Julia | Onehunga
“My name is Julia, and I call Onehunga home. So my story is probably a fairly common one of having a small child and a particular friend of mine who just made a real effort to come and see me when I felt sort of stuck at home.
Brought me food, but also actually just came and spent time with me and told me that how hard everything seemed was quite normal.
I grew up in the South Island in a tiny place called Motueka and I moved to Auckland to study at university, and then accidentally got stuck here. In terms of what’s important to me in life; people being kind to each other, accepting each other, being curious, adventure, and having new experiences, which often involves meeting new people.
I think for me, it’s probably the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, and I’ve done lots of other hard things. I’ve run marathons and have a post-graduate degree in a supposedly difficult job, but having a child, it was incredibly challenging. I think for me, it’s the same old boring story – that it came down to sleep, and actually years of not sleeping. In terms of how I survived that, I think it was about finding a community, and I had a coffee group that was a pre-existing group that adopted me, and that was a big part of what helped me survive. Also, developing my weekly routine when my little girl was very little, which included coming here to the library to Wriggle and Rhyme and lots of other small things like Space, which is a play-based group for new mums, which was an important thing for me, too. For me, I guess my extended family is not here, so I kind of had to find a different one.”
