Cooper | CBD

“My name’s Cooper, I was calling a hostel my home in Auckland for a few days, near Albert Park, CBD.

Probably being a little bit more positive about stuff. 2019 just had a lot of ups and downs, and then especially within the end of the year, I travelled a lot more, and so seeing all the different environments, and people around, I felt like, a lot of them, even though things might be worse off for them, always had like a better outlook than me, and so I was really taking home for granted, so maybe not appreciating the friends and the family that I have around me, and trying to be just be more positive all the time, and appreciative.

I grew up in California, in San Jose, California. My dad was like a mailman, like UPS, and then my mum was a teacher. Pretty basic, like city life, suburbs. Probably like, the lower income on the ladder but we still tried to make things work real good. I used to think that money was pretty important, just because again being from a lower status, I always felt like people who had more money were always happier, but then just meeting people and especially travelling away from home for so long, I think probably friends and family are most important. Just having  good company. I think I’d much rather have people around me who love me and care for me, more than a bunch of money, and just being alone and not having that at all. 

I just finished an exchange over in Australia, in Melbourne, and then decided to have a couple of months to have a gap before I have to go back home. So, doing a little road trip around New Zealand, and then going to Indonesia, after working for probably a good two, three years back in the States. So it’s nice to save up a little bit of money. It’s going pretty good. Heading to the South Island in a couple of days. A few days in the north, and then go down to the south in a campervan.

It’s good to just remind myself, you know, in the moment, because definitely the past couple of days have been pretty stressful especially just moving in and out of different hostels, or just getting everything organised for the trip has been stressful and then problems back home have been a lot, so it’s been hard to think positive, and just be taking a moment to breathe. So, physically I think taking moments to just take a deep breath, and just realise things might be really rough now, but later they probably won’t. I’m probably over-exaggerating things. And then just really surrounding myself with people that really care about me. She’s been a big help recently, to calm me down, and destress, and help me think positive, and just trying to connect with the people back home that are kind of like my rock and just remind like, oh dude it’s fine, like there’s no need to stress about anything, you’ve got plenty of time, or it’ll always just kind of work out. So really just trying to be around people who are happier than myself, is something that I can do to kind of take away and if I can’t have them, I’ll maybe write or draw, to just kind of distract myself for a moment, and then kind of release any tension I have, and then I’m usually pretty good after that.

My income has always been pretty low. I’ve been fortunate enough to save up and get scholarships and grants from my university to do this trip. But money has always been probably the biggest thing on my mind, growing up. My mum has always had to work really hard to make sure that I – well I have an older brother – to make sure that we, always have food on the table and clothes. So the first thing I think about is money, when I’m making any purchase, or doing anything. If I want to go somewhere I’m like; how much is it going to cost, do I have this money, do I not and so it always stresses me out, like later on in life am I going to have a job that I’m going to be even  financially support myself. And back home where I live, it’s more expensive than most places on the planet. California is one of the most expensive, and Silicon Valley where I live is the most expensive place to live. So my family was kind of lucky getting there before it became so pricey, but if I wanted to live there, I’d have to get a job that made over $100,000 a year, easily. So it always comes back to money for me, and I kind of always had this mindset, like money is going to make me happy, and so I realise that’s not necessarily true, the way I thought it was. But that’s always what I immediately think back to, like if I had more money I’d be happier, where I’m learning very slowly but surely that’s not necessarily true.”