Speaker 1: It's the Flavor podcast network.
Speaker 2: Island Roots or Clan Ways. This one's for the Brown
Speaker 2: brothers and sisters who want to be one with themselves,
Speaker 2: their culture, their identity, their roots.
Speaker 3: This is Island Roots Auckland Ways.
Speaker 1: Oh hi there, welcome back to Island Roots Auckland Ways.
Speaker 2: Hello Alissa, Hello, I'm I was trying to think of
Speaker 2: like a funny like school related thing, like what did
Speaker 2: you do back in school? Like that the teacher would
Speaker 2: get your attention?
Speaker 1: Did you do the the clap? We did the class man,
Speaker 1: I missed the claps?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Star?
Speaker 1: And stop?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I swear you should have been a teacher in a
Speaker 1: different line.
Speaker 2: You know what, I could still be a teacher.
Speaker 1: You could.
Speaker 2: I could? You love the degrees girl, but the person
Speaker 2: who's actually qualified, Yes, Miss Samantha Richards. We're so so
Speaker 2: so blessed to have got a miss angel say on
Speaker 2: our podcast.
Speaker 1: Such a calming energy she brings, and she also brings
Speaker 1: a wealth of knowledge about Arina of Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2: So Sam and I are both crazy Swifties like you
Speaker 2: imagine each other's energy so wild.
Speaker 1: You guys looked so happy having that discussion, And I
Speaker 1: don't want to insurrupt, so then I just cut it the.
Speaker 2: Posts because the conversation was very, very very long about
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift. But shout out to my psalm won Swifty,
Speaker 2: shout out my past bigger Swifties. This episode is for you,
Speaker 2: and even if you're not a Swifty, one hundred percent
Speaker 2: going to be gems of knowledge in this chat that
Speaker 2: you're gonna love, especially about Sam's journey to like really
Speaker 2: understanding who she is as a psalm one. I think
Speaker 2: that Cordy Door is so valid and so important, and
Speaker 2: I think so many of us will get something out
Speaker 2: of it. M M. You can listen to it all
Speaker 2: right now, Welcome back to another episode of Island Roots
Speaker 2: Aukland Ways. We Okay, I have to confess something I'm
Speaker 2: probably interested in. The guest thing we have on today
Speaker 2: is like my guiding light angel, Like we recently connected
Speaker 2: on social media and I'm obsessed with her, but I
Speaker 2: have been watching her like a fucking creep for so long.
Speaker 2: Please welcome TikTok, Teacher, Swiftly, Sensation, the Riches.
Speaker 3: Welcome, so thank you for having me. I'm a massive,
Speaker 3: massive fan of the show. I think you guys are
Speaker 3: absolutely killing it. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Is this the miss Riches like these teachers, it's like
Speaker 1: right now, like during school holidays, holidays.
Speaker 3: School holidays. Yeah, it's crazy that I obviously respond to
Speaker 3: Miss Richards in the classroom it's my name, but now
Speaker 3: in the streets as well, this miss Richards.
Speaker 1: That's a little bit like, wow, it's.
Speaker 2: Really cool, crazy TikTok handle though, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, oh no, I think I changed my TikTok handle
Speaker 3: to cement the Richard. But on Instagram, we're still miss Richard.
Speaker 2: What do you prefer TikTok Instagram?
Speaker 3: I like TikTok. I love Instagram because I love I'm
Speaker 3: such a I'm a Libra and I'm such an I
Speaker 3: like pretty things, and I feel like Instagram is where
Speaker 3: I go for my pretty things. But TikTok is where
Speaker 3: I go to be me. I love that, filtered, unfiltered,
Speaker 3: all the vlogs, all the thoughts. I love that still
Speaker 3: kind of censored though, because I am still a teacher,
Speaker 3: don't I've got I've got my colleagues watching, parents of
Speaker 3: students watching, and I love that. I love that they watch.
Speaker 3: But yeah, oh my god, it's places to be on
Speaker 3: the internet. TikTok.
Speaker 2: I love I love that.
Speaker 1: For those who are listening in right now, Melissa and
Speaker 1: Samantha are we t shirt right now?
Speaker 2: It's like we planted or something perfect.
Speaker 1: But someone so close that.
Speaker 3: Well I saw headed yea, what is that? I need it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Ordered it immediately and then I told her, I said,
Speaker 3: I've ordered this, thank you for being a little influencer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I was like, shall we? Shall we both?
Speaker 2: We?
Speaker 1: They look like good quality.
Speaker 2: Shout out the version for Alex Alex Alex so she
Speaker 2: wanted it, and I was like, you know what my
Speaker 2: love language is gift giving. I want to give you
Speaker 2: the gift of being someone beautiful.
