Ray Ray | Ōtara
“I come from a small town back in Taranaki, and there you know everyone.
You know your neighbours. You know the people across the road. You know the people down the road. You know the farmer Joe up on the hill. And then moving into Auckland you know no-one, and unless you really go out of your way and get to know them, you won’t get to know your neighbours. You don’t know the people down the road. You don’t know the farmers down, up on the hill there. So that was like a big thing for me, moving here and especially into the student village. You have to really put yourself out there, and if you’re an introverted person, luckily I’m not, I’m extroverted so I’m okay, you do suffer from that lonely feeling. And being in the student village as well, a lot of people do keep themselves in their rooms and locked away and they don’t really come out to enjoy each other in the presence of each other.
Definitely in the student village, I’ve had a lot of my overseas friends who don’t speak as good English. They have come over, and they’re living in the student village and they’re just trying to find people that the can connect with, and people they relate to. So yeah that’s usually what I get told about from them, um when they first move in, and then they eventually find friends, and they’re okay, but yeah it’s that first initial coming into a new space in a new place, and meeting new people. You have to be fearless. You have to be fearless every single day with just pushing your boundaries and pushing yourself out there so you meet new people all the time, putting yourself in situations where there’s people around where you can socialise and stuff like that.”
