Henry Harfield
Occupation: General Assistant, CatStrand Cafe
Location: New Galloway
Growing up in the Glenkens, nineteen-year-old Henry Harfield is at an age where he is considering how and where he sees himself spending his future.
We met up with Henry at his workplace in New Galloway to find out what his life is like just now and where he plans to go from here.
He enjoys his job at The CatStrand: “I serve people in the cafe on a day-to-day basis, as well as helping out with other tasks around the place that need doing. Today I’m pressure washing the outside area, for example.”
It seems Henry is more than capable of turning his hand to a wide variety of tasks, having already spent time as an apprentice decorator, helped out with youth football sessions, and currently he attends college in Dumfries where he is studying for an HNC in Health & Fitness. The youth football and his current studies both follow the direction Henry hopes navigate towards, having applied to university with the aim of becoming a PE teacher. Although he will have to leave the area to attend university, thinking ahead Henry says he feels he would like to return to the Glenkens for his first teacher placement:
“It's nice here - a good place to start out ... It's quiet and safe, and because I know the area and people, and my family are here, it would make it easier. The schools are small as well, which I think would be better to start off with.”
His main interest outside of work and study is sport, in particular football. This has played a large part in his life from a young age:
“I had a really nice childhood growing up in New Galloway. At primary school I had lots of friends to play football with and the freedom to be outside all the time. And there was a lot of interaction between the village's primary schools with tournaments; it was really good.”
As an adult Henry still plays a lot of football, and has found people to train with through the Threave Rovers Development Team. He points out that he just plays for fun though, and doesn't want pursue the sport professionally. Thinking about his childhood and how lucky he’s been to be raised in the Glenkens, Henry ponders:
“I think the Glenkens is a good place to grow up because you've got lots of different things for different people...my sister’s got gymnastics and dance and my younger brother's into his fishing - there's a lot of lochs in the Glenkens for that. Then there’s a very good golf course...” he laughs and adds; “we go sledging there!”
Henry smiles as he considers other activities that his family and other people in the locality take part in:
“There are bingo nights and quiz nights and stuff like that. Both my older brother and my younger brother are into kickboxing and MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] - they used to do that in Dalry. So there's a lot of stuff going on; people might not realise that, with it being quite rural here.”
He laughs again as he remembers one of his mum’s favourite activities, which is is wild swimming, something he himself is not quite as drawn to:
“It seems like a lot of people do it - my mum goes with a big group of people. But I couldn’t think of anything worse than freezing cold water! I tried it once and it was just like 20 seconds in the water and you're back out and want to go home.”
Henry is pretty sure that he’s happy sticking with football, and will leave the sub-zero swimming to others!
One of the things he likes most about the area is just hanging out with his family doing simple things: “Dog walks around here are quite good because you've got lots of paths and scenic routes and there's lots of different places to go. It never gets boring.”
He admits it is easy to start taking this area for granted and forget to appreciate just how lucky he is to live here. The area is incredibly peaceful, resulting in a lifestyle with very low stress levels. Henry is unsure how he will feel about the city when he goes there for university, but he thinks it might make him appreciate the Glenkens and its people even more:
“You just kind of know everyone here. And everybody knows you. You have to be okay with everyone knowing everything about you... and it's nice in that way. I would say this is home; I can’t see that changing.”
