Eric – Samoa
“My name is Eric, I’m 18 years of age, and I am from Samoa.
What I would say to my eleven year old self is, I would ask him, what could I have changed in my attitude and what more could I do for the humanity what more could I do for the environment. I would rather connect with the wider world and help them out and, you know, try support other people instead of myself because the more support I can get from other people makes me succeed better in life so yeah that’s what I would ask myself.
I have a pretty bad background but I’ve changed a lot. The motivation I use, or the motivational quote I use often on myself is, “ success doesn’t start with S it starts with you” and you know if you really wanna succeed in life it has to push you that much to get you where you are.
I know a lot of eleven year olds out there who they have gangs in their families and they run around that situation, but the only thing you do is distance yourself from that because the more you get involved and when you get caught by the cops that’s the end – you’re done for the rest of your life.
I am from Samoa – my family came here 20 years ago and it’s a big change for us to migrate to another country and to learn the language and learn the tradition and try and adapt to the situations, to the weather. I wanna be in the Navy and I also wanna be a flight attendant. I’ve already got my qualifications. I’m a professional rugby player for Tour Samoa, in the U19s. My last game’s next week and it’s down the line in Wellington so yeah I have pushed myself to the max I have changed a lot over the years. You know the only thing that limits you is you – the sky is the limit so push yourself to the end and I will definitely push myself to the end if I have to even if it kills me. That’s how much I wanna succeed.
Auckland is a really good place to stay I reckon – everywhere in New Zealand is beautiful but I reckon Auckland is the main place because we’ve got a lot of talent up here, and a lot of sectors that you can fit in such as military, air force, anything that you wanna get into. Auckland can provide that – behind me we’ve got some really beautiful environment up behind us. It brings us all together, closer, that’s the good thing about Auckland – it’s the city of yachts and the most beautiful thing about Auckland and you can never take that away.
The diversity here in Auckland is amazing – Polyfest was going on last month – it was beautiful. All the cultures coming together and sharing and expressing their cultures, their traditions – you don’t get that anywhere else in the country. It’s good because we get to learn more about their cultures instead of our own. You know we get colleges from out of Auckland – from Wellington, Christchurch coming up to participate. We also have a lot of sports going on and it’s really diverse.
I wouldn’t class myself as a full Samoan. I would class my self as a Samoan Kiwi. Reason being is because I was bred in New Zealand even though I was born in a different country. I still class myself as a kiwi because I have learnt the language the traditions and yeah it’s good – it’s amazing.
My future has ups and downs like everyone else’s – I can’t use that as an excuse but you know my future is bright enough for me to see. I’ve got goals set up for me and I wanna achieve them goal by goal and every time I achieve that goal I should have the next goal to achieve and at the end of life you know that would just be amazing. You know to stand by my mates and say yeah we did it and make my family proud, because that also makes me happy to see my family happy.
The best advice I could give out to people is family is key. You know they’re the biggest support you have. Yeah you have friends yeah you have enemies but at the end of the day your family will always be there. Even if you’ve gone to the bottom of the ocean they’ll come reach to you even though you’re up in the sky they’ll come and get you no matter how far no matter how long it takes because that’s what families do. The family I have built here at my military school – it’s amazing we’ve been through ups and downs hills and bridges, everything, and it’s just amazing. They’re helping me succeed in life, which I never got when I was 11. When I was little I never got the same support that I get now and it’s just amazing. The education that we get now is beautiful, it’s beautiful.
The tips I could give you is learn from your mistakes, you know, mistakes make you better makes you succeed in life. People say mistakes are wrong. It’s not. That’s the only way you can succeed in life. If you have a perfect life, you don’t know how it feels to make a mistake.
Any advice that I can give to any eleven year olds there who are struggling with family problems, support, you know just try and succeed. If you going to school put your head down and work as hard as you can get your level 1, 2, 3 bang it all out send a goal for yourself, motivational goals, and also your peer goals you know it helps a lot and friends can take you a long way but family will take you all the way to the end.
The last advice I’m gonna give you is that if you really want to succeed, there was this quote, “if you really want to breathe underwater then that’s how much you should be able to succeed”. I have been through a lot of barriers and it’s just amazing what the outcomes are in the end and the best advice I can give you is if you’re struggling just keep your heads down and just push for your goals. I hope to see any eleven year olds out there reach their goals and man if I was the PM I would buy you a nice mansion give you the nice car or money.
It’s just amazing the barriers I have been through. I’ve squashed a lot of walls down broken a lot of windows down and it’s getting me to a point where I can actually say I’ve changed a lot from 3 to 5 years ago. I’ve changed a lot and anyone can change; its just up to you if you wanna change. You know you can’t help someone who doesn’t wanna be helped. Everyone needs help once in a while they’re all going through the same problems; different problems every single day. My futures looking bright because I have changed my life around. Yeah, it’s looking good really good.”
