Empathy, Sympathy & Compassion

I was scrolling through social media, you know, the usual, when I came across a post pointing out the difference between empathy, sympathy and compassion. My whole life I used those words interchangeably because I thought they all meant the same thing: feeling sorry for someone. I could have not been more wrong 😓

Here are the actual definitions of the three words and why it's important to remember them!

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Empathy is feeling the same emotions as the other person.

❝I feel how you feel,❞

The opposite of empathy is unempathetic. Unempathetic people are just people who have not felt what the other person is currently feeling. 

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Sympathy is understanding what the other person is going through.

❝I know how you feel,❞

The opposite of sympathy is unsympathetic. If someone is unsympathetic they are not able to understand the emotions and/or the situation the other person is going through. 

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Compassion is feeling care and warmth for the other person.

❝Is there anything I can do to help?❞

The opposite of compassion is uncompassionate. An uncompassionate person does not help someone during difficulties in their life because they don't care.

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I always thought that if someone had low/no empathy they were a stink person, but in reality they could have a lot of compassion and sympathy to give! Now this may sound contradictory BUT just because someone might be lacking in one of these three areas, it does not erase the fact that they can still care for others.

Ahh sorry if this next bit doesn't make too much sense, but how I see it an uncompassionate and/or an unsympathetic person can overcome it if they want to. After all, it's nothing permanent. If they so desire to, they can learn ways to become more sincere and eventually grow.

[Tue, 8 Sep] Quote of the Week #4

Hey hey hey! We're back to school and it's going good so far. I realised that I have missed another week but it's fine. 

Before we start, how are you doing right now? Are you staying hydrated and eating? Have you caught up on your work? And how's your hygiene? It is especially important to look after yourself during these tough times. You'll make it through, I believe in you.

✨ Sorry for the poor quality ✨

🎵: JP Saxe - The Few Things

[Quote: @ is in the photo]

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When someone would tell me or my peers and I that we couldn't love anyone if we didn't love ourselves, I always felt icky. I knew that sounded wrong and now that I've found something that puts it into words, that is such a horrible thing to say. 

Everyone is going to have off-days, that's just how people are. But that doesn't automatically erase the parts of you that are loveable. You are deserving of love everyday. Just because you're feeling under the wheather, that shouldn't stop others from loving you!! If anyone tells you that you are not worthy of love when you don't see it in yourself, know that it is not true.

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Coping With Lockdown

Kia ora whanau!! One of my classes has given us the task of sharing how we are taking care of ourselves during lockdown. Everyday consists of the same activities. But before we get into that, how are you doing? Have you had a drink today and gotten something to eat? Have you stretched? And how are you feeling? Are you in need of some 'you' time? If everything's okay then read on! 

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I message and occasionally go on calls with my friends. When we are on calls we're either playing ROBLOX or watching some sort of video or both. Playing ROBLOX with them is the funniest thing I swear. It's nonstop jokes and silly acts.

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I've been binging series!! Although it's only been Haikyuu, ATLA, The Umbrella Academy and Diamond no Ace. Please I am now in the ranting mood. Klaus and Ben are the best (sibling) duo in the series. Those two are so childish around each other but obviously care deeply about the other. I haven't finished watching it but Klaus's development so far is looking good!!

And Okumura from Diamond, that boy is so dramatic 🤣.  He treats his games like a Life or Death situation and always tells Eijun things like "If we go up in flames, we go up in flames together," Like what, three times an episode 😂.

If I talk about Haikyuu I won't stop so all I will say is that the official arts are other wordly. There are so many and every one of them hits differently.

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The last thing I do is listen and jam out to music. Omg I'll be in my room listening to Mr Loverman or New Perspective and pretend I'm performing at a concert. Trust me when I say that is so much fun and stress relieving. The dancing doesn't even need to make sense, I just swing my arms and legs around 😂.

To avoid flooding this blog post I'll keep the activities to three!! I definitely recommend doing any of these activities, it will really keep your morale high!
I'm interested in hearing what you do to take care of yourself. 

Thank you for stopping by! (>‿◠)✌ Iwa-chan~

[Mon, 24 Aug] Quote of the Week #3

Kia ora whanau! Sorry for missing a week, I've been trying to readjust to lockdown. Speaking about lockdown how're you all doing? It's okay if you're feeling pressured or stress or sad, that's to be expected. I thought that with lockdown and all this quote would make the most sense.

