A month in Brisbane and it feels like home, in more ways than I can say! And it was a month of connecting with my Queensland crew! I arrived in Brisbane in the midst of community – Marist community. Just after I arrived, I had to have a COVID test, along with the thousands of others that had just arrived from Victoria. Welcome to Queensland! It literally brought home to me Marist hospitality – I had meals delivered to my door whilst in isolation for the 24 hours I was waiting for the result.

After almost a year of being relatively stationary – without even the 25km commute to school each day for half of the year – I have covered a few kilometres this month! At least I’ve been able to drive around Brisbane and surrounds house-hunting and sightseeing. Being able to walk along the coast again has made me realise how much I enjoyed living by the sea. Sometimes we don’t realise the importance of the things that we take for granted (sun, sea, sand) until we miss them…

There hasn’t been much music this month, but I posted this reflection on one of my songs from the album Into Silence on Facebook earlier in January as I was about to start my new job in Brisbane.

Teaching in boys’ schools (in fact, teaching in any context) reminds me that we still have much work to do on gender justice. Human Too is a tongue-in-cheek song – that I hope makes you smile – about gendered expectations and stereotypes I’ve experienced. I’m grateful to my family and friends for giving me the back up not to conform to these always. This song always makes me think of my grandad, who taught me how to swim, ride a bike, change a tyre, do DIY, build a computer, travel, and never stop learning. In other words, he taught me to follow my dreams and not allow people or society to put barriers in the way!