Faith and Mission

Year 10 RE - Resilience and Optimism

Over the past four weeks we have been studying resilience and optimism in Religious Education at Year 10. Among the tasks was research on why the student found this person so resilient and what skills and attitudes they displayed. A piece of scripture also had to be sourced and applied to the person.  

Please read the wonderful reflections from our Year 10 students:

Mr Peter O’Neill

Faith and Mission Coordinator

Hanah Sinawansa, 10MC

Rosie Batty inspires me to be resilient because, despite all the heartbreaking challenges and tragedies she had to face, she was able to become a voice for many other victims going through hardship. Rosie uses her own personal experiences to create real change and makes an effort to prevent such violence from affecting others. She inspires me because she demonstrates through her challenges, how you can overcome anything if you stay strong and have faith that you will grow from the obstacles you face. She shows me that courage is not fighting back but rather taking on life’s challenges and using that to inspire others. Her bravery encourages me to be strong and never give up hope. 

Job 14:7 - ‘For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.  This scripture passage reflects the life of Rosie Batty because even though she was “cut down” and experienced immense tragedy, she was able to “sprout again” and rise above her hardships by having the will power to stay strong and hopeful. After experiencing such hardship, she was motivated to use her personal challenges to create change and prevent others from suffering the same pain she did, which ultimately demonstrated great courage and resilience. 

• Courage: “Everyday people will say positive and encouraging things out of compassion and out of respect. This has helped my inner confidence and self-belief and managed to squash my nagging self-doubt. I have grown in a way that I never thought possible.”
• Leadership: “I believe that we’re here to be tested.  To have life lessons.  To enhance qualities of compassion, empathy and love.  To grow.  The only other choice is – if you don’t grow, you’re going to shrivel.  So there isn’t a choice, really.  You seek to grow, no matter what happens that may debilitate you.  It’s in you to keep growing, to keep rising and learning and surging forward”.
• Inspiring: “What I want people to take from this is that it isn’t simple. People judge you, people tell you what you should do. You do the best you can.”

“You will be swamped and overwhelmed and I encourage you to be big, to be bold and to be brave.”

• Determined: “It does change your life and it will never go back to being what it was, and you would change it if you could in a heartbeat, but we have enormous strength within us.”
• Influential: “there is a lot more strength and courage in us than we realise”
• Optimistic: “And here's what she discovered about herself, that it was possible to survive those first stages of shock, those first stages where your body cannot comprehend the reality. That it was possible to speak out about family violence and be heard and be the best person through that.”

Alicia Huang, 10MC

Dear Killester Community,

Hope all of you are going well. I am Alicia from Year 10 and because our Principal isn’t able to write today’s opening message, I am honoured to be the one writing for you.  This week’s newsletter is about the person you admire. Well, the person I admire is Li Cun Xin. Through researching him I realised how an excellent person lives. He grew up in the countryside and lived in a poor family of six sons but he never gave up fighting against his fate. He taught me to “never give up”, “have determination and courage to kick down the brick walls in front of you, and to go on and achieve bigger success than you ever thought possible.” 

He has also taught me to put 100% effort into everything you do because the payback that you get out of it is unthinkable. When he went to perform ballet in America he put his “whole heart and soul into each minute” and he turned out as one of the best dancers in the world! We all should try our best.  If you never give it a go you will never know the result.

Through Li Cun Xin’s attitude in living, I realised that not everything in life goes the way we want it to go. “Everything was a shock at the beginning” but slowly it will all be resolved as there is definitely not only one way to solving the problem. He teaches me that life can’t be whatever you want, we all just have to face the challenges put ahead of us and slowly break the problem.   Li Cun Xin’s life was filled with ups and downs but he still achieved what most of us may never achieve in our life. A resilient person never gives up, looks forward and whenever there is a problem they just solve it. We should all become resilient people.  Thank you for reading and enjoy your day.

