Sunday 4 January 2015

The ability to cope was highlighted in 1990. I had to deal with the death of two close friends in very tragic circumstances. Jolene was my first friend at high school who was killed by a drunk driver. A few days later my best friend since primary school Peter committed suicide. A contributing factor was the shocking death of Jolene. I never understood at the time why Peter did this as he had everything to live for - awesome parents, family support and animals including his own herd of dairy cows. He also had many interests including Pony Club, hockey, table tennis, rock and roll dancing, along with many other talents.


It was not until years down the track when I had experienced many horrendous events, I understood perfectly. I have had many friends commit suicide. They had everything I never had and did not have any real problems to deal with. When a situation arose such as death or illness they did not know how to handle it. At the time Peter died it was speech time at Stratford High School. I wrote my speech on Peer Pressure and I am extremely proud that I had the guts to talk about suicide. Back in the 1990s it was a real taboo subject. Not bad for a 15 year old kid! One statement in my speech summed it up perfectly - Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

THIS IS MY LIFE

I was born in Taranaki on February 12th 1975 and have lived here all my life. Despite a less than desirable upbringing and limited resources I strived to do the best I could. The most important factors why I did not end up a statistic were my animals, determination to succeed, expression through writing and involvement with sports and community activities. Right from an early age I had a lot of compassion and also developed an amazing ability to cope. I attribute this mainly to having animals as they taught me about responsibility, compassion, health, sickness and death.


The motto of the Eltham Primary School where I attended in the 1980s, is so true - Learn by Doing, Knowledge is Power. Ever since attending Eltham Primary School I have lived by this motto. Another motto instilled in us kids was honesty is the best policy. I have always been a very honest, caring, hard working individual that has not deviated from the middle of the road. This has included not smoking, drinking, taking drugs or having tattoos.