How to create a text based on four mentor texts and a smart awareness of the key features of “personal journeys”.
Explorations of “life” — notice the inverted commas and the contrast to “biographical explorations”. Memoirs and life stories are often crafted — they may have elements of a “contamination” story; they may have elements of a “redemptive” story.
Notice the focus on “telling our stories” and “telling others’ stories” and the “problem of telling stories”. In a personal reflective speech or article, you need to weave throughout your piece a variety of “personal” stories about self and other and make sharp commentary.
You could “explore personal milestones” — these need to be meaningful. You could explore your “milestone” or epiphany/transformation in connection with a “milestone” or a mentor, role model figure or treasured relative.
You could explore stories of “movement” and “disruption” — take a wide lens and focus on two or three generations of movements and evaluate the difference in “stories”.
About Personal Journeys: “Explorations of ‘life’ or biographical explorations – telling our stories, telling others’ stories, the problem of telling stories, appropriation of stories, who tells the stories and our history, missing stories, marginalised and elevated stories. Students could explore personal milestones, the effects of key events on their lives, or explore these ideas through the eyes of others. Students who have migrated can explore their stories of movement and disruption. They can explore the expectations of change, and the language of a new place and culture. (VCE Study Design)
See Creating Texts: Year 12 Frameworks: About Personal Journeys