Xavier – Howick
“What I’d say to my 11 year old self is to live in the moment, and take happiness as it comes to you, and just try to enjoy life as much as you can.
I’ve always grown up in the Howick area, and I’ve pretty much lived in Auckland my whole life. I have never travelled anywhere. I’ve only travelled down the country a little bit, so Howick and Auckland area are definitely what I’d call home and what I know most.
I’m still part of different communities, and I definitely still enjoy my time here. I guess local groups of friends getting together or just enjoying a good time.
I spend time with friends that I’ve I guess integrated myself with at local stores and just sort of gotten to know people through that. They’re just board game nights usually; Monday, sometimes Fridays, Saturdays. We just sort of get together as groups and just enjoy our time, and I guess talk about stuff when we play the games – nothing too serious – nothing too competitive – just fun evenings.
We’ve talked about all sorts. We’ve talked about economics – we’ve talked about politics, religion – all sorts really. It’s just sort of – I guess as the subjects come up, or if we just like to discuss something. We play Dead by Winner, Battle of Tokyo, Settlers of Catan.
I love Auckland. I feel really safe here. I’ve planned and I hope to be able to raise my kids here as well as they grow older. I realise everybody’s going to have regrets in life, and you’ve just got to be able to I guess take those regrets and try learn from them as much as you can, but at the same time you know, you’ve got to make life as happy as it can be, and enjoy yourself, because you only get one life.
I plan to be a teacher. I plan to help the younger generation I guess evolve, and educate people and that, and if that doesn’t work out then I’ll probably go into psychology; either way I’d like to help people growing up.”