Chang Reflection

This month the year 11’s from Chang, participated in the retreat. It was an exciting two days, and we were lucky enough to go to the city. When the year 11’s first arrived we had a quick break before we went straight to mass at St Francis Church. It is known as one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Victoria. At the mass, the priest talked about how we should be deepening our faith during Lent and spending more time in God’s presence.

After this Chang made its way towards the Flagstaff Gardens. It was then announced by the teachers that we had to do a performance of some sort talking about Victor Chang and the three core values of our cluster – compassion, dignity, endeavor. It was amazing to see all the classes get very competitive. Everyone worked really hard to put on the best performance! From this we saw a lot of people’s creativity and talent’s blossom. In the end, C3 were announced as the best performers, with C2 getting an honorable mention!

After dinner we were taken to the State Library where we split up into our tutor groups. There were four activities planned, and we would do a rotation of all these activities. The first activity (for C2) was the campfire talk. We were all made to sit in a circle with our whole home base while Morgana asked some questions. This was a valuable experience, as it deepened the bonds between each home base, we saw different sides to people, and people opened up about topics that meant a lot to them and things that they have struggled with. It was an eye-opening experience to see how people were going through the same thing as you, or going through the toughest of experiences yet they smiled and pushed past it. The second activity was making mandalas. This was a relaxing experience as we were able to reflect with God and try and deepen our faith. The third activity was to make rosary beads. It was fun as we were able to craft, as well as reflect on the activities we had before. The last activity we had was the city night walk. This was a change from the other activities, and it was a lot of fun seeing the city in a different environment. The city was even prettier at night, as it was lit up with hundreds of lights. Yet it was just as busy! The sidewalks were filled with buskers, my favourite busker was a person who used pots and pans yet made the best sounding music. It was also interesting to see the types of people that would come out at night.

The second day was also filled with team/home base bonding. We were divided into our home bases and the first activity was a scavenger hunt around Victoria Market. This was a fun competition, but it was hard to find all the items in the time limit. Congratulations to Jackie, Ethan and Makedon who won the scavenger hunt. The next activity was capture the flag with our home groups. We went up against C1. It was a very competitive game, yet in the end C1 won. We ended our Retreat with a liturgy. It was a meaningful end to the exciting two days we had. The liturgy reflected on the new relationships we had gained, and the new things we learned about our old friends. It was a beautiful way to finish the retreat.

Rachael D’Souza