General

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About Me

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. – Nelson Mandela

Nowadays in our society so many young people are blinded by the thought that you should never fail, lose or do bad, that when that does happen, they cannot comprehend how to bounce back. This quote above resembles with me a lot because it shows the importance of integrity and determination. If you ever fail, lose or not do as well in something as you wished, you should not completely dismiss yourself, you should take it on the chin and bounce back even harder.

My name is Tanaka Munyikwa. I am fifteen years old, born on May 31, 2007, and currently attend All Saints’ College in Western Australia. I have been a part of the All Saints community since 2019, entering in Year 7. From the very beginning, I have cherished my time here. I am a trustworthy individual who values integrity and determination as the two most essential qualities one should possess.

Interests and Hobbies:

In my free time, I enjoy playing video games, listening to music, and participating in various sports. I also take pleasure in spending time with friends and engaging in community service and charity events. Contributing to the community brings me great joy, especially knowing that my actions can bring happiness to others.

Academic Journey:

When I first joined All Saints in 2019, my academic performance was satisfactory, though it fell short of the expectations my parents and I had set. Unfortunately, my grades declined further in 2020 and 2021, despite my efforts. This period was challenging, as I struggled to achieve the results I desired, often scoring in the low 60s. This led to a decrease in my motivation, and I found myself at a low point.

However, in 2022, I made a personal commitment to improve both academically and personally. This resolve proved successful, as I have since achieved my best academic results to date, consistently earning top scores and maintaining an A average across my MESH subjects (Math, English, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences).

Now in 2024, I have continued to build on this momentum through the help of friends, family and those around me I am tackling ATAR and producing the best grades I have seen in my life. Which will allow me to get to the course and university I am going for.

Reflection:

This experience has reinforced my belief in the importance of integrity and determination. By honestly assessing my situation, I recognized that my grades were not where they needed to be, and I used determination to drive my efforts to improve. The quote, “rise every time we fall,” resonates deeply with me, as it encapsulates the journey I’ve undertaken.

Conclusion:

This story holds great significance to me because it exemplifies the power of integrity and determination. I hope it inspires others to recognize that there is always an opportunity to rise after a fall. Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I wish you a wonderful day.

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Health Campaign

What were the biggest things you learnt while completing this task?

One of the most significant lessons I learned is the serious risk posed by distracted driving, particularly when using a mobile phone. Intoxicated driving is, of course, incredibly dangerous, but what surprised me most was realizing how even something as simple as eating while driving can be hazardous.

What one piece of advice would you pass on to young drivers above all else? Why?

If I could offer one crucial piece of advice to young drivers, it would be this: Never allow your phone to distract you while driving. A split second of distraction can be the difference between life and death. I emphasize this point because, as a teenager, I understand how deeply embedded mobile phones and social media are in our daily lives, and how difficult it can be to resist the urge to check them constantly.

Write down a pledge that you will commit to when you start driving. Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to these commitments?

  • Never Drink and Drive
  • Never Use My Phone While Driving

I chose these commitments because they are essential not only for safe driving but also for personal growth. Avoiding drinking and driving will help me establish responsible habits, reducing the risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Similarly, by not using my phone while driving, I can better manage my impulses and understand the dangers of technology addiction. While I acknowledge that there might be situations where eating while driving is unavoidable, I believe that by adhering to these two pledges, I can not only protect myself but also set a positive example for others.

To stay committed to these pledges, I plan to take on responsibilities that reinforce them. For example, when attending social events with friends, I will volunteer to be the designated driver. This will give me a clear reason to abstain from drinking. As for my phone, I will make it a habit to place it out of reach, such as in the glovebox, before I start driving. This simple action will help eliminate the temptation to check it while on the road.

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MUIR – Snorkeling Reflection

For 1 of my electives for semester 1 in Year 9 I chose the outdoor ED, MUIR. In this subject. In Term 1 the first topic we explored was snorkeling. When we started we looked at snorkeling and what it is. We looked into the different techniques of snorkeling, duck diving and blowing. We also looked at the different types of equipment needed to snorkel fun and successfully, like a mask, tube, wetsuit and fins. I was not a very good swimmer at the time of learning this, but this topic helped me become more confident in swimming and snorkeling, and also helped me gain lots of skills capabilities.

Coogee:

After a few weeks practicing in the closed environment we went on our first snorkelling excursion to coogee. This was really fun as we got to head down to Coogee beach and the maritime trail (shipwreck). Its a really interesting place and amazing to snorkel at, as there are many attractions like marine life and submerged shipwreck details. We were separated into groups of two and went out.

Rottnest:

After going out to Coogee on three different occasions we took a ferry to Rottnest. This was a very fun day, our classes went out in rotations to snorkel at the basin. I was really grateful for the experience considering what the rest of the world is going through with the COVID pandemic.

Capabilities/Skills

Through my experiences snorkelling in MUIR I have learn’t and sharpened many capabilities that I can use in situations for the rest of my life. These are leadership, problem solving, being collaborative and organisation.

