Stefan's+Reflection+Page

9/8/11 It’s been over a week now and I am enjoying every bit of it. Going to Wyndham Lodge makes me feel like I need to be more responsible and sometimes it brings me out of my comfort zone which can help me later on in the future. Community Links gives me the chance to improve my experience that revolves around my work skills and personal development. The past week has built my confidence to a higher level than it was before, I feel more confident in what I am doing at Wyndham Lodge, now that I know what to do and how to do it.
 * __Community Links__**

10/8/11 Today was a busy day at Wyndham Lodge; Alex, Aiden, Carl and I Helped out the ‘Handy Man’ of Wyndham Lodge. We started by doing our normal routine like jotting down today’s food and activities on a piece of paper then writing it on every board in the lodge; later on in the day the handy man needed our help to get some useless things out of a container and into a big garbage bin. After we helped him out with the load of garbage, we put more things in the container where it could be stored. During my lunch break I bought lunch for the handy man as a favor. Overall it was a good busy and rather cold day. 11/8/11 Today was the second last day of our community links experience, today was a short day for we had to leave early. Reason for us to leave early was because the staff of Wyndham Lodge was having a meeting with someone from a business of some sort. Today we finished off what we started yesterday with the handy man and did our normal routine of putting the daily meals on the boards. When it was 12 o’clock all of us finished and went on to do our own things, Aiden and I met up with Stephen and Blake during their lunch break to play some games at GUF, it was a nice relaxing day.

Reflections
Each student will build their own page for the puposes of Reflection. This is because when two students are using the same page at the same time the page will not save properly.

Each week for 10 weeks you will need to make a relection about your experiences. Each reflection is expected to at least 200 words in length.

The topic or questions you are asked to reflect on at listed below. Copy these questions to your individual reflection page.

Week 1
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? The best piece of advice I have ever received is from my uncle. My uncle told me last year to start looking for a university, to be prepared for the future. He also told me to really concentrate on this years subjects, because the earlier you do well on your studies, the better chance of me getting to university. Another good piece of advice is from my parents, which was to stay out of the rat race. The first time they said it to me I didn’t understand what meant, but they gave me a book about how to make money work for you and the meaning of “Rat Race” was written in it. I finally understand what they have been saying. I thank my parents and my uncle for giving me their advice, it is good to get this sort of advice at an early age and you wake up and start to really understand what we need to do with our life and what we need to do in school.

Week 2
What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did? If I threw a piece of trash on the ground, carelessly, the piece of trash would carry itself to maybe a beach or down a drain. This will lead to pollution which could cause dirty water or death to animals that could be affected by the pollution from the trash. Thankfully I don’t do this; I clean up my mess make sure that my surroundings are clean to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If everyone does this, the whole world would be full of garbage on the streets and no one would care to clean it up. The world would be dirty within years to come, population of humans would decrease and animals would be extinct from the damage that we would have caused. We would struggle to stay alive from our mess and wish we would have done something earlier to fix our problem. It’s a good thing that we are trying to fix it now, before it was too late. It’s a good thing that we are recycling some of our garbage, because we reuse our things and still keep the world clean.

Week 3
What would you do if you saw a friend cheating - report it, confront the friend or nothing - and why? It really depends on what he what he’s cheating on. If he was cheating in a harmless game of footy or basketball with some mates, I would probably let it go because he’s not causing any harm in cheating in a little game. If he was cheating in a test or an exam, it’s a different story; I would walk up to him and confront him as a friend and say that what he is doing is wrong, he should be honest and confess to what he has done. The reason why I would do this is because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t report it because I think the person who cheated should be honest and they should speak out; knowing me, if I cheated in something like a test or an exam, I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt.

What do you think courage means? Courage is a word for bravery or fearless, I word that means that you won’t stop no matter what’s ahead of you. The ability to confront fear, danger or something that could cause pain to you; the opposite to ‘Coward’ or ‘Scared’. I think this is what courage means because I read up on the word once in the dictionary. What do you think makes a good friend? Good friends make you feel comfortable around them; they understand you and trust you like you trust them. Good friends appreciate what you do and what you like, they don’t judge you by your cover. Good friends can come in different ways, they could be completely different to you but somehow you connect and find them interesting and fun to be with. Then you have friends that are close to being your brother or sister; they think the same way you do, know where you are coming from in any conversation or situation and both one would know what the other one is thinking just by looking at them.

Week 4
What is your most indispensable possession and why? My most indispensable possession is music and friends. Music is one of my most indispensable possessions because music comforts me, makes me happy and helps me concentrate. Music is everywhere in this world, it teaches us things with its meanings and lets us enjoy a party with some friends. My guitars are one of my ways to show that music is an important possession to me. Friends are another possession because friends are great to have. You choose who you want to be friends with and sometimes friendship just happens out of the blue. Friends are people you know and trust, people who respect you and like you for who you are. Knowing that there are people you can depend on, look up to for advice or just a mate to have fun with, is a great feeling to have. I think friendship is an important thing to have in life, which is why it is one of my most indispensable possessions today.

**Week 5**
What do you think about people polluting the environment? I think its sad to know that there are people in the world who don’t care about their planet and how it is dying from the cause and how creatures are dying and becoming extinct from it and how people from other, more poor countries are suffering from their polluted water. When is see people polluting in the streets and look at the expression from their faces, I think that they don’t care about the rest of the world and rather live in a bad, unhealthy world than one that is clean and environmentally friendly. A lot of people don’t take pollution that seriously and dump their trash next to shops, in alleys or even out in the open where it can catch the wind and go to the nearest drain or beach it can find.

