Chaplain Report
Hi everyone, being a part of the Parklands team is a good thing for me. I really love my role as Chaplain. I love building positive relationships with students and staff and supporting people in general on a day to day basis. We have a great support team at Parklands, and we work hard to support everyone who needs it. There are many things that we as individuals can do to help ourselves as well. Things like getting enough sleep, having a well-balanced diet, and exercising daily. Let’s look after our bodies. We need to have people in our lives who we trust, people who we can talk to, who help us when we get down, looking after our mental state. Also, we need to be connected to something bigger than ourselves, connected to the land, connected to a faith, connected to a group, connected to something which will meet the spiritual need that we all have. Life is more than work or school, to be really healthy we need to have a good balance in it. Here is an example of what I do outside of work.
I try to stay physical fit by walking my dog, many of you have met Jaspa. I still play competitive volleyball. I also compete at Masters Athletics. On Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st I competed at the State Athletics and State Masters Athletics Championships in Launceston. Athletes from under 18 right up to over 70 met at the track in Launceston to compete for the State 2021 Athletic titles. The Masters part of the event is for men over the age of 35 and women over the age of 30 to compete against each other and hopefully take away a medal. I compete in the throws, shot put, discus, and javelin, against all the men aged from 35 up to 75 plus. In each event everyone is eventually placed from first right through to last then the medals are awarded according to the individual age bracket that you fall in. So, in any one event there can be multiple gold medals awarded. I had a good weekend. I placed second overall in the shot put and third overall in the discus and came away with a gold medal for each of my events, shot put, discus and javelin. I also threw a PB in the discus. My age bracket is the 60-64 group, so I am older than most of the other athletes, (its nice to beat the younger ones). Everyone wants to win and throw a PB, but at the end of the day we all encourage and congratulate each other and have great time competing.
We all need to be involved and do things outside the things that we have to do, like work and school. Age should never be a barrier to having a go. You are never too old or young to have a go. In past years we have had 80- and 90-year old’s competing. So, in everything that you do, give it your best and take every opportunity that is presented to you. You will feel better because you are exercising. Mentally you are in a better place and there is a sense of being connected to a greater purpose. So much of life is determined by you, so put yourself in the best position possible, and have a balanced healthy life. And perhaps win a few medals along the way.
Chris Swain
School Chaplain