EP 33 - Samantha Richards

It's the Flavor podcast network.

Island Roots or Clan Ways. This one's for the Brown brothers and sisters who want to be one with themselves, their culture, their identity, their roots.

This is Island Roots Auckland Ways.

Oh hi there, welcome back to Island Roots Auckland Ways.

Hello Alissa, Hello, I'm I was trying to think of like a funny like school related thing, like what did you do back in school? Like that the teacher would get your attention?

Did you do the the clap? We did the class man, I missed the claps?

Oh?

Is it?

Star?

And stop?

Yeah?

I swear you should have been a teacher in a different line.

You know what, I could still be a teacher.

You could.

I could? You love the degrees girl, but the person who's actually qualified, Yes, Miss Samantha Richards. We're so so so blessed to have got a miss angel say on our podcast.

Such a calming energy she brings, and she also brings a wealth of knowledge about Arina of Taylor Swift.

So Sam and I are both crazy Swifties like you imagine each other's energy so wild.

You guys looked so happy having that discussion, And I don't want to insurrupt, so then I just cut it the.

Posts because the conversation was very, very very long about Taylor Swift. But shout out to my psalm won Swifty, shout out my past bigger Swifties. This episode is for you, and even if you're not a Swifty, one hundred percent going to be gems of knowledge in this chat that you're gonna love, especially about Sam's journey to like really understanding who she is as a psalm one. I think that Cordy Door is so valid and so important, and I think so many of us will get something out

Welcome, so thank you for having me. I'm a massive, massive fan of the show. I think you guys are absolutely killing it. I'm so happy to be here.

Is this the miss Riches like these teachers, it's like right now, like during school holidays, holidays.

School holidays. Yeah, it's crazy that I obviously respond to Miss Richards in the classroom it's my name, but now in the streets as well, this miss Richards.

That's a little bit like, wow, it's.

Really cool, crazy TikTok handle though, right.

Yes, oh no, I think I changed my TikTok handle to cement the Richard. But on Instagram, we're still miss Richard.

What do you prefer TikTok Instagram?

I like TikTok. I love Instagram because I love I'm such a I'm a Libra and I'm such an I like pretty things, and I feel like Instagram is where I go for my pretty things. But TikTok is where I go to be me. I love that, filtered, unfiltered, all the vlogs, all the thoughts. I love that still kind of censored though, because I am still a teacher, don't I've got I've got my colleagues watching, parents of students watching, and I love that. I love that they watch.

I love I love that.

For those who are listening in right now, Melissa and Samantha are we t shirt right now?

It's like we planted or something perfect.

But someone so close that.

Well I saw headed yea, what is that? I need it?

Yeah?

Ordered it immediately and then I told her, I said, I've ordered this, thank you for being a little influencer. Yeah, And I was like, shall we? Shall we both?

We?

They look like good quality.

Shout out the version for Alex Alex Alex so she wanted it, and I was like, you know what my love language is gift giving. I want to give you the gift of being someone beautiful.

Well, Sam, you listen to the podcast so you would know that every episode we share about what we love about home. So wherever you currently live, wherever you were born, but you feel most grounded, whatever feels like home, what is it and what do you love about it? Alyssa will start us off, and what do you love about home this week? Girl?

I feel like, because Sam is here, what I love about home this week? My girls, my sisters. I feel like recently, especially with the podcast, I have been able to just like I was thinking about it, yesterday and I was like, I I feel so supported by like my big sisters, like my online big sisters, my real life big sisters who are like my cousins. I don't have any biological big sisters same, so it's just like I feel so blessed with all the big sisters that

So I love that I take my role of big sister really seriously with my biological brother but with anyone and everyone that I come across. I'm like, let me be your big sister.

You could be mine.

I am I get a choice, you.

Know what they say in ihood like sisterhood Hannies What I love about home this week? I love so one of my aunties. She is a cleaner at Middlemoor Hospital and she lives about two streets away and every morning, because she doesn't drive, she walks to work. And she's been working there for years, to the point where I'll go into Middle More with her and everyone's saying, oh, Mama, mama, mama,

Absolutely, So shout out to my auntie tie love you, Auntie.

Yeah, mad respect for any hospital workers. My brother spent a lot of time in hospital. I learned how to read in the hospital. Wow, there a lot as a child. So they're incredible, absolutely, and they all work together. They need to to run that place. It's so special. Shout out to Auntie.

What do you love about homegrowl Oh my gosh.

Okay, So what I love about home is being home. I've recently moved back out to Westalkland. Westokland is my horse.

Side.

I didn't realize how much West meant to me until I was living in New Market for a while. And now, like I said, have moved back out West. I'm in sort of Glen Eden, Newlyn Holston area. I'm about five minutes away from four of my cousins, which I love. I'm five minutes away from the road that my parents grew up on. They grew up on the same street, started dating when they were seventeen, been madly in love

I love it.