Speaker 1: Well, Sam, you listen to the podcast so you would
Speaker 1: know that every episode we share about what we love
Speaker 1: about home. So wherever you currently live, wherever you were born,
Speaker 1: but you feel most grounded, whatever feels like home, what
Speaker 1: is it and what do you love about it? Alyssa
Speaker 1: will start us off, and what do you love about
Speaker 1: home this week? Girl?
Speaker 2: I feel like, because Sam is here, what I love
Speaker 2: about home this week? My girls, my sisters. I feel
Speaker 2: like recently, especially with the podcast, I have been able
Speaker 2: to just like I was thinking about it, yesterday and
Speaker 2: I was like, I I feel so supported by like
Speaker 2: my big sisters, like my online big sisters, my real
Speaker 2: life big sisters who are like my cousins. I don't
Speaker 2: have any biological big sisters same, so it's just like
Speaker 2: I feel so blessed with all the big sisters that
Speaker 2: I've attracted. Like I don't know, like I'm just I
Speaker 2: feel that like I don't walk through this world alone
Speaker 2: because I grew up pretty much as an only child.
Speaker 2: I do have older brothers, but just the advice, unfiltered,
Speaker 2: unconditional love and support that I feel like I am
Speaker 2: receiving from these like big sisters, it means like so
Speaker 2: much to me. And like even on Saturday, Sam was
Speaker 2: seeing me all these incredibly amazing voice memos before my
Speaker 2: day at work, and it was just like, I'm so
Speaker 2: blessed to have like big sisters who love me this.
Speaker 3: So I love that I take my role of big
Speaker 3: sister really seriously with my biological brother but with anyone
Speaker 3: and everyone that I come across. I'm like, let me
Speaker 3: be your big sister.
Speaker 2: You could be mine.
Speaker 3: I am I get a choice, you.
Speaker 1: Know what they say in ihood like sisterhood Hannies What
Speaker 1: I love about home this week? I love so one
Speaker 1: of my aunties. She is a cleaner at Middlemoor Hospital
Speaker 1: and she lives about two streets away and every morning,
Speaker 1: because she doesn't drive, she walks to work. And she's
Speaker 1: been working there for years, to the point where I'll
Speaker 1: go into Middle More with her and everyone's saying, oh, Mama, mama, mama,
Speaker 1: like dragging her in every witch direction. She holds the
Speaker 1: respect of you know, clinicians, doctors, nurses, And I feel
Speaker 1: grateful that she has loved on in that in that building.
Speaker 1: She's worked there for so many years, and her husband
Speaker 1: passed away a few years ago, so I know that
Speaker 1: being in that space and feeling love means a lot
Speaker 1: to her. And so just shout out to all the
Speaker 1: cleaners out of there, because yeah, mad respect. And I
Speaker 1: think it's just the thing that I was We were
Speaker 1: probably all taught that, you know, you give the same
Speaker 1: respect to the CEO that you woulds are the cleaner.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So shout out to my auntie tie love you, Auntie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mad respect for any hospital workers. My brother spent
Speaker 3: a lot of time in hospital. I learned how to
Speaker 3: read in the hospital. Wow, there a lot as a child.
Speaker 3: So they're incredible, absolutely, and they all work together. They
Speaker 3: need to to run that place. It's so special. Shout
Speaker 3: out to Auntie.
Speaker 1: What do you love about homegrowl Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Okay, So what I love about home is being home.
Speaker 3: I've recently moved back out to Westalkland. Westokland is my horse.
Speaker 2: Side.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize how much West meant to me until
Speaker 3: I was living in New Market for a while. And now,
Speaker 3: like I said, have moved back out West. I'm in
Speaker 3: sort of Glen Eden, Newlyn Holston area. I'm about five
Speaker 3: minutes away from four of my cousins, which I love.
Speaker 3: I'm five minutes away from the road that my parents
Speaker 3: grew up on. They grew up on the same street,
Speaker 3: started dating when they were seventeen, been madly in love
Speaker 3: ever since. I love my parents so much. The houses
Speaker 3: that they grew up in, Their parents stayed in there
Speaker 3: until the day they died, so that that street is
Speaker 3: so important to us. And now I'm a five minute
Speaker 3: drive away from it, and I just I teach out West.
Speaker 3: I grew up out West.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I love I really do. I love that you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think my my hating on West Side era.
Speaker 2: It's done, No, because I now had to.
Speaker 3: You got to stop for my sake.
Speaker 2: Yes, I feel like we need the West experience. We
Speaker 2: need you and Zaria to give it to us. We
Speaker 2: will because so far are we stalkm experience has not
Speaker 2: been that great.
Speaker 3: And you know what that happens. It is West after all.
Speaker 3: But me Andsie will will take you. We'll give you
Speaker 3: the full West experience. It'll be fantastics, our real wisdom.
Speaker 2: Period. Okay, let's get into the TikTok girl. Okay, so
Speaker 2: when did you when and why did you start posting
Speaker 2: your teacher blocks?
