Michael+Wilson's+Page

__**COMMUNITY LINKS**__ 4/8/11- Today was my second day at Mambourin Enterprises. Today and yesterday we were in the shredding shed with Lucy. The start of yesterday (my first day) was difficult because at the start of the day, when all of the clients came in on the busses, seeing the quantity of people with special needs was hard to take in. I feel safe with Lucy; as if I won’t get spat on, or hit or anything really because she’s there. Yesterday we shredded paper that we got from Mambourin bins around town. Today, we shredded more paper and I felt closer to both, the staff, clients and volunteers. They made me feel like I belonged in the place and that I made a difference, it was nice.

9/8/11- Today was my fourth day at Mambourin Enterprises. Today we were scheduled to be with Keith in the cooking activity and in Brain Gym in the Afternoon. By Monday morning I felt so confident with **all** people at Mambourin, clients and staff. I had developed a lot of good friendships and relationships with the people there and had a really good understanding about them. Today in the cooking activity I looked after Darren and Mary. I had to take Mary to the toilet a few times during the day, which was tough, but unfortunately I was a bit late at getting her to the toilet in time, a few times. L

12/8/11- Today was my 7th and final day at Mambourin. I woke up, excited for the day, but sad for the end of a great experience. Over these seven days, I have learnt that routine is very important for these people and the difference of when they come in on Monday, not seeing me and Hamish, will not be a steady routine for them. I felt sad leaving, but happy that it happened, it was an incredible experience and the only thing I regret is not being able to be there for the full two weeks. It was emotional saying goodbye and walking out of that place not knowing what the future held for both me, and them.

__**REFLECTION QUESTIONS**__

The best piece of advice I have received was to just be myself and live life day by day. I think this is significant because, we are all here to live our life the best way we can. I have found real inspiration from this advice because it has helped me in times of need. When I feel like being someone I don’t want to be, I take this advice to mind and I try to be myself again. I think that jealously might make you try to become someone different because you’re not happy within yourself, but this advice helps you to just be you and makes you realise that we are all unique and powerful in our own ways and qualities. To me, this advice has shaped many actions that I have done in my life because it can always steer you in the right direction. I got this advice on my first year of high school and it helped me to get through what I have in my school years, so far. Advice helps people to see what they didn’t before because you cant always get the right view on everything by it just coming to you by yourself.
 * Week 1**
 * What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?**

Week 2
If everyone threw a bit of rubbish on the ground, I think that the environment would suffer so severely and you’d start seeing changes in wildlife and in the cleanness and healthiness of the earth. Litter is something that human nature does as just pure laziness. It is not impossible for everyone to walk up to a place where they can put rubbish; however it is of the laziness of human nature that environments suffer with pollution. When you litter, or pollute, you get this feeling that you are hurting and killing the environment. I feel guilty when throwing trash on the ground, and i believe the human conscience is made to feel guilty about these certain acts. When i see people litter, i look at them differently, as if i am ashamed to be walking on the same planet as them, if they just dont treat it the same as others, and as it deserves to be treated.
 * What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did?**

Week 3
If I saw one of my friends cheating on let’s say a test, I would not dob them into a teacher as if i ever cheated, i would be angry at them if they dobbed me in to a teacher. I would however have the power to tell my friend that cheating probably wasn't the best thing to do and they should have a little more confidence in themselves and in their work. I get that certain people cannot cope with test conditions and at certain times do have their own 'reasons' to cheat. Saying that, i think for a person to cheat, especially my friend, they would have to have a motive for wanting to cheat that badly. Alot of people are afraid of failing tests and assignments etc; and i think that why they do cheat. If i found out my friend was just cheating because he went out on the weekend partying and so and so, i would tell he or she the honest truth and that is, they need to 'pull their finger out' and complete the assigned work or tasks and then go out and party, not cheating. I think to have courage is to believe you can do something and believe you can do things without cheating, without making a big deal out of it, and coming out of it the better man.To be a good friend, you don't need to do what your mate asks you to do to be cool, you need to do whats best for your mate and will help him in both distant and near future.
 * What would you do if you saw a friend cheating - report it, confront the friend or nothing - and why?**
 * What do you think courage means?**
 * What do you think makes a good friend?**

Week 4
My indispensable possession would have to be my Great- Grandfathers war medals. I never met him, but these medals give me a chance to sort of connect to him. I don't look at these medals that often, however i do feel comforted, knowing that they are there. When i see these medals, i don't only think about him, but what he did for us, Australia, The World, My Family and future generations to come. If i was to come home from school one day, and these medals were gone, my stomach would automatically drop and i would get that feeling that he was no longer in my house to watch over me and my family. These medals inspired me to start researching my family history and also inspires me everyday to be more and more like him. I do not want to let him or any other of my ancestors down, and these medals, my indispensable possession, is the key to my perfect day.
 * What is your most indispensable possession and why?**

**Week 5**

 * What do you think about people polluting the environment?**

All of us at some point in our lives have contributed to pollution, whether it be leaving on unused appliances; which let off green house gasses, or driving our cars down the street because we're too lazy to walk or ride a bike. I believe that all the things we are doing to our environment is horrible, pollution has now become a topic that keeps coming up, but in reality the damage is done, we can't really change the fate of our world now, our past generations and our generation has buggered that up. It's easy to say to ourselves that personally we are not the cause of serious pollution, that its all these industrial factories that are sending out toxins into the atmosphere, but in fact there's no denying that we all contribute to our world's terrible pollution state. Global warming is coming, global warming is coming, you hear everyone say, but how many of these people that you hear say that, do nothing? I know i am just a kid, but a lot of people have their own 'smart' drunken views or 'smart' sober views, but how many people go out there and change it? Once you get the answer to those questions and someone actualy does something about it, we can at least attempt in changing what we have started for this earth.