I love I really do. I love that you. Yeah, I think my my hating on West Side era.

It's done, No, because I now had to.

You got to stop for my sake.

Yes, I feel like we need the West experience. We need you and Zaria to give it to us. We will because so far are we stalkm experience has not been that great.

And you know what that happens. It is West after all. But me Andsie will will take you. We'll give you the full West experience. It'll be fantastics, our real wisdom.

Period. Okay, let's get into the TikTok girl. Okay, so when did you when and why did you start posting your teacher blocks?

I yeah, does that feel like ages ago?

Because it was.

I think my first video went up maybe February or March twenty twenty. Wow for the pandemic. Whoa, we're talking a while and it was just TikTok was still new. A friend of mine in our group chat senter TikTok train that teachers were doing, and she said, do this with your kids, and so I did it. It was just a video where I had the camera facing me. You couldn't see the kids, but you could hear I was saying a chant. They were saying it back to

I feel like back then it was really not easy to blow up, but like, oh no, it was if you caught onto a trend early.

Enough, it was a common occurrence.

Yeah, definitely.

I feel like now the girls are fighting the viral mob.

They truly are. So we are pre pandemic twenty twenty. And you do that.

Train, do that train, and then I thought, Okay, that was fun. I'm gonna just keep going, and so we did, and then we went into lockdown. But I do know I've always been filming myself. I'm so vain. Every single one of my cousins will tell you that. I just love talking to the camera.

I love learning things.

I love little video diaries, and it just sort of keept going. My biggest video is still, I think to this day, was one of me and my brother on Easter. I think that year, that twenty twenty, and people just love videos with my brother. And he's very sweet. He's down syndrome. His name is Nick. He's the light of my life. My dad is always kind of saying you should like film neck more get more like some views, Dad, I mean maybe, no, you know, I just love it.

I feel like we're going to get into the hard hitting stuff now. I remember seeing a while ago, and I did comment on this video as well.

I do remember, I do remember, and that is how I started watching the switches.

Okay, okay, you were you made this TikTok about wanting to embrace your sound warness and like the things that you were doing or that you were going to try to do to embrace your sald onness, and I remember, I think I commented, like you, this is my belief is a sad one. There is no criteria to being someone. You could be like two percent sound warning and still someone, but the real like if there was a crack, the criteria would be that you live your life with love, alfa,

Please tell us all about It has been a journey. It's been quite a slow journey. So as I was saying to the two of you before we started recording, my mum moved here when she was five from Sarmora, and her and her siblings were kind of not like fully sat down and told no more sarmor in the household. But more or less they were told, you know, we're Kiwis now. And so from there, before my time, we were already starting to drift away from our culture, which is

So exciting, I think.

I really I'm ready to have my like oh I'm home kind of one.

But it will also be okay if you don't have that moment.

Yes, I've told myself that as well. Okay, good, we've been so to reconnect. I have joined it hasn't started yet, but I've joined it someone language class.

I'm so nervous it in person. Yes, I think that's the way to go, because we've tried online, both of us. Yeah, separately and together, and it's very hard. In person though, holds you accountable different, I.

Think, so see your mind's in person. I'm so excited for that, just as also though we've been reconnecting with the wider family, so we do. We used to do this when I was a kid, like really young. We used to have family Bengo once a month.

Oh my gosh. Class.

Yes, such a classic and I loved it as a kid, and I really missed it when it stopped. I don't even really know why it stopped. To think everyone just got busy, but that was my mum's dad's side of the family, and we've reconnected with them since Nana's passing, and now we do that again and I love it. It's so much fun. And then just as well, I think the mind shift, the headspace that I have put myself in where I have just told myself I am arn't one. Yeah,

Yeah, and I don't think there will ever be a point where the journey INDs no. So true, Like even when I received my mum little, which I was like, oh, this is such an important part of our culture. That aftermath of that has been really enlightening and like has been a journey of its own, Like there is just I don't know, there's just something about being sound worn, and there's something about culture and how it's away shifting and changing, and it shifts and changes and it's meaning

I'm proud of all of us.

That's so cool. I love how these conversations are being normalized too, so like more people like aren't feeling like they're alone in their cultural journey, because I know, like even for myself, like I am, like I would say, I'm someone presenting. I walk into a room, you know that I'm an islander. And the assumption is is that you know the language, you know everything, you know how to do this, that and the third. But the fact

So going to enjoy it, saying my brother's going, mom's going. We've told the family they're ready to embrace us, show us, show us around, and I kind of did at first. I think when I was telling my friends I'm going to some more for my birthday, they thought, oh, relaxing holiday, absolutely, and I would probably like at least one day. It'll be at the end of term as well, I'll be tired,

Family and some more will be so welcoming to you. They're going to love that you are going to be there.

