Most stories of small towns portray young people as desperate to escape for the big city. But one small town girl travelled halfway around the world to realise she wanted to stay home.
Florida reminded Justine Conway she enjoys a "much smaller scale of life". Photo: Unknown
After almost a year working at Disneyworld in Florida, Justine Conway, 23, was so homesick she was nearly ready to pack it all in and head home to Gisborne. She stuck it out, but she’s back there now, working as a librarian at a local high school.
The popular narrative around people from the provinces is that they are desperate to flee for the bright lights of the nearest big city. But while she studied in Wellington, and lived in the United States, Justine says she is very much a provincial person. She feels at home in Gisborne.
“I enjoy the pace of life here; it’s very easy. Wellington is a lot of hustle bustle,” she says. “I wasn’t a huge fan of the culture down there. I feel like a lot of people were quite alternative, and you have to be a certain kind of person to fit in.”
Conway says she learned a lot while studying in Wellington, but she was extremely homesick. “But I made the most of it, and it is really good to be back.”
And it was a whole other story living in the US. “Every single day I was coming into contact with such a high volume of people; that was quite overwhelming to begin with. It reminds you that you do enjoy a much smaller scale of life.”
While she was overseas she missed people – not specific people, but Kiwi people. Having her accent be a novelty, and be mistaken for an Australian, was wearing. “I just missed being able to mutter away, using our colloquial language, and have people understand me.” She got sick of having to tailor her speech for Americans and to speak slowly.
There were a lot of occasions where I got given the cold shoulder as soon as I opened my mouth, because I was a foreigner
“Unfortunately there were a lot of occasions where I got given the cold shoulder by them, because as soon as I opened my mouth they knew I was a foreigner. There are people over there who don’t want to give you the time of day, who actually become extrermely rude when they realise you’re not one of them.”
Conway thinks of home differently now, whether it’s remarking on the price of apples at the supermarket, or the accessibility of healthcare. Getting sick while she was working in Florida was completely unaffordable. “Even with my health insurance, as a foreigner on a [cultural exchange] J1 visa, it would have still cost me hundreds of dollars to see a doctor. So considering the incredibly low wage I was earning, I just had to prioritise other things.”
She now appreciates what being a citizen of New Zealand affords her. “It’s nice to be home and be able to go to the doctor or the dentist, and know it’s not going to cost the earth.”
Justine is now living at home with her parents, in the house they built when they were newly married, before she was born. “For me, I think because I’ve lived in the same house my entire life, I feel like familiarity is home to me.
“I don’t care how many people rag on Gisborne, and tell me it’s a hole, that it’s a trap... I really don’t care, because this is where I grew up, and it’s all I ever knew as a little girl.
“At some point in my life I feel like I would be happy settling down here.”
Justine says it doesn’t matter what weird corners of the world she finds herself in – because she has the travel bug – Gisborne is home. “It's just so lovely to be able to go, and come back and have stories to tell.”
To her, home is where you can leave and happily return.