Terese | Snells Beach

“I grew up in Algies Bay, and I’m 19. I’m not living with my parents at the moment. I’m living with family friends in Snells Beach, and I’m going to uni training to own my own rest home.

As I’m living up here and not living at university, I haven’t made many friends down in Auckland and you feel kind of lonely. I joined the gym to get to know people, and I ask people questions in my classes to get to know them.

Relationships are kind of a challenge. In this day and age you probably meet people over social media and you keep in contact over Facebook and stuff, but you don’t actually meet them in person it’s kind of just online.

My car just failed its brakes or whatever so it cost me $500 to fix. So, that’s the kind of challenge I face at the moment. I just worked more and asked my parents for help and things.

I couldn’t go [to university] for a whole week, so that was bad. It was a huge challenge, as it’s a 50 minute drive and there’s not really a bus system that I could have taken to get there. I couldn’t get anyone to take me as well, and no-one lives up here that goes to the university. So yeah, that was another challenge.

I’m wanting to own a rest home. I’ve worked in a rest home as a healthcare assistant since I was 16. I just really like the elderly, and I like caring for them. I want it to be by the beach, because then you can take them for walks on the beach as it’s easy to walk around. [I would have] lots of windows and air conditioning, yeah, it would be good.

I’m just interested in wanting to give elderly people the proper care. I guess I love looking after people and they need help, so I want to help them. They don’t have a voice. I’ve had grandparents all my life. I’ve kept in touch and stuff. I was raised in a Christian home so I have the right morals and always told to respect my elders, like give them a seat on the bus instead of you, or help them take their groceries.”

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