Lexy | Manukau

“I do a lot of sports in Ōtara. I play basketball, and I meet a lot of different cultures playing basketball. Asians, Chinese, Māori, Polynesians. Actually they’re pretty much just like you and me. Just the same, they’ve got the same goals, but they’re different cultures.

We’re all going the same way. The idea is if you’re not on the same frequency, you can find the right frequency that works with you.

When you play basketball, and I skateboard too, you still get the same feeling and air. A mutual feeling when you play sports with these guys, like basketball or skateboarding. When I play with them at the basketball courts, we tend to work together. The idea is to try and and work together with other cultures. If you don’t surf the right wave, you get a rough wave. Like when you play with them, if you play with a negative attitude, then you get a negative attitude back. So, you’ve got to try and pick their brains, or try and work together with them, patiently. You can’t just jump in and play with them and assume that they know you. It takes a while to play the game. Then you can share the same way of playing. After, afterwards we shake hands. They shake your hands. All smiles, and then we leave. Then, the next day I will come back and I’ll play for a different team, different people, and sometimes you just have to be careful of your surroundings, you’ve got to know what’s good or wrong. Got to be patient. Got to learn to control your emotions, but there are not many people, I’m pretty rare, because there’s not many people like me in Ōtara. Most of them are on a different wavelength, but you have to respect each other’s culture.

I grew up in New Zealand. I’m a Kiwi. I grew up in Ōtara and East Tāmaki during my childhood. I went to Hillary. Went to Papatoetoe. Followed my parents religion for a while, and after that, after you learn your parents way of living, you get to know things because you go to school and then I went to MIT in, in Manukau, and you start to open a new portal, a new world and learn things. The more you learn, the more you seem to rebel against your parent’s ideas, but you still respect them. After school I went to help my father. He was an electrical engineer. I worked for him part-time, and then I went and did my own thing. I worked at two or three jobs, like McDonalds, as a barman, a swimming pool life-guard. Life goes up and down when you’re working. You start meeting people. The more people you meet, the more you understand about what’s going on in the environment. But it’s hard work. Nobody said it’s easy growing up in Ōtara. Ōtara is good, but sometimes you have to find your own path. I’m quite adventurous, so I had to adventure out of Ōtara to different areas in order to really grow up. 

Growing up is hard. Not easy, but one thing I value is people. If you can’t get on with people, then why exist at all? You’ve got to learn to value people, otherwise you end up like these people with no job, no family. Without that communication, you can’t find a job or, or get anywhere in life. If you don’t value things, the outcome is that you’ll probably be a negative person, or you’ll probably end up going backwards, or fighting on the streets. So communication is what I value in Ōtara. Without that you can’t get around. You’ve got to go with the flow. It’s a good life in Ōtara. It is good, but you’ve just got to learn to cope, yeah. Believe in yourself. If you have no idea where you’re going, just see a career counsellor or someone. Because you may think you know it all, but we really don’t. We have to venture out to any adventures. Even if we go, if we fall over? It’s like falling over. When I was skateboarding with friends and I’d fall over, that’s how life is. You fall over and you’ve got to get back up and learn and get back on the path again. Otherwise, you’ll never learn.”