I hope, so so welcoming. You have to do all the fit ols girls. That's not going to be relaxing.

Thank you. You've spoken about your brother, Nick, so tell us about your guy's special relationship.

He's beautiful. So we are five years and five days apart. I think it was a really, in hindsight, like perfect age gap, because I was just that a little bit older that I could always understand what was going on. So he has down syndrome as well as he's had so many other we call him broken. Oh little Nicky. He's so broken from his head to his toes. There's something you know. He's had three holes in his heart.

He's the beer. He's just the Is this his first international?

Yes, he's not too keen on going on the plane, but we've kind of figured technically he won't know he's on the plane because you walk through the tunnel to get on the plane. So not I don't can done lying.

To It's just a whole was yeah, which is just kind of about.

Happens to go in the sky.

Oh my gosh, here's a TV, got a I bought some stacks.

That's what we're gonna do. That's gonna be great. And then he'll get he'll get there and he'll be like beach amazing.

There was a long time riding.

It's so funny. We've kind of spoken about this off mic, But as a teacher, how important is it to you to share like your palone mess or your Pacific mess with your students?

Super important?

Yeah.

I think for my first few years of teaching, I was just figuring it out. Teaching is a big job. You're finding your feet those first few years. But I remember the first time I was speaking to she wasn't even in my class. It was an older student. I've always taught juniors. But when I interact with the older students and I say, oh, I'm simone too, and the look on her face of like really like she's so excited, and I thought, oh, this is important. This matters. I

I think also with you being on like your own cultural journey, it's so much pressure to be like okay, and now I have to teach a sev even though I probably never know one of my life you know that.

Was youtubeing the star. I need to get a whole bunch of love.

Of love is to bring it get to the car stress.

I've really just taken that pressure off myself.

That's a big mantle to carry. And I don't think you should expect yourself to be you know that brown teacher. Yeah.

Yeah, but it's nice. It's good. It's been good so far.

That's so cool.

Okay, we're shifting gears now. Okay, Sam and I both love a.

Girls switching gears.

I want to know all about the single Sam summer. So you started a series on your TikTok called Single Sam Summer. Some are just gone, someone just gone, and as a love a girl, I've struggled. Not okay, I've been forever, be single forever, and now I'm really embracing this era of dating and it's really hard because my heart gets way too invested in an it's too easy. So can you tell us about your single Sam Summer?

Okay, got you, got you, guys, I said to you, guys, I got my first boyfriend at twenty five. Like, I am such a love girl. I love love. I've been surrounded by love. My parents are such a beautiful role model of love. What an example, especially like going through everything they went through with my brother and just still turn up for each other. It's beautiful.

Yeah.

I did have in moments. Okay, I made you and I have dated lovely boys. Maybe I'm not so lovely, but that's okay because it's it's a learning, every learning, always learning. But I think I was always okay being alone. I was always I was always fine being the single friend. But with Single Sam Summer, I came out of not an awful breakup, but a breakup that did kind of shake me. And I thought, Okay, I don't think it's enough to be okay alone anymore. I want to thrive alone.

I did so well.

It was so much fun. And I think what I learned about myself was your life is beautiful. Yeah, and a boy or a girl or whatever, whoever may come into my life is just a bonus. But by myself, I'm so fine. I think, as far as advice goes, why do you look at me?

Well?

I think.

Your friends and family love you, and they're always trying to give you like the most lovely encouragement and advice. But you don't need to listen to it. You really don't, because they will say it will come when you least expect it yourself.

Everyone's every worry, just work, you know what.

You know to some degree it is. But it is okay to sit there and smiling in your heir go. You have been married ex number of years. You don't know what it's like here in the trenches. And I think, just just know that, like you've got so much time, You've got so much time, and they're like romantic love. Actually, going back, I love this saying. I think I saw this on TikTok, but somebody said romantic love, no self

But also like we're people of community, right, we need a community, and sometimes a part of community a couple. So breckers no, but I totally agree. I think, I no, I'll tell you off the mic, okay, But I feel like, also, yeah, self love is not a substitute for amantic love. Like it's just not the same, and we need to admit that.

Yeah that's so fine, Yeah, so fine, Like two things can be true at once. You can have all the self love in the world and still crave a little bit of romantic love. But you've got time. Don't listen to all the aunties and uncles and cousins and friends and strangers on the street and strangers on the internet. Just wait and love yourself and it will come. Thank you, Thank you so much.

Shut up. I feel like you're always giving. Obviously everyone knows if you're listening. Sam gives the best.

But I have such good advice.

I just think I don't even know what advice I just gave. I just kind of opened my mouth and stuff came out.

You know, Miss Rachel, you're like the someone miss Rachel right.

Now, but for adults, for adults, what advice Not that you would give to us, but you would give to your little self.

