At 17, I got a full time job at a Supermarket in the next town, called Te Kuiti. I loved working for this company, and though at times the work was hard, I learnt more than I could ever imagine. My boss was my second mentor in this life, the first of course being my dad....
But I wanted more in my professional life and due to my young age would have to wait awhile before being able to advance there...

After work and during weekends and holidays I would spend my time with friends from the church that I was going to and you can read more about that here...

My boyfriend, felt uneasy with this new church that I was going too, and a few months later we stopped seeing each other...

Another interest was road cycling, and at one stage was cycling up to 30km a day. From Te Kuiti to Otorohanga back to Te Kuiti on Saturdays' and from Te Kuiti to Hangitaki back to Te Kuiti before going to work during work Days.

As most of my spare time was taken up with the churches activities, it was only natural that a new relationship evolved with another member of the youth Group. Again this gentleman was older than I was, and we were very careful to not attract any attention from anyone that we were going together. I found I would look forward to Friday evening, so that I could see him again, and after we had finished our work with the youth group we would drop everyone off to their homes in his vechile and then chat for hours before going to our seperate homes. Our relationship was one were we thought it would last forever, nothing could get in our way, and that we would be husband and wife, run the youth group and have lots of children...

We didn't think anyone would object to our true undying love for each other. But we were wrong, His mother objected big time, I was a lowly supermarket worker, not even fit to really be seen with her son, let alone being going with him! We were devistated. I knew he loved his mum deeply, and there was no way that I wanted to come between that, so we ended the relationship. Heartbroken, it was hard to see him in church, and be so near to him in the YouthGroup. We couldn't deny our love, so we devised to continue but be even more careful to not let anyone know...Which was harder!

I hated sneaking around and watching out just in case someone saw us together, and I begun to really resent it all. I decided to move to the city, get better skills and come back more qualified for a better job than just supermarket worker. Besides, I had already decided that I wanted more in my career life, so may be this was just the motivation I needed.

It was agony! I got a job stright away in another supermarket in Hamilton, just to tied me over before going to PolyTec to do a course in Business Computering. I was boarding in a beautiful home with a lovely family, not far from where I was working, and I moved before my planned 21st could happen. I was terribly homesick for my boyfriend, and all my friends, my fimilar haunts and my funky church...

I tried to fit into other churches, but that wasn't working too well, as there seemed to be fractions in all the churches I visited. Or I didn't seem welcomed or fitted into the Youth Groups.

My boyfriend would write and tell me how much he missed me, but I couldn't write back in fear that his mother would get the post and find the letter. I was miserable, the new job was hard work, and I didn't have the social life like I had back in Te Kuiti.

I went back to Te Kuiti for my 21st, which wasn't as I had hoped, and my boyfriend didn't turn up. My parents held it in the Te Kuiti Pub, and it wasn't what they had planned either. I was grateful for them trying, but at 11pm the manager asked us to leave, so my family went to their homes, and one of the youth group members said we could continue the party at his home on his parents farm, so off we went, and danced and partied till 5am the following morning! Then dragged our bleary eyed bodies to church 4 hours later, and left during the sermon of Hell!

One day my boyfriend came to surprise me with a visit at my new job, to apologise for not coming to the party again and it tore my heart more to see him. He wrote more letters of his undying love for me, and I wrote back, we had found away to send them to his brothers home so that his mum didn't see them. But he had taken them home and hidden them in one of his drawers, and one day his mother found them and had a stroke! We both felt responsible, and never spoke to each other again...

Disenchanted with the Church and God, I threw myself into my work. The supermarket had just been taken over by new owners who were not as familar with New World workings as I was, and there was alot that needed to be done to turn the business around. I decided to wait for the next semistar to start my PolyTec course, as this would give me more time to help with the work that needed to be done in the Market.

I made friends with some of the younger checkout operators, and we would go clubing. To this day I don't know how I functioned! We would work from 8.30am till around 6-7pm, then at 9pm go off to the clubs and get home around 4.30ish, sleep for 3 or so hours, then go to work and begin the cycle all over again!