Quote of the day: "If you focus on results, you will never get change. If you focus on change, you will get results." - Jack Dixon
Last night's evening class:
Last night for our evening class, we had our guest speaker - Darren McCubbin - play a few theatre sports. The common room was split into two halves, and those were the two teams. It was "US" vs "THEM". I was a member of the "them" team, and everyone got really excited, and were raring to start. There were quite a few games, and I believe, as a community, we were brought closer together. There were so many funny moments, and a lot of cheering.
My team - "them" - was in the lead for most of the rounds, but unfortunately, in the final 2-3 games, we were beat by "us". Since they were the winners, the "us" team were given either a (mini) Mars bar, or a (once again, mini) Snickers bar. HOWEVER, in a SHOCKING turn of events, we got chocolates too, and although "us" were a little upset at that, everyone was ultimately happy (^-^)
Today:
As it is ANZAC Day today, we had a small dawn service, in front of the Lone Pine that is in the school grounds. I woke up at 5 a.m. because we had the service at 6 - which was decided by the SRC community in a vote we had the night before. As one of the student Leaders, I had to help host the service. I read the ANZAC Requiem in front of the other Snowy students, and introduced the segments we had to do. Then Jack - the other student leader - read out a tribute to the Indigenous Soldiers. Jessalyn played the Last Post on her saxophone, and we rolled straight into a minute of silence. Although we were all very tired, and cold, we finished the ceremony by singing the first verse of the national anthem.
In morning class, we were starting to prepare ourselves, and pack for our three day expedition - which begins tomorrow. The teachers got us to put everything that was in a list on the back of our doors, into our massive (orange) garbage bags before the lesson, so we were already somewhat prepared.
The first thing we did, was split of into two groups - boys and girls. Once the boys went to another room, we shared what our hopes and concerns were for the expedition. We went around the 'class' and read them out loud, and many of us shared the same hopes and concerns, so the teacher - Ms Fuhrmann - explained what we would do as a precaution for those situations (mainly the concerns - e.g. forgetting something, getting cold, getting covered in mosquito bites) Once we shared our hopes, and our concerns were put to ease, we figured out what our personal and team goals were. It was very easy to do this, because we just summarised our hopes, and put them all together to make our goal. We then made our own personal goals, and mine was to try and interact more with the girls, and not close up as much as I usually do in conversation. As student leader, I had to go another ANZAC service, so we quickly moved onto designating roles for the three days (e.g. navigator - lead the way to the campsites, and tells us how much we have left, hygiene (person) - making sure everyone sanitizes their hands before meals, after going to the toilet, etc.). I volunteered to be the time keeper on the first day, team organiser on the second, and on the final day, I was given the role of whip - to stay near the back of the group and motivate those near the back, so they feel supported.
Immediately after that, I went to a small service in Orbost for ANZAC Day. It wasn't that big a ceremony (in comparison to the one I went to in Melbourne last year), but it was quite beautiful. There were many people there - family members, organisations like the SES, RSL and Victoria Police, and a few primary schools as well as secondary schools.
We - the student leaders - only stayed for the first part of the service, and laid down a wreath in front of a memorial, because it was really important for us to go back and organize our packs for expo tomorrow. However, I did enjoy it, and it made me realise how one event can affect, and bring together, so many people.
Once we came back, we just finished packing our hiking packs, and during afternoon class, we sorted out our breakfasts, and who was carrying what food for the three days.
Motivated Monday:
The main positive I have for the past week is that I managed to settle into Snowy quite well, and met new people. I am fairly proud of how quickly I have gotten comfortable in this new place.
So far, I have had a lot of fun here, and learnt new things about myself that I wouldn't have if I hadn't come to SSL. These experiences that I have been through while I have been here give me a bit of hope of what is ahead. Especially with our three-day expo coming up, I am really nervous about that, but seeing how supportive the community is, and that everyone is somewhat on the same page, eases that a little. (^-^)