🎵: The 1975 - It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)

[Characters are from  Avatar: The Last Airbender]

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I think it's safe to assume that we are all struggling at this point in time. If you're up to the task, maybe check on your friends or whanau. If you know someone who is under the weather tell them that they mean a lot to you. Imagine if you were told that, how would you feel? 

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[Mon, Aug 10] Quote of the Week #2

🎵: Clair De Lune (Ethereal Remix)

Quote: Ittestu Takeda (Haikyuu!)

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This is honestly such a motivating way of seeing such a situation. If I am defeated it is not because I am weak but instead I just haven't reached that point to win. I don't know if that makes sense??

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Takeda is one of the most underrated underappreciated Haikyuu characters :((. He has done so much for Karasuno from setting up practice matches (may I add that most of them were with powerhouse schools) to getting them a proper coach. Never once did Takeda give up, he'd gone as far as to throw away his pride and get on his hands and knees to beg others to give Karasuno a chance. He believed in Karasuno before anyone did.

Can I also say that Takeda has the best quotes? Because he does. A lot of the advice he has given I have taken to heart. The power he holds is astronomical. 

"Getting you for our advisor, Coach Takeda, was the biggest stroke of luck we had this entire year"

- Daichi Sawamura

I like how this turned into a Takeda appreciation post 😭

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[Mon, Aug 3] Quote of the Week #1

Kia ora whanau! I want to try and blog more so I've decided to start a series called 'Quote of the Week'. Each post will have a quote in poster form and a song that may or may not fit the quote, I haven't decided yet. Most of these quotes will be centred around self-worth. To start off this series we have...

✨ I couldn't find the person who coloured this panel in :(( ✨ 

🎵: mxmtoon - Fever Dream

Quote: zhihui.e (Instagram)

[Characters are from Haikyuu!]

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There are going to be days that you spend being unproductive, days where you have well-needed breaks but you feel bad. You feel like you'll fall behind if you keep resting. Just know that you are not alone in what you're feeling. It's okay if you don't feel that your rest is deserved. There are people out there who understand the importance of taking breaks. And don't feel like you have to push yourself harder if you do take a break. Please remember that what you feel does not define your worth. 

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On a side note I have recently been rewatching Haikyuu because the manga ended and omg I love Kageyama more than I did when I first started the series. Watching him go from being an arrogant player to him wanting to move past that and improve makes my heart go 💣💓. Akaashi will always be my favourite but I really do have a soft spot for Kags now :>.

Ughh and when Hinata gave Kageyama's nickname 'King of the Court' a new meaning I was just about ready to pass away. They are the definition of rivals to teammates to friends to partners and I am here for this development.

Please feel free to scream about Haikyuu with me!!

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Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is not a trend and shouldn't be treated as such.

Breonna Taylor is not a meme, she is not a TikTok dance, she is not a hashtag, she is not an Instagram caption, she was a black woman killed at the hands of injustice. It has been 132 days since Breonna was shot and killed in her own home. In those 132 days Kenneth Walker, one of the three police officers involved, was charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer but was later released from jail due to coronavirus concerns. Go harder for Breonna Taylor.

Elijah McClain died almost a year ago, August 30 2019. The message of his death should not be "He was such a sweet soul, he played violin for cats at the animal shelter, he didn't deserve this," but instead it should be recognised that not matter what you've done or who you are, it all comes down to your skin colour. The officers responsible were never charged. Go harder for Elijah McClain.

Tamir Rice was a 12 year old playing at the park with a toy gun. Once the police arrived they immediately drew fire. He passed away in hospital November 23, 2014. The two officers were never charged. Go harder for Tamir Rice.

Janisha Fonville died February 18, 2015. Korneisha Banks, Janisha's girlfriend, had called the police to stop Janisha from hurting herself. The officers invovled were never charged. Go harder for Janisha Fonville. The petition is closed but there is a GoFundMe link at the bottom. Please take the time to read everything.

When I say Black Lives Matter I mean ALL Black Lives Matter. Not just the cis and the straights but the LGBT+ community too. It is so disheartening to read about black LGBT+ dying just because no one agreed with their identity and there's hardly any talk about them because of their identity. What someone identifies as is not your business. Their identity is not a reason to die and it is not a reason to jusitfy their death. 

Black Lives Matter will always matter.

Know Their Names

Issues in the World

Black Lives Matter

The Akomanga Kaihanga Showcase: Team Renegade

✨See the previous post to view the poster and slideshow.✨

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Thursday 23rd July, at 5PM-7PM we were going to present our work to our whanau.

