Rebecca | Taitā, Wellington 

“A story where I felt proud was last year I finished my second year of my social work degree. I’m going into my third year this year. I think the reason I felt proud is because I mean, five years ago, I never thought that I would be able to study at a level like this, and there was a lot of doubt, and anxiety.

I guess, just thinking: ‘I’m not smart enough to study at a level like that’. And I did it, and I got amazing marks, and amazing feedback. So, I felt really, really proud, and really good, and so we’re onto our third year this year, and I feel proud just making it to Year 3. 

I think for about seven years I’ve been wanting to become a social worker, and I guess help people that have been in similar situations to what I had been in. So I had a baby at 17. Fell pregnant at 16, and that was really hard for me. I was in an abusive relationship, and I think one of my strong points is I have a lot of empathy for other people and I really like to help people, and when I help people, it makes me feel really good. So I guess just falling pregnant young, and then having that life experience, just wanting to help people that have been in hard situations.

So I have two children. I have an 11-year-old and an 18-month-old. So, basically when I was younger it was always driven into me that when I’m older I’ve got to be successful about money and have a good job, but to be honest, what I want for the future is I just want to be happy. I want my kids to be happy. So, I want to finish my degree, and see where I am, and then I want to maybe go for my masters. I’d rather be happy and have little money, than have all the money in the world and not be happy. I think happiness is really important, and I think that on my journey of my degree, there’s been a lot of self-development, learning myself. Just when I look back at myself three years ago, I just feel like a completely different person. I feel, like I said before, like I’ve got a lot of empathy, and this isn’t about myself so much, but I have a deeper understanding as to why people are the way they are, and there’s a lot of judgement out in the world, against all sorts of different people, and I just feel that I’ve just got so much more empathy for people with their circumstances. I’m just realising that I think I focus a lot on trying not to be angry at all. When I started, I got really frustrated really quickly, and really angry and now I’m more understanding to not let that get to me, if you know what I mean. I’m not so angry anymore.

I would just like to say if you have a goal, and you put your mind to it, you can do it and I think that self-doubt is really real and really true, and that’s what happened to me. I doubted myself. I couldn’t study. I couldn’t do this. I’ve got kids, but I think if you really put your mind to it, and you make time and you learn, you can get to where you want to be. That’s really it.”