Editors Note

Hello everyone,

I am incredibly excited to be doing the editor’s note this week. I’ve now been in the Whitsundays for three months and I am so grateful to be part of such a welcoming community.

I was privileged to visit my home in Melbourne over the Easter weekend to see friends and family. It got me thinking about what home actually means to a person.  

For a time, I had been listening to the song 500 Miles by Peter, Paul and Mary.

I’m actually a lot further than 500 miles. Moreso roughly 1478 miles. ‘Lord I’m 1, lord I’m 2, lord I’m 3, lord I’m 4, lord I’m 1478 miles from my home’ - doesn’t work as well lyrically, for obvious reasons.  

I think home is more of a feeling than a place. It’s not merely a house or a room. We find home in many things – in the people we love and trust, in the sounds and noises that seem painfully familiar, in the views and sightings that become commonplace in our subconscious.  

The place you grew up in is like a beautiful scar. No matter where you travel, who you meet or what new places you decide to call home – that place you are ultimately from always lingers. Even if that too changes, there is a feeling that always remains.  

Having completed university in Melbourne, I spent my entire life there, up until now. This is my first time living out of home independently and it’s been a huge adjustment but I am pleased to being making that adjustment in a wonderful environment surrounded by amazing people.

So, what to you is home? Is it the Whitsundays? Is it your partner or your friend? Is it a song, or book or novel you love desperately? Home can manifest in a variety of ways.  

In the words of one of my favourite writers James Baldwin: “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.”

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