It started off with Saia opening with a speech he had learned two days prior. Mind you he’s not even Maori but that didn’t stop him. The confidence and pronunciation were on point! 😘👌

Next, our principal and guiders shared their speeches of how we have progressed and grown and how we will continue to do so followed by eating time.

Not going to lie, after Mr Dunn's speech I felt kind of inspired, like I still wanted to do more to help out the community. 🙈

The next bit however...was the time for us to present our work. I started with a welcoming to the parents, Champion had the task of speaking about our project challenge, I spoke about our trip to the town centre and the data we collected, Temu talked about the other half of the data, Naomi spoke about what we are planning on doing next and Amelia talked about the capabilities we have gained from doing this project.

With the slideshow the speakers alternated between Amelia, Temu, and Naomi.

Normally when I speak in front of others the atmosphere is tense and it feels all gloomy, but that night I honestly felt none of that. It was more like stepping outside on a chilly winter morning, all my focus was on me breathing out. Something along those lines.

I think the audience got our message. The feedback and questions we got...I can say that I was not expecting any of them BUT they were fun to answer. One question that has stuck with me was “Does your group actually care about this or are you doing this just because it’s there?” The reason we started this project was because of our concern for pedestrians near Line RD so of course we answered with “Yes, we do care,”.

I can’t get over how awesome all my team members are. We all had messed up our lines but we kept going. And the way they all talked, they sounded so full of confidence and used expressions wonderfully 😭💖!! After each group we presented to (there were 6 groups total) we just kept getting better and better.

That night had ended with me being full of pride. I honestly believe it went well. We can most definitely improve on our memorisation but other than that it was good.

✨Just wanted to end this post with this picture. Team Renegade >> anything else✨

Planning & Preparing for the Akomanga Kaihanga Showcase: Team Renegade

On the first week back to school from Monday to Thursday 9KMe spent their periods preparing for a project showcase on Thursday at 5PM.

The planning for our poster started out like this; Naomi had suggested adding a windy road because of our project theme. We then spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where our text should fit. Once we liked the design we got Dr Jannie to check on it. At this point I was working on what we were going to write about and the speech that would accompany the poster.

The next time I checked in with the others, instead of a windy road it was a straight road leading up to a round-a-bout. By this time Temu was the one designing the digital form of our poster.

✨I have just found some digital drafts :O✨

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One success has to be how everyone was in agreement with the design. When someone had input it was about what they should add. 

One challenge we had run into (for what I was there for anyways) was how much time was actually spent on the draft and then the digital one. We had from Monday until Wednesday to complete it but we went a bit into Thursday.

Once I saw the end product, let me tell you, I was in shock. It looks so clean and organised and the colour palette is *chef’s kiss*! Not to mention the road was a fantastic idea. 

✨Do you see how cool this looks??✨

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Champion and I were working on creating the video that was going to be presented after the poster. When we finished adding all the information Temu had helped us with the design. Look at how clean the presentation is 😭!!

I think that Team Renegade has done an awesome job with the poster and presentation!! 

Congratulations on 25 blog posts in 2020

Power of Gratitude

Have you ever thought about what gratitude is and how it can impact our lives? Get ready and buckle up, because here we go!

Gratitude is an activity where you can express your appreciation for the things that make you happy. When showing gratitude you slowly begin to rewire your brain (with the help of neuroplasticity), helping to set you onto a more positive track. 

Seeing as our class topic is ‘gratitude’ Whaea Kata gave us the task of constructing a gratitude box/jar and to give it a name. 

Not too much thought went into the making of my gratitude box. I found an already decorated box so now I’m looking for my Kimetsu no Yaiba stickers to slap onto it.

I was now stuck pondering about the name of my box. I was scrolling through Pinterest when I saw a photo of Raymond from Animal Crossing. That’s when it hit me; Bubblegum K.K.. I got the inspiration from the game’s soundtrack, one of the songs being “Bubblegum K.K.”. The song is soothing and the title is cute so I thought “Why not?”

I started off with doing my gratitude reflections every night before bed but after around a week I stopped. Now I do them every time I’m stressed or need the boost. When I do my reflections I grab my pad paper, I find a comfortable position to lie in, and surround myself with music. 

Three things I am grateful for today are Eden, who has been keeping me company and now one of my closest friends in the class. Mrs Feps for giving me the rest of her nachos (and being an awesome teacher; helping me with my work and trying to converse with me) and my project group because we are able to work on projects that will help improve our community.

How Was My Lockdown Holiday?

