me in Hawaii with surprising news—she was pregnant. She joined me, but her visa expired after three months. To stay in the U.S., we married, as required by Hawaiian authorities. Neither of us wanted to adopt the other’s surname—hers Ukrainian, mine Adsit. A friend jokingly suggested we were "New Age" people and should name ourselves accordingly. We dropped the "w" and became Neuage, a name we both adopted.
When our son Sacha was six months old, we moved to Adelaide, Australia. We later had another child, Leigh. After our divorce, I became a single parent, raising Sacha and Leigh from ages three and six months. The Australian courts granted me custody and joint guardianship with their mother, but I couldn’t return to the U.S. with them, making me feel like a "prisoner of Australia."
Over time, I realized I wasn’t truly "New Age." I haven’t followed astrology in over 20 years. I’ve been happily married to Narda for 25 years—she kept her maiden name, and I kept Neuage. My ex-wife never reverted to her Ukrainian surname. I chronicled this journey in my book, Leaving Australia, available as an eBook, hardcover, and paperback on Amazon.
That’s the story of how I became Neuage. Thanks for reading!