Week **6**
Whenever I do something wrong I feel so guilty and my day, possibly my night, possibly my month or year will be ruined. Even if i don't get caught or in trouble, we all know when we have done something wrong, or crossed the line. Often whatever I've done i don't forget it, even if i try and i always try to let myself know that what I did was wrong. I am the type of person who seems to get in trouble a lot, unfortunately and i personally do not find getting in trouble fun, nor cool, i just find it that people mess up and i sure have done that a lot, but as a catholic i truly believe that god will forgive us. After saying that i have messed up, i have also experienced many feelings of doing something good on separate occasions. I always feel very proud of myself when i do something right and I like to set myself goals in my head that i may forget but when I achieve it, i know that i have achieved something that i have set myself to achieve and that makes me feel good. I believe its important for all of us to reward ourselves when we do something good because sometimes our life's will get busy and we all get stressed, but we all have to take time in our lives to either stand back from our lives and just have a break and look at them and access them.
 * How do you feel when you do something wrong?**
 * How do you feel when you do something that is very good?**

Week 7
I wish that law said that anyone who killed another human being in the country of Australia, would be sentenced to death. I do not totally agree with the concept of killing another human being, but murdering a murderer will one, make the victims families happier and more satisfied, but two, it means that in a few years, that crook isn't walking our streets anymore. It is a tough penalty, but if they commit a crime that bad, the consequences should live up to the crime. Australia is not a very safe country compared to others, and that is because of the law. Our law here in Australia is not as tough, that is why i think that at the moment refugees are trying to get their way into Australia, and to be honest, it shows a really weak link in our government and law. This law will be a good law because, for someone incident to die, and for a punishment that is not strong enough, would not be doing that person justice.
 * I wish there was a law that said... This would be a good law because...**

Week 8
Whenever I’m angry I often become very hot and I feel like tight around the chest and my breathing gets stuffed up. When I am angry, it is better to just leave me alone and don’t try to say stuff, because it will just make me worse. I do get angry often, but It is because a lot of things can get on my nerves. However, I am of course happy a majority of the time, and when I’m happy I can do and say a lot of good and positive stuff. I am most happy when it is a sunny day, and everything is going well, I enjoy the sunshine and being outdoors, but if one thing in my life is going wrong at the time, I will not enjoy the brightest day. I do not feel lonely because even when I’m by myself, I am always finding something constructive to do.
 * When you are angry, how do you look? When are you happiest? When have you felt lonely? When do you feel proud?**

Week 9
A quality that I do not like about myself if that I take things too far. I do not always think before I act and it can get me into trouble. I do not mean to do this on purpose, but it does happen and we have to accept that some qualities about us aren’t great, and now we can all work onto changing them, so we are more confident in ourselves. I think that this quality lets me down in friendships with peers, teachers and sometimes even family members. It is something that I would like to change in the near future and something that grows out of me and does not follow me though adulthood
 * Which quality do you dislike most about yourself - laziness, selfishness, childishness - and why?**

Week 10
I think that prejudice exists in the world because people think that they are better than others. To me, it does not matter if one is black, one, purple, green or rainbow, we are all human beings and we all deserve the same rights. Prejudice people and prejudice acts are selfish people and selfish acts. If we lived in a perfect world, which we certainly don’t, these acts would not be around and maybe, just maybe, the world would be a little happier. For me, hearing how black people and white people used to have to sit in different restaurants and use different toilets showed me how far we have come, but honestly, we have so much more to do to make it right. I always think in generations to come when hopefully peace is a little better to now, they’ll think, how could they do that? Just like we had thought to the people who wouldn’t let them eat at same places as each other. As generations go on, and life goes on, hopefully we can realise that what we have all been doing all along has been wrong and we make a significant change to that, as soon as the power decides to act upon it.
 * Why do you think prejudice exists in the world?**

On the two days of Melbourne experience, i enjoyed the tours and activities we did. My favorite was by far the waterfront tour and my least was the walk in the park. On these two days i learnt a lot about teamwork, the city and sustainability. A real eye opener for me was seeing the people selling the big issue and then their face when i handed over the money. On these two days, i had a lot of fun, but i did not stop as much as i would've liked to, apart from the Victoria Market tour. In the Victorian Market tour i loved the churros and buying a lot of stuff for really cheap prices (even though half of it was illegal). Finally, i enjoyed the time i got to know my teachers, class mates and other year level peers. Overall, i had a good two days, but if i could go back, i would have stopped more often.
 * MELBOURNE EXPERIENCE REFLECTION:**