Speaker 1: I yeah, does that feel like ages ago?
Speaker 2: Because it was.
Speaker 3: I think my first video went up maybe February or
Speaker 3: March twenty twenty. Wow for the pandemic. Whoa, we're talking
Speaker 3: a while and it was just TikTok was still new.
Speaker 3: A friend of mine in our group chat senter TikTok
Speaker 3: train that teachers were doing, and she said, do this
Speaker 3: with your kids, and so I did it. It was
Speaker 3: just a video where I had the camera facing me.
Speaker 3: You couldn't see the kids, but you could hear I
Speaker 3: was saying a chant. They were saying it back to
Speaker 3: me and it blew up. That was the first video
Speaker 3: you ever posted, and it got I think it got
Speaker 3: like seventy one thousand likes or something.
Speaker 2: I feel like back then it was really not easy
Speaker 2: to blow up, but like, oh no, it was if
Speaker 2: you caught onto a trend early.
Speaker 1: Enough, it was a common occurrence.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2: I feel like now the girls are fighting the viral mob.
Speaker 1: They truly are. So we are pre pandemic twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: And you do that.
Speaker 3: Train, do that train, and then I thought, Okay, that
Speaker 3: was fun. I'm gonna just keep going, and so we did,
Speaker 3: and then we went into lockdown. But I do know
Speaker 3: I've always been filming myself. I'm so vain. Every single
Speaker 3: one of my cousins will tell you that. I just
Speaker 3: love talking to the camera.
Speaker 2: I love learning things.
Speaker 3: I love little video diaries, and it just sort of
Speaker 3: keept going. My biggest video is still, I think to
Speaker 3: this day, was one of me and my brother on Easter.
Speaker 3: I think that year, that twenty twenty, and people just
Speaker 3: love videos with my brother. And he's very sweet. He's
Speaker 3: down syndrome. His name is Nick. He's the light of
Speaker 3: my life. My dad is always kind of saying you
Speaker 3: should like film neck more get more like some views, Dad,
Speaker 3: I mean maybe, no, you know, I just love it.
Speaker 3: And I think teaching is as well. It's such a
Speaker 3: bad I don't know. There's so much negative stuff online
Speaker 3: regarding and a lot of the time when I'm online,
Speaker 3: I see teachers sharing their stories of why they've left
Speaker 3: teaching and stuff like that, and I like being more
Speaker 3: of a positive spin on teaching in that sort of area.
Speaker 3: So it's just fun. It's nice. It's fun.
Speaker 2: I feel like we're going to get into the hard
Speaker 2: hitting stuff now. I remember seeing a while ago, and
Speaker 2: I did comment on this video as well.
Speaker 1: I do remember, I do remember, and that is how
Speaker 1: I started watching the switches.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you were you made this TikTok about wanting
Speaker 2: to embrace your sound warness and like the things that
Speaker 2: you were doing or that you were going to try
Speaker 2: to do to embrace your sald onness, and I remember,
Speaker 2: I think I commented, like you, this is my belief
Speaker 2: is a sad one. There is no criteria to being someone.
Speaker 2: You could be like two percent sound warning and still someone,
Speaker 2: but the real like if there was a crack, the
Speaker 2: criteria would be that you live your life with love, alfa,
Speaker 2: by showing respect, and by tea serving your people. And
Speaker 2: I was like, as long as you got those three things, girl,
Speaker 2: you're fine. What you do you lead with love, you're
Speaker 2: so respectful, and you serve your community on a daily
Speaker 2: basis as a teacher. That's beautiful. But I would love
Speaker 2: to know how is that journey going, What kind of
Speaker 2: things are you doing? What have you found out about
Speaker 2: yourself so far?
Speaker 3: Please tell us all about It has been a journey.
Speaker 3: It's been quite a slow journey. So as I was
Speaker 3: saying to the two of you before we started recording,
Speaker 3: my mum moved here when she was five from Sarmora,
Speaker 3: and her and her siblings were kind of not like
Speaker 3: fully sat down and told no more sarmor in the household.
