Who am I?

Who am I?
I am a year 13 student.
I attend Bay of Islands College.
I study Maths, Chemistry, Geography, English and Digital Technology.
I live in Karetu, Northland, New Zealand.
I have a pet dog, two cats and twenty chickens.
I have a sister who is three years younger than me whose name is Hayley.
I have a mum whose name is Wendy and a dad whose name is Mark.
I live in a house on a block of land with my three family members.
I am 17 years old.
I was born on the 20th of February in the year 2001.
I am of the female gender.
I am Jessie Leigh Henwood.

So, I live in the temperate northern part of New Zealand, but I haven't always...
Let me tell you a bit about my story...
I was born in Motueka, a small town in the north of the South Island. It is approximately an hours drive from Nelson. My mum was from here so she and my dad decided to set up a backpackers business there when I was about two years old.
My sister was born when I was three and we became the bestest of friends. I had a lot of other friends as well, as a lot of my parents friends also had children that were my age. My best friend was Lucy and we spent every minute we could together.
We lived at the backpackers which kept mum and dad busy most days, but we had a great childhood growing up meeting all of the wonderful people that came to stay.
When I turned two I started day care at a local day care centre. One of my fondest memories of this time before school days was when my nana would come pick me up after day care and I'd get ice cream and fresh berries for pudding!!
Then when I turned five I went off to primary school. Riwaka Primary was a little out of town but all my friends went there so I loved it. We had the cutest little sunhats and a huge field to play on as well. All I remember was that I had the best times.
Then mum and dad decided it would be best for us to move up to my dads parents farm in the north.
I was devastated...
I knew I would miss all of my friends and family that we would be leaving several hours away.
BUT
We left all the same and I surely did miss everyone. For the first few weeks I was pretty blue. Once I realised that the move was permanent I started to accept the fact that I'd have to start again. Being a shy person at first I found it difficult to fit in with the other kids at school. However my parents made friends who lived up the same road as us and luckily they all had children the same age. I soon made friends and we became very close. My mum taught us how to ride horses and that only brought us closer. We all went to Karetu Primary together and stayed over at each others houses a lot. Growing up was fun, we went camping every year at Christmas, we went out on boat trips, we went motorbiking, hiking, mountain biking and snow skiing. We did wake boarding, sea biscuiting, water skiing, sailing, soccer, hut building, horse riding and swimming.
Cut to year 8 and I was graduating primary school. I was so nervous to go to college, but also excited.
I was so excited to start learning new things especially maths, as I loved it!!
If I could've told my younger self anything to do with maths, I would say "Be confident in what you know, as most of the time you know what it is you are supposed to be doing, listen to advice and do you best!"
I loved school and I kept my primary friends in college so I was never alone. I was a quiet, shy girl who would often just zone out and complete work, always to my best ability. I flew through school and am now enjoying my last year here at Bay of Islands College. I am now head girl here and graduate on the 2nd of November.
I have to say I've always loved maths and the decision to continue doing it in year 13 was an easy one. It will help me with my future plans and I enjoyed it so why not?
At the moment I have a job teaching young children how to swim at our local pool. I absolutely love how rewarding it is and have been doing it for the past couple years.
So, for my future, I plan on going down to the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. I will be studying Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, with the aim of getting a Bachelor of Science.
I'm really excited to head off next year but will miss my school, family and friends.
Thank you for reading my blog...
Have a great day!! :)