Annalise Karamanlis, 10TH

Dear Killester,  

Today I will be presenting to you Neale Francis Daniher. An important Australian figure who has shown resilience throughout his life, and inspires all to preserve through all the darkness.  Neale Francis Daniher is a former member and player of Australian Football, playing in the Essendon Club in the football league. Neale was able to pursue playing over 100 games for the Essendon football team during the 1980s, and later on in his years was recruited to coach for the Melbourne football club in the AFL. Unfortunately, in 2013, Neale was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a cancer that affects the nerve cells that allow your body to move, furthermore ceasing your enablement of being able to swallow or breathe. In 2014, Neale took his disease as an opportunity to help raise funds for cures and to help educate more people about the occurrence of MND. The efforts for his resilience in helping others explore more about MND reached the Football Association, where an event of the ‘Big Freeze’ took place to raise more awareness of the disease. The ‘Big Freeze’ was an encouraging event that prompted football players and celebrities to partake in sliding down into icy water, representing the struggles people such as Neale Daniher faced with MND. Neale was the key figure for this particular event, and over the past years he was able to raise tremendous amounts of support for research and development in the disease, having been able to raise over 46 million dollars for MND research. The contribution Neale Daniher has made for the community, despite the circumstances in which he constantly challenges and jeopardizes him, Neale has always remained persistent to push past the ongoing difficulties he himself faces and works harder for the betterment of those who also face the strain of MND.

Tiahna Nickels, 10TH

Weary Dunlop has demonstrated a great deal of skills and attitudes in his life, one of which is to know how to be assertive. Assertiveness doesn't come easily for everyone, but when Dunlop was put in extremely tough circumstances, he demonstrated this ability by speaking up and defending others who didn't have a voice. An example of this was the fact that although he was a victim of POW, he maintained harmony among his fellow soldiers and stood up for them, despite threats from the guards.

Sienna Quinn, 10TH

Bethany Hamilton displays many of the important skills and attitudes of resilient people and she demonstrates them in her everyday life. After being attacked by a shark, many people would ask ‘Why me?’, and begin to blame themselves or the world for what happened. However, Bethany’s ability to forgive and let go of what happened to her and not hold any negative feelings helped her to get straight back into surfing with goals and a positive mind. Often Bethany relates to what happened as ‘God’s path and peace’ for her, and how He has helped Bethany to find herself through doing what she loves.  

Cindy Tran,10TH

Sense of Occasion. Bethany Hamilton knew the importance of gratitude and enjoyed the beauty of life. Although she was attacked by a shark, she didn’t let that change her attitude. When she lost her arm, she was “just thankful to be alive” which “propelled her to have a more positive mindset. 

Claudia Mazzarella, 10TH

Kylie Minogue has inspired many people throughout her battle with cancer and through her passion of singing, music and song writing. She has been around forever and is still well known today. Kylie inspires me, as she went through her personal battle with cancer and came out with a positive mindset inspiring others, and myself too.  Being resilient is important because it helps to maintain a balanced life in stressful and overwhelming times. It can prevent us from mental health issues as well. Kylie demonstrated great resilience as she pushed through the tough times in her life. It is always important to know you are not on your own, like Kylie, she didn’t do it alone; she had her medical team and family beside her helping to overcome the tough times and remain resilient.

Sandra Nguyen, 10TH

Jason Paul McCartney (who was caught in the Bali bombings) has inspired me because of his decision making. He made me realises that we only have one life and we need to live it to our fullest. By living our lives to the fullest we should reach out to our dreams and we shouldn’t make excuses because one thing he’s taught me is that nothing is impossible. He taught me that failure is possible but it is also possible to learn how to cope with it and flip the negative to a positive. A strong message he said was that “it’s not what you’ve dealt with in life, it’s how you dealt with it”. Even though he dealt with the bombing it depends on how you deal with it, you have two options. To do nothing about it or pick yourself up and keep fighting again.