Speaker 3: But more or less they were told, you know, we're
Speaker 3: Kiwis now. And so from there, before my time, we were
Speaker 3: already starting to drift away from our culture, which is
Speaker 3: so sad. But I don't think that's uncommon, which is
Speaker 3: so sad. But in the last two years, so my
Speaker 3: mom's mom, Nanasami, she's my namesake, beautiful, she is the light. No,
Speaker 3: I can't get emotional She is the light of our
Speaker 3: family's life, especially for me, I think, because you know,
Speaker 3: she is my namesake, and I'm named after both of
Speaker 3: my grandma's spent the fear and her both grandmothers. But
Speaker 3: where my brother was born, so I was five, we're
Speaker 3: five years and five days apart. So I just started
Speaker 3: school and he was super sick. He spent the first
Speaker 3: six months of his life in hospital, and that's the
Speaker 3: first six months of my schooling life. And so Nanasami,
Speaker 3: she sacrificed her time and stayed in hospital with him
Speaker 3: so mom and dad wouldn't have to sacrifice my time
Speaker 3: and they could be there to parent me. And so
Speaker 3: I think when she passed, I felt and all of
Speaker 3: us did that, my mom's siblings, my cousins, we all
Speaker 3: felt like, oh was that our last tie to our culture,
Speaker 3: And we felt a sort of pull to out of
Speaker 3: respect for her, make connections back to the culture. And
Speaker 3: I think, especially me, with that all that she's done
Speaker 3: for me, I wanted to start that journey. And then
Speaker 3: we were all sort of like, where do we start
Speaker 3: because we don't speak the language. My mom came here
Speaker 3: when she was five, didn't go back to some more
Speaker 3: until she was fifty five. That was how long it
Speaker 3: was between leaving home and going back home. I still
Speaker 3: have never been Bizar. I'm going there for my thirtieth birthday.
Speaker 1: So exciting, I think.
Speaker 3: I really I'm ready to have my like oh I'm
Speaker 3: home kind of one.
Speaker 2: But it will also be okay if you don't have
Speaker 2: that moment.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've told myself that as well. Okay, good, we've
Speaker 3: been so to reconnect. I have joined it hasn't started yet,
Speaker 3: but I've joined it someone language class.
Speaker 2: I'm so nervous it in person. Yes, I think that's
Speaker 2: the way to go, because we've tried online, both of us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: separately and together, and it's very hard. In person though,
Speaker 2: holds you accountable different, I.
Speaker 3: Think, so see your mind's in person. I'm so excited
Speaker 3: for that, just as also though we've been reconnecting with
Speaker 3: the wider family, so we do. We used to do
Speaker 3: this when I was a kid, like really young. We
Speaker 3: used to have family Bengo once a month.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Class.
Speaker 3: Yes, such a classic and I loved it as a kid,
Speaker 3: and I really missed it when it stopped. I don't
Speaker 3: even really know why it stopped. To think everyone just
Speaker 3: got busy, but that was my mum's dad's side of
Speaker 3: the family, and we've reconnected with them since Nana's passing,
Speaker 3: and now we do that again and I love it. It's
Speaker 3: so much fun. And then just as well, I think
Speaker 3: the mind shift, the headspace that I have put myself
Speaker 3: in where I have just told myself I am arn't one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like I don't. I don't particularly look it, I don't
Speaker 3: particularly sound it. So funny my so Nana, Nana Sami's
Speaker 3: dad was full Chinese and so his genes with my
Speaker 3: cousins and my generation, it hit. We've got that Asian
Speaker 3: look to us. A lot of people think I'm from
Speaker 3: the Philippines, and I just rock with it. Sometimes I
Speaker 3: can be whatever you want me. Yeah, because I don't
Speaker 3: look at and sound it, I sort of felt like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: I'm not. But then I don't know. Just something is
Speaker 3: shifted where I'm listening to the podcast like this, and
Speaker 3: I'm engaging more on social media with other people on
Speaker 3: similar journeys to me, and I'm thinking I'm someone period
Speaker 3: and it's beautiful and it will be a journey, and
Speaker 3: I'm so happy with how the journey has gone so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't think there will ever be a
Speaker 2: point where the journey INDs no. So true, Like even
Speaker 2: when I received my mum little, which I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is such an important part of our culture. That
Speaker 2: aftermath of that has been really enlightening and like has
Speaker 2: been a journey of its own, Like there is just
Speaker 2: I don't know, there's just something about being sound worn,
Speaker 2: and there's something about culture and how it's away shifting
Speaker 2: and changing, and it shifts and changes and it's meaning
Speaker 2: for us as well. That means like you're never not
Speaker 2: figuring out what being someone means to you. It's literally
Speaker 2: a daily challenge. But I think if you choose to
Speaker 2: show up like just telling yourself I am someone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I choose to like live out the cultural values, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter if you can't speak the language like we Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think as a co court, we really need to
Speaker 2: as a community, we need to find new ways to
Speaker 2: reinvent what it means to be someone. And that's like
Speaker 2: an individual choice. Yeah, so proud of you.
Speaker 3: I'm proud of all of us.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. I love how these conversations are being
Speaker 1: normalized too, so like more people like aren't feeling like
Speaker 1: they're alone in their cultural journey, because I know, like
Speaker 1: even for myself, like I am, like I would say,
Speaker 1: I'm someone presenting. I walk into a room, you know
Speaker 1: that I'm an islander. And the assumption is is that
Speaker 1: you know the language, you know everything, you know how
Speaker 1: to do this, that and the third. But the fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is is that I don't. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I think the fact that we're having this conversation conversation
Speaker 1: and we're all sharing our individual experiences helps us all
Speaker 1: to grow and move together as one. Yes, look at us,
Speaker 1: Oh jeez, I can't wait for you to go to
Speaker 1: some where You're.
