Reflective Account On Resilience

I see resilience as the ability to adapt to changing situations, not giving up when the going gets tough, rising above and beyond difficult circumstances, and the ability to cope or ‘bounce back’ when you surpass your own comfort zone (Youth Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, p 14, n.d.). Spending a week out in the Nooramunga Marine and Coastal Park was a sure test of resilience, we often found ourselves in a position we weren’t accustomed to, whether that be using ‘dug’ to dig a hole to use a toilet, using a trangia or msr to cook our meals, paddling vast distances in varying conditions and simply just living in the outdoors away from civilisations and technology. However there was one defining moment where I found myself …show more content…
As a group we could of easily given up and taken refuge on the nearby beach to wait for the gusts to die down, however as a pod we collectively kept moving forward and once we reached our destination we all felt a sense of accomplishment and also surprised ourselves in what we could actually achieve whilst paddling. I remember taking inspiration from the story of the Bar – Tailed Godwit a very important bird in the Nooramunga area. The Bar-Tailed Godwit leaves Alaska and flies around 10,000 kilometres back to the north coast of Australia including Nooramunga, a journey that gives them the longest non-stop migration of any bird in the world. Phil Battley of New Zealand's Massey University states, “The prospect of a bird flying all the way across the Pacific was so much further than what we thought possible, it seemed ludicrous” (Hansford, 2007). The Bar – Tailed Godwit to me is a symbol of resilience for its ability to adapt and succeed when the odds are stacked against them. This lesson not only proved helpful throughout my journey at Nooramunga when times were challenging, but has also sent me home with a strong message to inspire to everyday as I continue my journey through University to become an resilient outdoor