The only way that Feb 14th is significant for me this year is that it is the 8 year anniversary of us living on our farm in our little rural town of Manawatu/Rangitikei.
When I was a kid I used to draw pictures of farms all the time. Barns, chickens, cows, troughs, farm houses... all sorts of stuff. I dreamed of living on one. I think that a lot of city kids wonder what it would be like. For me, it was fun for the first couple of years, but then I got older and some of the novelty had worn off. I hated catching the bus home every day, I wanted to live closer to my friends, I wanted to be somewhere which actually had shops.
What started it all was this: A little while after I turned eight, my parents divorced. Dad moved out of our big white two-storey house in north-east Auckland, and into another big two-storey house a little way away from us. For a few months he moved around, and we saw him less and less.
Then my mum met Irene. Irene was the owner of Petmates, a very popular, well run pet store in Albany. We spent a lot of time down there; Tori (two years younger than me) and I got weekend "jobs". I can't quite remember if there was a time that Irene moved in. She had a trailer in the backyard of some of her pet store employees' house. I remember particularly the "fish man", Hayden.
It was Irene's idea to move here. Mum couldn't keep up with the expenses of our house in the rich-bitch Asian suburbs of Auckland, so we moved here, to this little 12 acre lifestyle block. Irene knew the owner, Bruce, and we bought the place. It was a little more than a month before my ninth birthday. Tori was almost seven, Ellie was almost two.
I started at North Street School, Fielding, in year six under Mrs Finlayson. I went there for three years. Now I attend one of the local high schools.
So now, it's my last year here. It's the longest I've ever lived anywhere. Mum tells me that in my almost-seventeen years, I've lived in approimately twelve-thirteen houses. Yikes!
That's all for now :D
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