Kayne – a Clarendon Vale teenager

“I’ve always lived in Clarendon Vale. I love the community; the community is amazing.

I’ve just finished college. It’s so weird and confusing to me. Now I’m 18 I can do all this adult stuff. There’s a lot of different expectations.

I have massive passion for working with kids. I’m volunteering for my kids church team in Lauderdale at Abundant Life Church and I’m also part of Grace Youth Team at Rokeby. 

I was born half deaf, my hearing was terrible. My hearing is a lot better now. I had a lot of help with school. I had to go into a quieter room and be taught by a teacher’s aide. And I feel like my passion for helping other people came because I’ve been in their situation. 

With the kids church team I’m working with the primary school kids. With the Grace Youth you’ve got mainly the high school kids. I’m trying to build up my confidence to give advice to the high school students. I can pull them aside and help them a bit. There was a lot of arguing in my household. If they’re going through a similar situation then I can give them advice.

I’m the only Christian in my family. My local church used to come here on Sunday afternoons and run barbecues. I think I was 10 so it would have been about eight years ago. I came up and they invited me to church one day and I went with my dad.

I haven’t stopped going since. It’s such a loving community. They feel like a second family to me. I get a lot of people telling me Christianity sucks, but I just fight for it. 

I went to Rosny for college. You had a lot of stereotypes. If they were to ask and you were like, hey I’m from Clarendon Vale, they would instantly think ‘bogan’ and toss stereotypes towards you. But I didn’t really get too many of them.

When I was younger my voice was weird. I got bullied a lot because of that. I’d just get bullied non-stop from high school students. The only person who would help was my sister. Now that I look back on it, people are immature and they just need to grow up.

I’ve got some amazing people around me. My mum, she’s just amazing. Single mum, four kids. I don’t know how she does it. She has her struggles, but she really doesn’t want us to see it. She’s been a massive influence on me. She won’t give up.

I’m a lot happier now than 5 years ago. 

I’ve always had an idea of what I want to do. And I make sure I have back up plans just in case it doesn’t work out. If I don’t get to be a teacher’s aide, I want to work with younger people, being a youth worker, helping them out.

My main concern now is getting a job. As long as that happens then I’m all good. I feel like if I have my P’s there’s no stopping me.”

Kayne Taylor told his story to Reena Balding.