This week was full of lots of exciting activities. We were taught how to navigate the city by train, had a group dinner to get to know eachother, went on a guided tour in the Sydney area around the opea house, and in my opinion most excited went to visit Walkabout wildlife sanctuary.
On the tour of the sanctuary we had the opportunity to observe kangaroos roaming free, learned how to throw boomerangs, pet a koala, hold snakers, and pet a variety of other animals. Another aspect of the tour was walking through the wildlife and stopping at spots that have becoming a part of history becasue of their significance to australias culture such as hand paintings in caves.
By far one of the msot interesting aspects of the day was learning about the history of the sanctuary. Tessa told us the story of how nothing in life is ever certain, she had originally wanted to be a nurse. After becoming a nurse she went on to have two children and realized she lost her identity as a nurse, sooner after the transition to becomign an underwriter was made which came with the realization that she loved the solving that was associated with it. From there she helped come up with solutions for many comapnies one of which being Metlife and soon after became an exectuive. Despite orginally going to see the property as a day trip she felt a calleding and regardless of the struggles that were thrown her way she knew she had no choice but to make it work. Through her and her husbands efforts they have been able to cultivate a place for people to see australias wildlife that truly protects the animals and respects their surroundings. Tessa faced much adversity throguhout this process as she delt with a mnining company taking her to court for heyars resulting in high fees and later was heavily effected by the australian wildfires but received an outpour of help from the community. Not only do I have the upmost respect for Tessa for fighting for what she believed in but also for allways following her lifes calling and not ignoring signs becasue of what she should or shouldnt do. As college students it can often seem like we need ot be firm on what we want to do with our futures as to not wast time in school but tessa is a real life example that as long as your open to what life can bring you everythign happens for a reason and you will end up exactly where your supposed to be.