Week **6**
How do you feel when you do something wrong? When I do something wrong I feel guilty and devastated. I try really hard to stay away from the wrong and hopefully, one day, not to worry about it. I hate the feeling of guilt, especially when I have done something wrong to feel that way. The reason why I hate the feeling of guilt is because I get stressed when I get the feeling, I get hot and I start to breath heavily. Eventually I can get to the point where I can’t take it anymore a have to confess to get rid of the guilt. To prevent this from happening I confess when I feel the slightest bit of guilt. How do you feel when you do something that is very good? I feel proud and happy about myself when I do something right or good. Knowing that I maybe got a good score on a test, helped out a friend or cleaned up the area without anyone asking me to gets me in a good mood to do more good things and stay away from the bad. I focus on doing the good things in life. When I’m switched on and aware about what’s going on around me, I try my best to be polite and respectful in public, mainly when I’m in school uniform.

Week 7
I wish there was a law that said... This would be a good law because... I wish there was a law that said you cannot litter. Littering is a problem that we tend to forget and not worry about but we would eventually take notice when our littering will cause us to suffer. We are not the only ones to suffer when it comes to us littering, creatures such as fish, ducks, penguins and seals suffer from this problem. If you are caught throwing a wrapper of a chocolate bar, you are let off with a warning but you are informed to pick it up and dispose of it in the nearest garbage bin. If you are caught littering to a point where it is really going to effect the environment, you are given a fine (The amount of money for the fine depends on how much damage your littering will cause and as to what items you are dumping). This would be a good law because it would lower the chances of littering around the world. This law is a harsh one but it’s possibly one of the only ways to stop littering around our world. Eventually it will get to the point where it is to late to fix this problem.

Week 8
When you are angry, how do you look? When are you happiest? When have you felt lonely? When do you feel proud? I’m not always angry... I’m hardly angry, but when I am, it’s usually from frustration / stress, confusion or when I get really annoyed. I don’t look too bad when I’m angry but you would obviously want me to be happy than angry. I’m at my happiest when I’m enjoying myself whether I’m with friends, family or just watching a good show on the television. I love being happy, it is one of the feelings I concentrate on using most of my time. I once felt lonely when I was lost in Seaworld at the age of around 4 or 5; it took a while but I was found by my father (That’s what you get for running off). I feel proud when I’m doing something right or good for my wellbeing. I usually experience the feeling of being proud when I Finish a test or get good grades, help someone such as a friend with homework or a person with directions, or very basically finishing a song that took ages to learn on guitar.

Week 9
Which quality do you dislike most about yourself - laziness, selfishness, childishness - and why? The qualities that I dislike about myself are laziness and forgetfulness. Laziness is one of my biggest qualities. When it comes to laziness, physically I can be at times, mainly at home, but I’m lazier mentally. When I’m lazy it’s usually because I don’t want to do what I’m told to, I’m slow especially in the morning and I tend to sleep in a lot. Being forgetful is “The” biggest quality I have. I am very forgetful in many ways. I hate the fact that I forget about the easy and little things that I have to do around the house such as cleaning my room, helping out with the dishes, setting up the table for dinner etc. I also dislike the fact that I can easily forget people’s names that I met days beforehand. When I get distracted I can easily forget what I was doing and have to think back. The thing that really gets me though is when I go to the pantry or the fridge, open it and forgot why I even went there in the first place. These are my biggest qualities and sadly the ones that I dislike the most from all the other qualities i have.

Week 10
Why do you think prejudice exists in the world? I think prejudice exists in this world because of all the things that have happened in the past. For example, if we didn’t have wars against each other as countries such as the Great War and World War II, we wouldn’t have judged the other countries before we’ve met them. Media I think is another reason why there is a lot of judgment going on around the world because it shows a lot things such as War, fights and protesting which can cause people to judge others just by looking at there skin, religion and there background or where they came from. Another reason why I think prejudice exists in this world is because of the rumours that happen around areas such as schools. Kids could be judged just by the rumours that the other students have heard around the school yard; eventually this could sadly lead to the point of bullying such as teasing, name calling, bashing (if it gets that far) or just the simple, harsh sign of rejection and being excluded from groups and left without friends. It’s even getting to the point where people are judge for the tiniest of things such as what they ware, what songs they listen to and what colour their hair is. These are the reason why I think prejudice exists in this world today.

Melbourne Experience
Melbourne Experience was a great two day excursion. I love the fact that we were able to go around Melbourne using a guide and a map and having no teachers looking out for us but waiting at a checkpoint where we get signed off to say that we have made it to the check point. Brandon and Aiden were great to hang around with during the two days; we experienced a lot of things in these tours and some of them brought back some memories. I really enjoyed doing the tours, especially the walk through the park, because I like walks that go long distances. Another reason why I liked the walk through the park compared to the other tours is because we eventually got lost and had to figure out the way back to home base. I like having a challenge and this tour gave me that challenge by trying to get my group and another back to home base. We mainly stopped at food stores and cafe’s for we were mainly into food than clothing or electronic on those two days. Overall Brandon, Aiden and I really enjoyed ourselves, we had a great time as a group and learnt a lot through out the expedition.