Oh no, I love this. I this is kind of a therapy thing that I did. But my counselor once said to me, like, think of seven year old you, think of seventeen year old you, how would you treat them? I love thinking back to my little self, and I feel really proud to say that, actually, me right now is taking really good care of them. I think to seventeen year old me, I would say, honey, chill, it's you're going to get everything you've ever wanted, but you might not get it tomorrow.

I think.

I think when I was young, I was like, this has to happen by this time. I need to be married by the time twenty six.

One hundred, the way we thought we were going to be married, like right now?

Why did we all think that? Why did I Why did I think that thirty year olds were like just ancient people? No, I still feel like I've only just entered my adulthood and I turned thirty and two months time. So I think to her, I would say, it's like, just enjoy it. It's coming, like, have faith in time. Just give it time, give it a minute. To seven year old me, I would say, you're the cutest little patunity ever. You're such a good big sister. Please stop

That part exactly.

That was good, right, That's good for me, No crumb.

Yeah, I guess this takes us into our rapid fire. Now, so this is the moment we've been waiting for.

Its has got Spetify pulled up on this phone. He's playing this is Taylor Swift the playlist or the complete collection or whatever you're playing mares, and we basically get a minute to guess. But I'm no, not a minute's right. A second song, but I think you'll surprise yourself.

I'm going to be fine.

I don't know why you're freaking out.

That's onles. I don't know what song.

So Sam will go first, and then when mass feels like time is, you just decide to cut it whenever you want and then we're gonna go to me. But it's not a competition. We're just kind of flicking on everyone about house. Okay, smart I'm.

Really not competitive, so you went anyway.

I'm nervous for you, guys. This is like a taste little Taylor Swift knowledge.

Okay, we're going to be fine, right, yeah?

Okay Samuel first?

Yes, Oh my gosh, do you know what? Are you ready for it?

Okay?

Are we going? Sam a second song? Now? Okay?

This Harry Styles needs to make a cover of the song that was Style. Yes, and I have been since the song came out. I have been dreaming of Harry Styles.

Have you heard the AI versions? No, I'm gonna see him. I think there's a versions.

I need him to sing it. I need him.

This is such a good song. It's so good.

I love that.

I'm gagging right now.

August maybe, Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten Fergus? I think that might be one of my favorite songs. Me and my best friend. Also, I have like a Bajillian best friends. You guys know I love you all Me movies are in alex We meet when we're five. We have started this new tradition where we do an August Day and on the first weekend of August we go to Omaha Beach with her little sausage dog and we run along the beach screaming the song. It's is that really?

This is August?

My kids say after the song earlier, it's such a beautiful song. I got the August. So if you haven't heard August, you need to go listen to August. I got the August experience in July because I'm just such an overachiever. Yes, I got the August experience in July.

To any listeners that don't know what that means, it's not exactly a good thing.

No, it's terrible thing. Actually, but what a sleigh.

In July?

Yeah, rather than August itself?

Okay? Is it you want?

I'm scared now.

I am like, I'm smiling right now.

Okay, but but Daddy, I love him.

That was good. This is even. I was like, wait, the Tortured Poets Department, this is her latest?

Are you so upset that we didn't get torture parts up.

High school?

I need some.

Financial compensation?

Okay, your next check? Alyssa is.

Cardigan?

What album?

This from folklore?

This album changed my life.

It came out at the person.

My life was very small. This was like during lockdown, right, it was My lives were small. It didn't take much to write my world.

Okay, here is your last song.

This It was legendary mont love of my life alloy mouth.

Yeah, maybe got two tortured poets apartment checks.

How lucky?

Am I so lucky? Lucky?

You will never understand Maria and you challenge. And on that note, Sam, thank you so much for joining us.

I have loved this. I could have gone on for another two hours. Oh say maybe one day. You know how tites a teen minute version and everyone was like, release the two minute version. Maybe one day we'll release the two hour vision.

Yes, but we're not.

Like, can that be off? The I could not relate to a single thing, but you.

Smile through the whole thing and we love that. Thank you.

I want to emotionally support this conversation, didn't she? She did?

Honey, footballs by fellow.

Out in Hindo, shout out to them, and Sam, can we find you on the socials?

Oh yes, if you'd like to. I am miss Richards. I think there's an underscore and there's somewhere on Instagram and then just cement the Richards on TikTok and I I just do my thing on the come and say hi, it's quite wholesome stuff, but I love it truly.

Thank you so much girl for joining us. We love you, I love you.

And that brings to the end, and that the episode of Island Rip Akland Waste. I was trying to think of like a tails of song about saying goodbye, but I can't thank you one right now to close us off. Definitely one, and I'll post it on socials if I can think of it, okay, But other than that, you on the socials actually at Island Roots, Orkland Ways, and we'll see you again next week Thursday for another episode a bye bye