LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Kia ora and welcome back to campus!

I hope you all managed to cut loose a bit over the break. If you’re anything like me, you would have left all your assignments to the last minute. But pressure makes diamonds, right? I wish I could say I learnt my lesson. But here I am writing this editorial after being out on a Friday night. You can’t choose when inspiration strikes. We chose ‘Sequels’ as the theme for this issue to commemorate the return of semester 2. Now, it’s up to you to decide whether that means it’s time for some new beginnings, or will old habits die hard? Since you last heard from me, I’ve learnt that some cats can spoon you and that some go bald. Which makes me think they may have some compassion after all. Maybe I can finally move on from when the neighbour’s cat snuck into my flat and pissed on my rug. There was also a snow dump – which if you were lucky enough to be in the South Island for, I’m a bit jealous. But hey, Tāmaki Makaurau has been pretty beautiful too. Spring has definitely sprung.

I heard some great advice recently: ‘Wherever you go, you build a community.’ Which is true - whanaungatanga is so important. We all need belonging and connection. This can be applied to moving cities, or even countries. A friend will either already be there, or one will follow suit. This advice can’t have come at a better time, because I’ve been pretty nervous about my two closest friends moving away next year. But I’m learning that change is good. You can’t get too comfortable, because that’s what retirement’s for. And what’s the alternative? Change is also really hard. It definitely feels like a new chapter, as more people start to leave Aotearoa, to go see the world and experience different cultures.

For many, that’s Melbourne, or for the extra-courageous: London. The time is now, the great brain drain. Who will go to East Street when we’re gone? In other news, the Queen is dead and I shall dance an Irish jig. This means our new head of state is a man with sausage fingers. Charlie boy also wants to be a tampon, which was revealed in a terrible display of dirty talk made public by the Mirror. But at the end of the day, The British Royal Family lives a life of immense wealth at the expense of its current and former colonies. They represent so much pain and suffering. How are we going to decolonise when we still worship these old white people on the other side of the world? The tea and scones don’t make it cute. That’s all from me. Please enjoy some amazing writing, art and photography from our wonderful contributors. P.S. you’ve all been enjoying Liam’s writing for a while now, but he is officially the new feature writer for Debate!

Sam x