Logan | Helensville
“I moved around a lot all throughout my life, but mainly grew up here in West Auckland, spent a lot of my childhood in Waimauku, which I’m really thankful for. I’m glad I grew up more out in the country than in the city.
I remember going into a hair shop when I was like seven and seeing like blue hair dye on the shelf and thinking, man I want to have blue hair. I always wanted to but never been brave enough. I guess now that I’ve been out of high school for awhile I just felt like doing it. I feel like it’s a pretty good expression of me. I’m pretty, pretty out there, and bit zany, and yeah I enjoy it, think it’s groovy.
I guess I’m thankful every day for the support and understanding I get from my parents to figure out who I am without pressure and expectations.
I feel like in a lot of cases there’s a lot of pressure to I guess go to university or choose a real kind of hard line career path, or whatever from a young age. I guess my parents have never really put that pressure or expectation on me, and just made it really okay for me to be able to experiment with different jobs and have time to go through difficult things and not feel like I have to do any particular thing, because they want me to, or they’re going to be disappointed in me for doing something. I’m into art, painting and photography. I really enjoy the ability to do that, and to be able to share that with my friends.
I guess I’ve seen a lot of my friends from high school just go, go straight to university, or go straight into working massive hours just because that’s what you’re supposed to do, and I don’t see them being happy with themselves in what they’re doing. It’s never something I’ve wanted to do, to just launch myself into something just because that’s what you’re expected to do. I guess that would be my advice; don’t just go to uni because you’re supposed to go to uni, or don’t just work a job for massive hours just because you have to. You know? You’ve got to find something that works for you and allows you the space to be happy.
Hopefully just happiness and security. I’d just like to be able to not feel trapped in whatever I do. I guess what’s been important for me, is kind of realising it’s alright to quit, quit your job and find a new one because it’s not working. Often I felt like there’s a sense of obligation to continue with a job that I don’t enjoy because I feel like I owe it to my boss for giving me the job. It’s been really important to be able to state my own boundaries around what’s working for me in the job, and be able to just move on and look for something new, something that suits my needs better. I can keep doing that and keep finding ways to get on without doing things out of obligation for other people, making sure that I’m still staying true to what feels right for me.”
