Stepping into the New Year

By Features Editor Chloe Barrett

New year, surprisingly similar version of me. I am here to welcome you, our precious readers, into both your second term of college and the latter half of the Express. Buckle up because it is shaping up to be an awesome one. Our beloved editors are back, and allow me to say, better than ever. Your drought from Student Media has finally come to an end.

I am not really one for resolutions but am quite enjoying seeing everyone’s ‘ins and outs’. I want my goal for this very fine year to be taking better care of my mental health. According to the professionals, I need it! But in all seriousness, I would encourage you all to do the same. We are in this together, after all. The counselling service here at UCC is genuinely great, and it just so happens to be free. That is literally an opportunity too good to pass up!

I have a very special article coming to you in this issue, it is a longer piece that just so happens to be an interview with UCC’s own Dr Mary O’Connell about neurodivergent representation in literature. I am so happy with how it turned out, so please give it a read! We speak about her famous stance on seeing Sherlock as an autistic character, and her adorable little son, Dylan.

My other piece is a hopefully helpful article that explores different methods of encouragement in regard to (surprise) reading, which will, fingers crossed, set you off on the right foot towards your reading goal this year. At the end, I also included a list of my overall reads in 2023 that I deemed good enough to share with you guys. We have high standards around here, okay!

To wrap this little editorial up, sadly, we lost our beloved News Editor, Cormac, (I swear he is not dead, just resigned) but with endings come new beginnings, and we are all delighted to have David on board with us for the second half of our upcoming issues.

Hang on tight, spider monkeys, and welcome back to the Express.