Speaker 3: So going to enjoy it, saying my brother's going, mom's going.
Speaker 3: We've told the family they're ready to embrace us, show us,
Speaker 3: show us around, and I kind of did at first.
Speaker 3: I think when I was telling my friends I'm going
Speaker 3: to some more for my birthday, they thought, oh, relaxing holiday, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and I would probably like at least one day. It'll
Speaker 3: be at the end of term as well, I'll be tired,
Speaker 3: so maybe one day relaxing. But I did say them like, no,
Speaker 3: I want to go and see where you know, the
Speaker 3: family land is and I want to see those graves
Speaker 3: in the front yard. Show me, show me the culture.
Speaker 3: I'm ready and ready, and your.
Speaker 1: Family and some more will be so welcoming to you.
Speaker 1: They're going to love that you are going to be there.
Speaker 2: I hope, so so welcoming. You have to do all
Speaker 2: the fit ols girls. That's not going to be relaxing.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You've spoken about your brother, Nick, so tell
Speaker 1: us about your guy's special relationship.
Speaker 3: He's beautiful. So we are five years and five days apart.
Speaker 3: I think it was a really, in hindsight, like perfect
Speaker 3: age gap, because I was just that a little bit
Speaker 3: older that I could always understand what was going on.
Speaker 3: So he has down syndrome as well as he's had
Speaker 3: so many other we call him broken. Oh little Nicky.
Speaker 3: He's so broken from his head to his toes. There's
Speaker 3: something you know. He's had three holes in his heart.
Speaker 3: He was born with his stomach not attached to his intestines,
Speaker 3: and he had a tracheotomy for the first three years
Speaker 3: of his life. Like he's just he's nonverbal. We also
Speaker 3: think he might be autistic as well, just to throw
Speaker 3: that in there. But he's just love, like he is
Speaker 3: love and a human being and I've always known that,
Speaker 3: almost like you know that movie in that book My
Speaker 3: Sister's Keeper. I've always kind of such a sad yea,
Speaker 3: but I have always felt like, oh im my brother's keeper,
Speaker 3: and here's my light. And he's just he's the he's
Speaker 3: so proud of being Simon as well. He knows the
Speaker 3: Simon flag. He's got a thing with flags, and he
Speaker 3: loves waving all blacks flags, warriors flags, Simon flags. So
Speaker 3: he calls it a more. That's his way of saying
Speaker 3: some more.
Speaker 2: He's the beer. He's just the Is this his first international?
Speaker 3: Yes, he's not too keen on going on the plane,
Speaker 3: but we've kind of figured technically he won't know he's
Speaker 3: on the plane because you walk through the tunnel to
Speaker 3: get on the plane. So not I don't can done lying.
Speaker 2: To It's just a whole was yeah, which is just
Speaker 2: kind of about.
Speaker 3: Happens to go in the sky.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, here's a TV, got a I bought
Speaker 1: some stacks.
Speaker 3: That's what we're gonna do. That's gonna be great. And
Speaker 3: then he'll get he'll get there and he'll be like
Speaker 3: beach amazing.
Speaker 1: There was a long time riding.
Speaker 2: It's so funny. We've kind of spoken about this off mic,
Speaker 2: But as a teacher, how important is it to you
Speaker 2: to share like your palone mess or your Pacific mess
Speaker 2: with your students?
Speaker 3: Super important?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think for my first few years of teaching, I
Speaker 3: was just figuring it out. Teaching is a big job.
Speaker 3: You're finding your feet those first few years. But I
Speaker 3: remember the first time I was speaking to she wasn't
Speaker 3: even in my class. It was an older student. I've
Speaker 3: always taught juniors. But when I interact with the older
Speaker 3: students and I say, oh, I'm simone too, and the
Speaker 3: look on her face of like really like she's so excited,
Speaker 3: and I thought, oh, this is important. This matters. I
Speaker 3: need to representation matters. And I love my school. It
Speaker 3: is such an incredible school. I will say that I
Speaker 3: am the only pacifica teacher at our school at least
Speaker 3: like full time in front of the class, and so
Speaker 3: I do think that is really important for me to
Speaker 3: represent But it as hard as I put a lot
Speaker 3: of pressure on myself. I think, should I be leading
Speaker 3: some kind of cultural groups, should I be doing X,
Speaker 3: Y and Z with the students. And I think in
Speaker 3: the last year I've come to terms with actually just
Speaker 3: being proud of being yeah someone and just talking with
Speaker 3: them and you know, during all the all of the
Speaker 3: language weeks, just like putting it in our little daily
Speaker 3: notices for the rest of the school to read like
Speaker 3: it's featured language week, and try and say this as
Speaker 3: like little things like that they love, they love, and
Speaker 3: again because I don't look at when they find out
Speaker 3: they're like.