I enjoyed the two week lockdown. I was able to catch up with people and enjoyed testing out digital learning from home. Every few nights I would go on calls with my best friend and we would just talk for hours. Social distancing was difficult for us at first but the more time we spent talking online the easier it was to get over that we won’t be able to see each other in person for a while. Those were the most enjoyable nights.

When I got to a certain amount of boredom my mum sent me audio books and I listened to those. I struggled to pay attention as I’d constantly get distracted by my cats.

Why It Is Important To Learn About Migration

I believe it is important to learn about human migration because in doing so we can understand what life is like in other countries. Some people emigrate to other countries because of how poor living conditions were there. Others are just searching for opportunities.

If we can understand and empathise with these people then we should be able to acquire the needed knowledge to work towards global growth.

Te Whare Tapa Wha

In health class we are working on identifying the four dimensions of Te Whare Tapa Whā and Hauora. Hauora looks at your health. Te Whare Tapa Whā is used to describe each aspect of your overall well-being. What are the four dimensions you may be wondering?

Firstly, Taha Hinengaro which means Mental/Emotional.

Anything in your life can shape the way your Mental/Emotional state is in. One thing that can be impacted is your Thoughts/Feelings. For me, when I go to sleep late, the next day I wake up and struggle to focus. That means my Mental/Emotional state has been negatively affected.

Taha Wairua which means Spiritual.

The things you believe in or value can shape the way your Spiritual state is in. For me, I believe that to stay ahead of work is to do it the day you are sent it. This leads to me feeling a sense of achievement because I now have a load of free time.

Taha Whānau which means Social.

The way you interact with others and how they interact with you can affect your social state. When I make an effort to talk and to listen to others that helps out my Social well-being.

Lastly, Taha Tinana which means Physical.

When you move around that counts as your physical well-being. Depending on what actions you do you can shape the way your physical state is in. For this dimension I usually walk around each day, which definitely improves my physical well-being.

Many people believe that health only applies to our physical appearance and so they brush everything else off. That could not be more wrong. Without all four of these dimensions your overall well-being will definitely struggle. What I mean by “struggle” is if more than one of these walls (dimensions) are lacking support then they may start to crumble. If one wall is crumbling you should consider talking with someone you trust. This will mean your overall well-being can have time to heal, even if it’s slowly.

This week and last week we were given the task of building a whare and naming each wall after the four dimensions. The pictures below are of my house (and some of my classmates!). I've got a lot to learn. Next time we do something like this hopefully I’ll be more organised.

Improving Glen Innes Road Safety

Kia ora! My name is Riiana and I am a year 9 student at Tamaki College. I am a part of Akomanga Kaihanga, a project-based learning class formed this year. Right now we are currently working on team projects. I am in Team Renegade with Amelia, our team leader, Naomi and Temu, our researchers, Champion, our note taker, and Poiva, our spokesperson. I am also a note taker!

My group is working on improving road safety around Glen Innes. So far we have decided to add raised crossings outside of Tamaki College and on Apirana Ave. We are also looking to reduce the speed limit on Line Rd. There are more ideas we have yet to discuss between ourselves like repainting white lines and filling in potholes.

We chose this issue as the majority of us live in the area and have concerns about the behaviour of drivers and their actions.

The steps we have taken to achieve our main goal is by getting the opinions of those in the community and forming coalitions with project leaders working towards similar goals. We have managed to form one, that being with ACC.

Once this project has been completed, Team Renegade hopes to have created a long term effect. What I mean by this is our main goal is to have decreased any chance of future road accidents. 

I am quite proud of the progress we have made through our journey. We first started with just focusing on Line Rd. Our design model had security cameras watching over the intersection and crossings also near the intersection. Now we have shifted our focus to the Glen Innes town centre and Line Rd.

Winter Learning Journey 2016

Summer Learning Journey 2016-2017

Summer Learning Journey || 311 Comments

These 6 comments are the last ones I will make for this years' SLJ!! I had a blast learning about what is changing around the world and who are helping to make the change, commenting on other students blogs and talking to everyone!

I have posted 6 comments on Victoria's blog.

Summer Learning Journey || 305 Comments

I have posted 10 comments on Victoria's blog. She has completed the entire SLJ program.

Summer Learning Journey || 295 Comments

I have posted 11 comments on Eloida's blog.  She has completed the entire SLJ program.

Summer Learning Journey || 284 Comments

I have posted 10 more comments on Elodia's blog. I realise that I have spelt her name wrong numerous of times in previous comments, sorry about that!