Karen – Forrest Hill
“My last message was a text message to my dad this morning. It said, ‘thanks Dad – have a lovely day, love K’.
I work down here, and my parents pick up my kids from school on a Tuesday. So he just sent a message saying ‘it’s all good to pick up the kids today’.
There’s so much we wouldn’t be able to do if we didn’t have that support network. It’s hugely important. There’s so much we do that relies on support whether it’s from family or friends, to be able to do work. I’m an optometrist. I love working in Browns Bay; huge community. I’ve worked here for 16 years now and it’s a beautiful place to work.
What do I like about the community? Everything kind of slows down in Browns Bay, which is rare I think. If you’re working in town people rush in and rush out, whereas around here people have got the time. So much of what I do is actually chatting to people, getting to know them.
It’s really important to help people. That’s why I love what I do, because you can help people instantly. They come in and often it’s a really simple problem that has a simple answer, but they don’t know that.
You now, to help humanity you need to slow down and pay attention to the people around you. You need to take the time to spend time with the people around you, instead of just rushing around like we all tend to do these days.
I’ve grown up in the area my whole life. It’s changed a huge amount. I watch the area grow. It’s become a lot more fast paced. I don’t think we spend much time with the people in our lives. So, whether that’s community, family, or friends, we don’t spend as much time as we used to, which is a real shame.”