Speaker 2: I think also with you being on like your own
Speaker 2: cultural journey, it's so much pressure to be like okay,
Speaker 2: and now I have to teach a sev even though
Speaker 2: I probably never know one of my life you know that.
Speaker 3: Was youtubeing the star. I need to get a whole
Speaker 3: bunch of love.
Speaker 2: Of love is to bring it get to the car stress.
Speaker 3: I've really just taken that pressure off myself.
Speaker 1: That's a big mantle to carry. And I don't think
Speaker 1: you should expect yourself to be you know that brown teacher. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's nice. It's good. It's been good so far.
Speaker 1: That's so cool.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're shifting gears now. Okay, Sam and I both
Speaker 2: love a.
Speaker 1: Girls switching gears.
Speaker 2: I want to know all about the single Sam summer.
Speaker 2: So you started a series on your TikTok called Single
Speaker 2: Sam Summer. Some are just gone, someone just gone, and
Speaker 2: as a love a girl, I've struggled. Not okay, I've
Speaker 2: been forever, be single forever, and now I'm really embracing
Speaker 2: this era of dating and it's really hard because my
Speaker 2: heart gets way too invested in an it's too easy.
Speaker 2: So can you tell us about your single Sam Summer?
Speaker 2: But then also can you give us some big sister
Speaker 2: dating advice because I think we both need it.
Speaker 3: Okay, got you, got you, guys, I said to you, guys,
Speaker 3: I got my first boyfriend at twenty five. Like, I
Speaker 3: am such a love girl. I love love. I've been
Speaker 3: surrounded by love. My parents are such a beautiful role
Speaker 3: model of love. What an example, especially like going through
Speaker 3: everything they went through with my brother and just still
Speaker 3: turn up for each other. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I did have in moments. Okay, I made you and
Speaker 3: I have dated lovely boys. Maybe I'm not so lovely,
Speaker 3: but that's okay because it's it's a learning, every learning,
Speaker 3: always learning. But I think I was always okay being alone.
Speaker 3: I was always I was always fine being the single friend.
Speaker 3: But with Single Sam Summer, I came out of not
Speaker 3: an awful breakup, but a breakup that did kind of
Speaker 3: shake me. And I thought, Okay, I don't think it's
Speaker 3: enough to be okay alone anymore. I want to thrive alone.
Speaker 3: And then if anyone else comes into my life, like,
Speaker 3: how lucky for them that they get to be a
Speaker 3: part of my beautiful life. And so I just started
Speaker 3: romanticizing my life. I just took myself on trips. I
Speaker 3: took myself. I sort of pushed myself out of my
Speaker 3: comfort zone. I went to the movies by myself, just
Speaker 3: to see if I could do it. I ate at
Speaker 3: a restaurant by myself. I took a trip in a
Speaker 3: plane to the South Island by myself. I killed it.
Speaker 2: I did so well.
Speaker 3: It was so much fun. And I think what I
Speaker 3: learned about myself was your life is beautiful. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: a boy or a girl or whatever, whoever may come
Speaker 3: into my life is just a bonus. But by myself,
Speaker 3: I'm so fine. I think, as far as advice goes,
Speaker 3: why do you look at me?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: Your friends and family love you, and they're always trying
Speaker 3: to give you like the most lovely encouragement and advice.
Speaker 3: But you don't need to listen to it. You really don't,
Speaker 3: because they will say it will come when you least
Speaker 3: expect it yourself.
Speaker 1: Everyone's every worry, just work, you know what.
Speaker 3: You know to some degree it is. But it is
Speaker 3: okay to sit there and smiling in your heir go.
Speaker 3: You have been married ex number of years. You don't
Speaker 3: know what it's like here in the trenches. And I think,
Speaker 3: just just know that, like you've got so much time,
Speaker 3: You've got so much time, and they're like romantic love. Actually,
Speaker 3: going back, I love this saying. I think I saw
Speaker 3: this on TikTok, but somebody said romantic love, no self
Speaker 3: love is not a substitute for romantic love. And I
Speaker 3: liked just hearing that because I thought, Okay, it's okay
Speaker 3: that I'm still craving romantic love. I think I'm an
Speaker 3: expert at self love right now. And I was sort
Speaker 3: of feeling like, okay, but have done that. I love
Speaker 3: myself so much. I look at all the things I've done,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't even I wasn't trying to tick boxes
Speaker 3: like I genuinely did that because I wanted to thrive,
Speaker 3: and I did, but in the back of my mind,
Speaker 3: I sort of started having this feeling of, so, does
Speaker 3: that mean, like romantic love is coming now that I've
Speaker 3: done that self love, And then I felt guilty, like, no,
Speaker 3: you shouldn't need romantic love because you've got self love,
Speaker 3: and you've got family love, and you've got friendship love.
