Maxine | Ōhakune, Manawatū – Whanganui

“Leaving home for the very first time. Going back further to that was deciding to apply for Teachers College, and then going for the interview, and then probably the first time in a big city for a purpose other than just visiting.

So, I moved to Hamilton. My grandmother had died three days prior. So, we’d been through her tangi, and then I was leaving home, and I just had a rubbish bag for my gear, and so everything got put in the rubbish bag, and I was dropped off in Hamilton which was very daunting. I didn’t know anybody. Didn’t know my way around the city. Knew nothing of Hamilton, really and so I cried a lot, I have to say, but from that journey what I probably learned was everybody there was in a similar situation. You found like-minded people and found different support people, and different networks of friends. One of the funny stories I have, the second weekend we were there, I met a girl from Edgecumbe who was in the same boat as I was, and we thought we’d catch a bus to go to town. So, we went and we waited at the bus stop, and we waited for about an hour, hour and a half. Then some people came and said, are you waiting for the bus? And, we’re like, oh yeah. And they’re like, it doesn’t come on weekends. So, we were determined to go to town, so we followed the bus stop signs all the way to town, and it took us maybe two, three hours to walk the bus stop route. We were pretty knackered by the time we got there. But we learned from that, and I guess staying there, there was plenty of times that I actually wanted to pack it up and come home, but I’m glad that I stayed, and got through the hard stuff. And there was some hard stuff at times when things are happening at home or you just want to be surrounded by your family and your friends, and what’s familiar to you, but to get out of your comfort zone, and stick at something that you’ve started and finish it, created a great pathway for life. Then I was able to come home with a qualification, and give back to my community, and my family for those hard times, and they weren’t all hard times, but the hard times got, got further and further apart, and the home-sickness got further and further apart.

You just have to be brave and give it a go. Home’s not that far away, it’s a few years of your life and you have a huge life ahead of you, so those small times aren’t such big times. You can always come back and you’ll come back richer in experience, and you’ll be able to have a different perspective of life. So, just take that first step, and look for support networks. That might be through Facebook, through social media sites, maybe join groups. I joined netball. I was really heavily involved in the Teachers College Marae, and so going out and taking that step to join things, and meet other people, and then establishing a good network so that you can bring that back if you desire.

I was born in Raetihi. I went to Ōhakune Primary and College, and then moved away and went to Hamilton. From Hamilton, after I graduated from Teachers College, I moved to Ōtaki. I met my husband there, and started my family. The pull for home was still pretty strong, so I brought my family home, and luckily for me, my husband followed. I have been here ever since. Started teaching at Ruapehu College as a reliever when my last child was five. How I got into relieving, I’m primary-trained, so how I got into the college was that they needed somebody that could assist the te reo students when their te reo teacher was away. So, I stepped into it which was a big step for me going back into teaching, and secondary, because I wasn’t trained for secondary. So I did long-term relieving, and then a food job came up, so I applied for food and nutrition, because I have a passion for food, and it just really went from there. At the moment, I’m the Senior Dean at Ruapehu College, and 2IC of food and nutrition. Our school motto is ‘Rupuhia ko te mātauranga’ so I guess for my journey of stepping out of my comfort zone, it’s always seeking that further knowledge, so always going and learning. You can learn in every environment, and every situation has something to learn. You just have to be open to it. Rapuhia ko te mātauranga”