DIFFICULT TO DEFINE One thing I will always remember about being a kid, was my insatiable appetite for familiar comfort. I despised being pushed out of my comfort zone, and wanted everything to remain the same. I didn't enjoy branching out and meeting new people, and "sick-days" at home from school were cherished. As a teenager, I even mastered the ability of deceiving the receptionist at school and calling in sick, just so that I could sit at home and bask in the comfort of familiarity. Being sent off to school camp used to terrify me, as did spending the night in a strange bed at a friends house, or having to showcase my amateur athleticism. Something always pulled me back to simplicity and comfort; a place people often refer to as 'home'. At twenty-four, I haven't really changed, except for the fact that my comfort zone has vastly expanded over the years, and for the most part, I've come to understand that distance from comfort is the essential i...

IS THIS WHAT WE WANT FOR THE IMPENDING GENERATION? Driving to work can often seem like a grueling task – sitting in traffic amidst thousands of other busy-bodies navigating their way through an increasingly dense metropolis. Human population has increased exponentially during the last 200 years. During the 20th century alone, human population in the world grew from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. A recent report by the United Nations Population Division, predicts that human population could peak at 11 billion by 2100. Is this the world we want for our future successors? "With smaller populations, we can have increasing living standards per head but less consumption, more space, better lives, smaller impacts on the planet, and more room for wildlife." – Simon Ross, CEO of UK-based campaign group Population Matters. POPULATION BRIEFING The world population is currently estimated at around 7.349 billion, according to the medium fertility estimate by the United Nations D...

Auckland vs. Dubai "Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose." Like many privileged kids, I have lived most of my life in a comfortable suburban bubble. Until I was about 19, I never gave much consideration to the rest of the world, and only now do I truly appreciate the things that I once so carelessly took for granted. Somehow my mindset changed during recent years, (I think studying had a lot to do with it) and I decided it was time to implement some change. I recently relocated halfway across the world for a job. I didn't know a single person where I was going, and I had a month to plan an abrupt relocation. Even though it sounds somewhat bizarre, as if finding the right job is really worth moving away from your home for, personally it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Some of us have it, and some of us don't - that longing to experience more than what is familiar and comfortable. For...