Speaker 3: I have the best friends in the world, and that
Speaker 3: feeling of like, oh, no, am I a terrible person
Speaker 3: for thinking that this is not enough? But like, no,
Speaker 3: it's it's sometimes it's not enough. Sometimes romantic lover is.
Speaker 3: It's a human need. We need that, ye caveman days,
Speaker 3: someone to watch out for the dinosaurs with us exactly.
Speaker 2: But also like we're people of community, right, we need
Speaker 2: a community, and sometimes a part of community a couple.
Speaker 2: So breckers no, but I totally agree. I think, I no,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you off the mic, okay, But I feel like, also, yeah,
Speaker 2: self love is not a substitute for amantic love. Like
Speaker 2: it's just not the same, and we need to admit that.
Speaker 2: And also I think like sometimes at least at my age,
Speaker 2: who will be like, oh, it's such a bad bitch,
Speaker 2: like don't worry about and it's like, oh, but I'm
Speaker 2: actually not a bad bitch, Like I am a baddie,
Speaker 2: but I am also like deep, like very soft. I
Speaker 2: love love like all of these things. Literally yeah literally,
Speaker 2: So it's kind of also at the same time, like ah,
Speaker 2: like I do kind of crave it.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's so fine, Yeah, so fine, Like two things
Speaker 3: can be true at once. You can have all the
Speaker 3: self love in the world and still crave a little
Speaker 3: bit of romantic love. But you've got time. Don't listen
Speaker 3: to all the aunties and uncles and cousins and friends
Speaker 3: and strangers on the street and strangers on the internet.
Speaker 3: Just wait and love yourself and it will come. Thank you,
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Shut up. I feel like you're always giving. Obviously everyone
Speaker 2: knows if you're listening. Sam gives the best.
Speaker 1: But I have such good advice.
Speaker 3: I just think I don't even know what advice I
Speaker 3: just gave. I just kind of opened my mouth and
Speaker 3: stuff came out.
Speaker 1: You know, Miss Rachel, you're like the someone miss Rachel right.
Speaker 2: Now, but for adults, for adults, what advice Not that
Speaker 2: you would give to us, but you would give to
Speaker 2: your little self.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I love this. I this is kind of
Speaker 3: a therapy thing that I did. But my counselor once
Speaker 3: said to me, like, think of seven year old you,
Speaker 3: think of seventeen year old you, how would you treat them?
Speaker 3: I love thinking back to my little self, and I
Speaker 3: feel really proud to say that, actually, me right now
Speaker 3: is taking really good care of them. I think to
Speaker 3: seventeen year old me, I would say, honey, chill, it's
Speaker 3: you're going to get everything you've ever wanted, but you
Speaker 3: might not get it tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: I think when I was young, I was like, this
Speaker 3: has to happen by this time. I need to be
Speaker 3: married by the time twenty six.
Speaker 1: One hundred, the way we thought we were going to
Speaker 1: be married, like right now?
Speaker 3: Why did we all think that? Why did I Why
Speaker 3: did I think that thirty year olds were like just
Speaker 3: ancient people? No, I still feel like I've only just
Speaker 3: entered my adulthood and I turned thirty and two months time.
Speaker 3: So I think to her, I would say, it's like,
Speaker 3: just enjoy it. It's coming, like, have faith in time.
Speaker 3: Just give it time, give it a minute. To seven
Speaker 3: year old me, I would say, you're the cutest little
Speaker 3: patunity ever. You're such a good big sister. Please stop
Speaker 3: wearing that outfit. I was such an outfit repeater as
Speaker 3: a kid, I just want to pink purple blue everything. No,
Speaker 3: actually you know what she should she should be wearing that.
Speaker 3: But you know, to myself, I think I just have fun,
Speaker 3: give it time. Everything's going to work out, and if
Speaker 3: it doesn't, you're really strong and you're going to get
Speaker 3: through it.
Speaker 2: That part exactly.
Speaker 3: That was good, right, That's good for me, No crumb.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess this takes us into our rapid fire. Now,
Speaker 1: so this is the moment we've been waiting for.
Speaker 2: Its has got Spetify pulled up on this phone. He's
Speaker 2: playing this is Taylor Swift the playlist or the complete
Speaker 2: collection or whatever you're playing mares, and we basically get
Speaker 2: a minute to guess. But I'm no, not a minute's right.
Speaker 2: A second song, but I think you'll surprise yourself.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be fine.
Speaker 2: I don't know why you're freaking out.
Speaker 1: That's onles. I don't know what song.
