What’s a challenge you overcame?

Agnieszka | Tauranga

When Agnieszka moved to Aotearoa with her Kiwi husband and two young daughters, she knew she wasn’t just moving away from her family, but her Polish culture and community.

“New Zealand is the furthest spot on the globe from Poland. It was the hardest thing for me to say goodbye to my parents. It was very emotional. Because I was going away, but I was also taking their first grandchildren away from them and the opportunity for them to know them.

In our mind, we set up this plan that we would go back every year to see them for like a month, and then we would have family time. So, that was our plan, but then we had Covid and somehow we couldn’t even go back to Poland for four years, nearly.

You kind of realise that you have to build up your community and discover yourself in a completely different environment… open up to different people, which wasn’t easy.

My second daughter was nine months at this stage, and having a little girl… it was really hard. I think I was depressed a little bit, missing family, missing this connection.

You have to continue to teach your kids the language, the traditions, and then be connected with your family, because this is who you are.”