Marise | Eden Terrace
“It was my partner’s birthday recently, and I didn’t know what to get him, so I made him something instead, and it was, he really liked it, just because it was more sentimental.
I think that made him feel a bit more special that I’d gone through the effort to make something. I made him a card with photos from our four-year relationship and a little slideshow with photos and memories again.
I think it’s very important, just because there’s a lot of talk around mental health awareness at the moment. I think it’s just good to take the little bit of extra time and talk to people, understand them and listen and just make them feel special, get to know what they’re doing in their lives.
We met in high school. We were always close friends in high school, and then about four years ago we became boyfriend and girlfriend. Then, I moved down to Auckland and he moved with me. We’ve always had a close relationship, really good friends, and I think that made it easy to move forward with him.
Support mainly. Things with university studies, then finding new jobs; he’s always supported me in my decisions, but then he’s also got a great sense of humour, so it sort of lightens up that day to day busy life.
I moved here for studies. To me, it’s important just to have stability in your life. I think having a good group of people around you to keep you grounded because there’s a lot of changes that go on in your life with new jobs, things like that. I think it’s important to have a close group of friends and family around you to keep you going. I’m actually from up north, Whāngārei.”
