Graduation Day Reflections

Ashlee and Tanya

Ashlee started her journey with Big Brothers Big Sisters

in 2010 when she was nine years old. She was a bright freckle-faced wee lass, who lived with her mother and older teenage sister. Her mother was struggling to manage her sister who was starting to challenge the boundaries.

Both girls were starting to spend more time hanging out in the community at parks and outside the stores. Her sister was starting to experiment with alcohol and smoking with her peers while Ashlee was present.

Ashlee was matched with Big Sister Tanya, who was a strong, intelligent and caring lady. Tanya had not had children of her own but wanted to share her time to support a young person on their journey through life.

Ashlee and Tanya built a special connection over the following eight years and did many activities that supported Ashlee in building confidence and life skills. Ashlee looked forward to seeing Tanya every week. Ashlee had a strong and caring supporter in Tanya, which was invaluable as life threw her a curve ball with her mother passing away after a long term illness. Her mothers illness impacted Ashlee every day and at times she would become the carer, managing the daily functioning of the home.

During this time Ashlee was not interested in school and she started to become more absent. Through all this Ashlee knew that she had Tanya there for support, caring words and guidance.

Ashlee turned 18 recently, graduating out of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Nelson-Tasman programme. She is now a beautiful and positive young woman with a clear idea of what she wants to do with her future. Through the support of Tanya and the BBBS life skills fund, Ashlee obtained her restricted licence, which gives her the means to attend work and have independence. Ashlee now has a position working in shearing gangs and she loves this role. Ashlee’s parting comments were, ‘I just love Tanya and the time we spent together, she was always there for me. We will always be friends now.’ The support she has received from her mentor gave her one place in her life, where she did not have to think or talk about what was going on at home. She could just have some fun.

It has been humbling to see the resilience in this incredible young lady, who has overcome challenges and is working towards the goals she has set for herself. One day in the future, Ashlee also would like to consider becoming a Big Sister herself.