Week 2- Reflecting on growing up

Week 2- Reflecting on growing up:

Write a personal reflection on what it is like to grow up on the Gold Coast in 2015. What are the positives? What are the negatives? Try to let your own voice emerge. Do you want to write in a serious way? Do you want to put a humorous slant on the topic? Allow some your own concerns/ideas to come through. For example, if you have strong feelings about the place of women in society, this might affect your thoughts on the topic of growing up on the Gold Coast. Be careful about your use of tense and remember to check your last post for consistent use of tense as well.  Post to your blog by Monday's lesson. 

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Growing up on the Gold Coast is a very stereotyped idea. It come with its positives and negatives however it is an overall beautiful place to be growing within this society. The gold coast is stereotyped in many different ways, being a normal gold coast girl is tanned, bleach blonde hair, pretty, skinny and minimal clothing. The gold coast is known as a party place where what you see on the news is reality here. You see young girls dressed up going out, hearing girls falling off balconies ect. Girls are seeing these types of things happen everywhere so they are thinking its a social norm and they are starting to follow the things they see and don't think anything of it. Instagram is something that is also expected as a social norm for everyone to have. If your not getting hundreds of likes and getting the free triangle swimmers you just aren’t up with the latest. The Gold Coast is a city that is a major tourist attraction where thousands of people come to visit therefor the gold coast is designed and set out to please the tourist and doesn’t feel like there is a lot to do for the locals other than beaches and the few major shopping centres. If you are more of a adventurous person who likes to explore the new things, there is more for you on the gold coast then someone who isn’t.

 However all of these factors may come across more as a negatives, there are also the positives that we love about the Gold Coast, some people may see this in a different way though. As the Gold Coast is such a small city it is very common to have connections with most people through other people. The Gold Coast has its beautiful beach which it is most known for and this is a place that attracts large crowds of people. Being close to everything is also a positive where we can get around places without much trouble. The use to public transport is a big hit on the Gold coast, including trains, trams, buses and taxi’s. These can get you around to any places you want by connecting from these few.

The energetic vibe on the Gold Coast is something that pulls in the tourist here and even if the place offers things for all different people there is always something for you that you'll love. 

Thursday’s lesson homework

Thursday’s lesson homework:

Look at the advertisement picture again - plan and write an imaginative response which involves the girl as a character and which challenges the representation of growing up constructed in the advertisement. Your choice of genre and your choice of point of view. You could write as the girl or as one of her friends or as her parent. You could narrate an event, write a letter, write a journal entry or a news report. Post to your blog at the end of the lesson. 

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Dear diary,

Ive finally made it! After 12 longs years of schooling, I'm now here getting to make my own choices, my own decisions, what am I going to do now? Am i making the right decisions? So many thoughts are going through my head and i’m scared that I could be choosing the wrong ones. Do I want to spend my life doing this? Do I want a gap year? So many new pathways and opportunities are now opening up and i feel like i have so much more freedom to choose what I want for once. Knowing that all my friends are going on trips together and celebrating makes me want to join and go with whatever happens along the way, but then again… theres my parents stopping me saying you have to going to university and get your degree and get it out of the way first, you have plenty of time for all of that “celebrating” later in your life. Arghh I’m so annoyed and lost, following the expectations of growing up and having to pass uni and school is all so hard, i feel locked in and pressured to please my ‘controlling' parents. 

This is such an exciting time of my life, I've been waiting for my graduation for years and now its finally come and i want to live my life and make my own decisions and mistakes, i mean, I'm 18 now they cant control everything i do for the rest of my life. I understand that they just want the best of me and that they're just trying to tell me that there is always the possibility of risks in whatever i do but that can’t just stop me from wanting to grow up! There’s risks in everything i do and i know its easy to step out of track and choose the wrong path but I also know that this wont happen to me. I just want to feel like the adult i am and finally have these decisions left up to me. 

Theres so many expectations to live up to as a child and growing up, but at some point in time this has to stop and my parents have to trust me and let go. There’s plenty of opportunities to take now, growing up comes with natural risks but its time for me to experience these for myself.