Speaker 2: So Sam will go first, and then when mass feels
Speaker 2: like time is, you just decide to cut it whenever
Speaker 2: you want and then we're gonna go to me. But
Speaker 2: it's not a competition. We're just kind of flicking on
Speaker 2: everyone about house. Okay, smart I'm.
Speaker 3: Really not competitive, so you went anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm nervous for you, guys. This is like a taste
Speaker 1: little Taylor Swift knowledge.
Speaker 3: Okay, we're going to be fine, right, yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay Samuel first?
Speaker 3: Yes, Oh my gosh, do you know what? Are you
Speaker 3: ready for it?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Are we going? Sam a second song? Now? Okay?
Speaker 3: This Harry Styles needs to make a cover of the
Speaker 3: song that was Style. Yes, and I have been since
Speaker 3: the song came out. I have been dreaming of Harry Styles.
Speaker 2: Have you heard the AI versions? No, I'm gonna see him.
Speaker 2: I think there's a versions.
Speaker 3: I need him to sing it. I need him.
Speaker 1: This is such a good song. It's so good.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 1: I'm gagging right now.
Speaker 3: August maybe, Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten Fergus?
Speaker 3: I think that might be one of my favorite songs.
Speaker 3: Me and my best friend. Also, I have like a
Speaker 3: Bajillian best friends. You guys know I love you all
Speaker 3: Me movies are in alex We meet when we're five.
Speaker 3: We have started this new tradition where we do an
Speaker 3: August Day and on the first weekend of August we
Speaker 3: go to Omaha Beach with her little sausage dog and
Speaker 3: we run along the beach screaming the song. It's is
Speaker 3: that really?
Speaker 1: This is August?
Speaker 2: My kids say after the song earlier, it's such a
Speaker 2: beautiful song. I got the August. So if you haven't
Speaker 2: heard August, you need to go listen to August. I
Speaker 2: got the August experience in July because I'm just such
Speaker 2: an overachiever. Yes, I got the August experience in July.
Speaker 3: To any listeners that don't know what that means, it's
Speaker 3: not exactly a good thing.
Speaker 2: No, it's terrible thing. Actually, but what a sleigh.
Speaker 3: In July?
Speaker 2: Yeah, rather than August itself?
Speaker 1: Okay? Is it you want?
Speaker 2: I'm scared now.
Speaker 1: I am like, I'm smiling right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, but but Daddy, I love him.
Speaker 1: That was good. This is even. I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: the Tortured Poets Department, this is her latest?
Speaker 3: Are you so upset that we didn't get torture parts up.
Speaker 1: High school?
Speaker 3: I need some.
Speaker 2: Financial compensation?
Speaker 1: Okay, your next check? Alyssa is.
Speaker 2: Cardigan?
Speaker 1: What album?
Speaker 2: This from folklore?
Speaker 3: This album changed my life.
Speaker 2: It came out at the person.
Speaker 3: My life was very small. This was like during lockdown, right,
Speaker 3: it was My lives were small. It didn't take much
Speaker 3: to write my world.
Speaker 1: Okay, here is your last song.
Speaker 2: This It was legendary mont love of my life alloy mouth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe got two tortured poets apartment checks.
Speaker 2: How lucky?
Speaker 1: Am I so lucky? Lucky?
Speaker 2: You will never understand Maria and you challenge. And on
Speaker 2: that note, Sam, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: I have loved this. I could have gone on for
Speaker 3: another two hours. Oh say maybe one day. You know
Speaker 3: how tites a teen minute version and everyone was like,
Speaker 3: release the two minute version. Maybe one day we'll release
Speaker 3: the two hour vision.
Speaker 2: Yes, but we're not.
Speaker 1: Like, can that be off? The I could not relate
Speaker 1: to a single thing, but you.
Speaker 3: Smile through the whole thing and we love that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to emotionally support this conversation, didn't she? She did?
Speaker 2: Honey, footballs by fellow.
Speaker 1: Out in Hindo, shout out to them, and Sam, can
Speaker 1: we find you on the socials?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, if you'd like to. I am miss Richards.
Speaker 3: I think there's an underscore and there's somewhere on Instagram
Speaker 3: and then just cement the Richards on TikTok and I
Speaker 3: I just do my thing on the come and say hi,
Speaker 3: it's quite wholesome stuff, but I love it truly.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much girl for joining us. We love you,
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 2: And that brings to the end, and that the episode
Speaker 2: of Island Rip Akland Waste. I was trying to think
Speaker 2: of like a tails of song about saying goodbye, but
Speaker 2: I can't thank you one right now to close us off.
Speaker 2: Definitely one, and I'll post it on socials if I
Speaker 2: can think of it, okay, But other than that, you
Speaker 2: on the socials actually at Island Roots, Orkland Ways, and
Speaker 2: we'll see you again next week Thursday for another episode
Speaker 2: a bye bye