Gino quickly grabbed his phone and turned off the alarm. Still half asleep, he glanced over at the screen: 5:00 AM.

He woke up groggier than usual - sleep was hard to come by last night. He hadn’t told anyone the news yet. How could he - this was the type of conversation that he knew would take hours, not minutes, to have. Everyone would have opinions - his family, his team, his constituents. When the news breaks, he knew he’d be flooded with questions. What scared him most was that even in his gut: he wasn’t sure on what he wanted to do next.

He’d been enjoying the mayoral job - and he’d felt like he’d gotten the trust of the city, not an easy feat, considering how divided a city of just over 15 million people were.

But 15 million was nothing compared to half a billion. The scale of the opportunity intrigued him in a way he never thought it would.

With the decision on his mind, Gino settled into what he always did to help manage his stress: hit the weights.

Weightlifting was a cathartic space for him - typically a time where he could step away from the stresses of his life and job and focus on the movement. He’d been lifting since college and turned to the gym to help manage stress. Back in the day, it was stress from his exams or the girls he was talking to. Now - the problems were much bigger.

Today was a pull day - pull-ups, rows, lat pull downs, biceps - one of his favourites. Gino put his headphones in, put on some music, and got to work.

The sound of the iron clanking was drowned by the heavy thumping of beats and rhymes from his headphones. He felt the blood flowing through his arms and he felt his mind settle, focused on his breathing with each rep.

Gino got 30 minutes into his workout when he felt his phone vibrate. He glanced over - it was a text from Seema.

“Turn on the tv. You’ll want to see this.”

Gino walked over to the remote by the dumbbell rack and pointed it at the mounted flat screen near the door. As he adjusted the channels, he settled on the NKNN - Nekonia News Network and immediately realized why Seema had texted. The title gave it away: “President Addresses Nation”.

It was quite the scene in Chivo - the Presidential Palace in the rearview, a brass podium in the front. A Nekonia flag was in clear view - white with blue horizontal strips. In the top left corner stood a yellow lion and sword insignia, a throwback to the days of the Knights and Old Kingdom. Large oak trees perched over the procession - and within minutes, the murmur of the crowd quieted down as President Ritchie arrived at the podium.

“My fellow Nekonians, I come to you today with somber news.

A few months ago, during a routine medical examination, my medical team uncovered an unidentified mass in my prostate. After an MRI and prostrate biopsy, the team was able to confirm that I have small cell prostrate cancer- a rare and aggressive form of prostate cancer encompassing less than 2% of total cases.

Now the good news is that there are certainly treatments available to treat this and here in Chivo, I’m grateful to have access to one of the best medical teams in the country. However, the treatments available are intensive and require the entirety of my energy and focus for the foreseeable future.

After consultation with my family and medical team, it’s become clear to me that the most responsible action for me to take, for man and country, is to step aside and focus on my health.

And so I’m here to announce that effective immediately, I will be stepping away from to focus entirely on my healing. My Deputy, Deputy President Leena Lewis will serve as the nation’s acting president.

Over the last two and a half years, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with Deputy President Lewis. She is intelligent yet possesses the rare gift of simplifying without sacrificing substance. She is an empathetic yet firm leader who knows how to shift between an open palm and an iron fist. She has become a close confidante and friend, particularly in recent months where her and her lovely husband have been exceptionally helpful with Miranda and our three kids. Nekonia, you are lucky to have her.