I heard back about my request to interview the Governor-General. The answer was no. Here is what that felt like, and what I learned from it.
I got a reply from Government House. Not from Dame Cindy Kiro herself, I think, but from someone on her staff. The short version is that Government House declined my request. The reply did not say the decision was Dame Cindy's own, so I am not going to say it was.
I am not going to pretend that was fine. I am kind of gutted.
I had genuinely hoped this one would be a yes. Before she was Governor-General she was the Children's Commissioner, which is the job where you speak up for kids in this country. I thought that of all the grown-ups in all the big offices, she might be the one who looked at an eleven-year-old trying to explain how New Zealand works and thought, alright, I will give that kid twenty minutes.
I also thought the timing was interesting. People are arguing more than usual right now about whether we should still have a King at all, and the Governor-General is the person who stands in for him here. It felt like exactly the moment to let a kid ask plain questions about what the job actually is. Apparently not.
So here is what I am doing with that.
First, no is allowed. Government House gets an enormous number of requests. Saying no to most of them is not a personal insult to me, even when it lands like one. Government House turned down a request, not a person.
Second, I asked. That part is still mine. Six months ago I did not know the Governor-General signed every law in this country. Now I know, and I know it well enough to write and ask about it, and nobody can un-teach me that.
Third, this is a lesson I was always going to need. I am learning that being rejected is not a sign you did the wrong thing. It is a sign you tried something where the answer was not guaranteed. If everything I ask for gets a yes, I am not asking for enough.
Fourth, the questions do not go away. I still want to know what happens on the day after an election when nobody has a majority. I still want to know whether you can be asked to sign something you privately think is a mistake. If I cannot ask her, I will ask a constitutional law professor, or a former Governor-General, or the Clerk of the House. There is more than one door.
I am going to sit with the gutted feeling for a day, then write to somebody else.
If you are a kid reading this and you have been turned down for something you really wanted, I promise you it is not proof you were wrong to want it.