Twenty-one years ago, Makayla Foster made the front page of the Manning River Times for being the first baby born in the Manning Valley at the turn of the millennium, at 4.53am on January 1, 2000.
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She's made the local papers regularly since then - we caught up with her when she turned 10 years old, and again when she celebrated her 18th birthday.
To mark her 18th birthday, Makayla partied with family and friends at the Harrington Festival and fireworks, with her girlfriends camping out at her home for extended celebrations.
At the time she told the Manning River Times she had plans to enter the police force after she completed the HSC at St Clare's High School, Taree. However, there was a change of plans, unbeknownst to her mother, Natasha.
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Makayla had changed her mind and wanted to join the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and Natasha had no idea until Makayla came home one day and told her she'd joined the navy.
"She got the ATAR to get into the police force but she'd already joined the navy and she got accepted!" Natasha said.
Eleven weeks of intensive training at Recruit School began in March, followed by a further six months to become an able seaman.
"The graduation for the Navy was just fantastic. I've never seen anything like it. It was absolutely beautiful to watch. I felt like I wanted to explode. I was just beaming with so much pride. It's only one in 10 people that get in the Navy. It's a hard 11 weeks for them," Natasha said.
Makayla has since been deployed on the HMAS Canberra (L02) for five months on the South China Sea. Because of COVID, those five months were spent entirely on the amphibious assault ship with no trips to land.
She has two deployments scheduled this year.
Her 21st birthday was a much tamer affair. Makayla had just come of one 24 hour shift and was due to go on another the next day, so partying hard was out of the question. Instead, she had lunch with her boyfriend, parents and brother.
Makayla's parents travelled down from their home in Harrington Waters to Marourbra, where Makayla now lives.
"We had a beautiful 21st for her at Clovelly Hotel. We walked from Maroubra all the way along the water. We had a beautiful day," Natasha said.