Talofa Samoa, and welcome back to your weekly physiotherapy column!

Well, perhaps I shouldn’t use the word “physiotherapy” in that sentence, not because I am no longer a physiotherapist but because I am all that and more.

You see, today, the 2nd of February, marks exactly one year since I moved to Dunedin to complete my master’s degree. A year since I embarked on a journey to understand the world of post-graduate studies. 366 days of hard work, trying to make sense of the thousands of voices that speak through academic literature.

My days have been filled with reading articles, writing my thoughts, then re-reading, then re-writing, and trying to construct meaning from black lines on bright screens. I have sought to understand the world through a 13-inch screen barely 3 feet from my face, much in the same way that you now seek to understand my words through grey pages.

You may ask me what I have learnt during my time away. What knowledge do I have to share with you now that I have invested 366 days into myself and my mind? In truth, I think I have very little, yet I am made aware that my perspective is skewed. I am a physiotherapist, of course, I have many things to share… right?

The thing is, I feel like all I do in my free time is think and dream. Recently a friend asked me to send her a photo of my favourite hobby. I sent her a photo from Pinterest of a man on a beach. She was stoked and said that she too loves the beach.

I took a deep breath and cringed deeply at myself as I typed out the words “Actually, I just like to sit and think” and hit send. I must’ve sounded so pretentious. But it’s true, I do like to just sit and think. Hours I have stared at walls wondering, wondering what stories mean, how people talk, what matters most to them, why they behave how they do.

Perhaps that is what led me to university, a place where all the ‘thinkers’ and sharpest minds go (although if I’m being honest, often I feel like the dullest tool in the shed so perhaps I am only a stumbling donkey in a community full of Secretariats).

My thoughts constantly rattle around my head, but now I cast the burden of my half-baked potato of an idea onto you, dear reader. Perhaps you would be interested in not just what I think about physiotherapy but also other things (or perhaps you would prefer not to hear a donkey bray).

Anyway, I have learnt, time and time again, that my life is not just my own. I have recently interpreted that to mean that I must think harder about my words and that I must share them with you, and that if I share them with you then I must ensure that they are rooted in wisdom, intelligence, wit, and tact.

My first column for the Observer was Sunday 13th November 2021, and for the past three years, I have found ways for my words to give you physical strength and longevity, teaching you how your body works, and how you can heal more quickly after injury. After being in Dunedin for a year, dear readers of Samoa, I pray that I can offer you more.

I pray that my words do not stay within a 13-inch screen, 3 feet away from you. I pray they do not remain as ink on grey pages. I pray the prayer that every writer prays; that my words spend time in your mind, that you wrestle with them, that they challenge you, that they make you laugh at their absurdity, or rageful at injustice, or weepy and full of sorrow. At the very least I pray they make you feel something. I pray that my words lead you to new places, and one day you find yourself sitting on a beach, muttering to yourself ‘you know what, I too would just like to sit and think’.

Eliana Viali is a Samoan physiotherapist and can be emailed at [email protected]