The skill I think I have sharpened the most is organisation. When we first started snorkelling and practicing in the aquatic center, usually I would forget to bring bathers and swim in my shorts. I would also never bring goggles or a towel. These actions impacted me and my chances of being able to swim at Coogee and Rottnest as I did not have the equipment. After realizing this I started to pay more attention to my organisational skills by doing things such as setting reminders on my watch and filling out my diary.

My second largest skill I believe I sharpened was being collaborative, when I came into year 9 I was used to stay in litttle groups with my friends for everything. When Muir started Mrs Gray noticed that and she started to split us up with other people. I am quite grateful this happened because it led me to build new relationships with others and learn about new perspectives and opinions. This is also very realistic to the real world as you will rarely get to choose who you want to work with. This helped my collaborative skills very much and made it easier to build friendships and work with other people that I rarely meet or talk to.

Leadership is another capability/skill I believed I improved. When I first started I could consider myself a good leader, but I didn’t really care about being a leader or showcasing my skill. My leadership skills improved because Mrs Gray gave us lots of oppourtunities. For example we were given tasks to create a team building game, we were also put into groups for certain activities and that helped me to lead my group and help them. Another example is always adding in something to say as long as it helps the class.

My problem solving skills have always been good but participating in MUIR has made them better. During snorkelling I was given a lot of problem solving situations for example, being disorganised I problem solved by doing things that will help me for example setting reminder on my watch and filling out my diary.

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Christmas Market

At the start of Term 4, we started a project called the Christmas Market. The whole point was for the school to give us $30 to use to create products. With the profit from the products we created, we had it given all to the salvation army.

My group had consisted of Myself, Matthew and Benjamin Our basketball game and we had high hopes for our sales.

At the end, If I were to go through this process all over again, I would: Choose a better group, choose and easier product to meet demands and make a better profit, be more organized, do even better in our advertising and be able to have done better in this whole market assessment.

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2020…Quarantine

Out of 4.5 billion years… 2020 is the craziest. I never would have thought a global pandemic would have happened and the world would be on lock down.

During these lock down times I have learnt a lot about my self and I hope those reading have too. In a challenging time like this I have been given the opportunity to reflect on myself as a person and what matters to me.

Personally, in quarantine I have noticed that I prefer being with myself rather than around people and relax but when I am around people I want it to be fun. I also learnt that I actually missed school and wanted to see my friends.

In terms of my family, I learnt that I really loved spending time with them and being around them a whole lot more, but after a long time sibling’s can become annoying and parents ask for a lot of chores. Me and my family also went and did lots of exercise as a family to keep our fitness up during quarantine.

In terms of my community, I learnt that I found it really sad to drive past my park and see nobody was there because  before lock down there used to be 15-20 people at a time. There were also lots of public events like outdoor movies once a month and community parties but now all of those things have been canceled not.

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Health Reflection

Over a couple of weeks, we have filled in a booklet about online behaviours. In this unit, I learnt to stand up to negative online behaviours and to be empathetic to others online and be an Upstander (A helpful Bystander). I do not have any social media’s such as Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat but from this unit, I knew that I could change my behaviours online such as changing the way I speak to friends and others while playing games, the way I comment to things in YouTube and the way I speak on group chat’s

Lesson 1: CRITICAL THINKING
With critical thinking, the video and the lesson we had learnt had shown me to always analyze and look so I am able to use my critical thinking in situations. The video we were shown had shown 2 kids who had seen a video online of a guy jumping off a bridge and they had thought it was real but when they went to the bridge and tried they realized how big the jump is. This is helpful because in these situations you have to analyze and use critical thinking to say Ummm, no that has to be fake no one could make such a jump. This can help me in future, for example, people doing stunts or crazy pranks that could certainly get you arrested if watch it and get analyse the video you can see its fake.

Lesson 2: EMPATHY
In the video, it speaks about being able to listen to the person, be honest and give them constructive feedback and advice for whatever they are going through. The video says not to silver line it and says “Oh don’t worry at least you have… and …” but to be nice listen and comfort the person. An example can be of someone angry because their parents won’t buy them a ps4 you should not say “oh at least you have parents some kids don’t” because this won’t make the person feel better will it?

Lesson 3: RESPECT:
This was my favourite part of this unit because this was the topic that gave me the most view and perspective of social media and what can happen. Things like jail and jobs were the topics that I got a better view of. I learnt that if you are not careful and you do not respect others, this will come around to bite you in the backside. You can ruin friendships, relationships and families. An example of this is someone who is going for a job interview and does exceptionally well may not get the job because of one dumb video of you doing something dumb or idiotic, for example, a video of you drink and throwing rocks at a car. That car could have been a family car of someone you may know or not know and they could have been killed kidnapped all because you broke their car.

Lesson 4: Responsibility

This was not my favourite one but gave me a more mature perspective instead of being taught the social media world and bullying. This helped because it had shown me the way to behave online and how to deal with your troubles. This had spoken about who to speak to if you were getting bullied and why you would go to these people.

In conclusion, I am grateful that we were given this opportunity to be given a broader view of the world, social media, cyber-bullying and being empathetic. This has certainly been a good journey and it has also helped with my behaviours and my decision making to make me more responsible.