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Due to the prevailing COVID situation in Sri Lanka, my Father and I decided to leave the country before they decide to shutdown the airports. We went back home to the USA and are currently staying in my Grandma’s house in Maryland in order to receive our doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Due to leaving everything behind, including my Mother, my dog, my basketball court and my weights, it has been especially hard for me to adapt and continue my daily schedule. On top of all of this, I have to wake up at 11:00PM and attend my online classes until 6:00AM due to time zone differences.
In light of this situation, I decided that I needed to make friends to make my situation slightly more bearable. My Father got in touch with a friend that has a 16 year old son at the local high school and forwarded me his contact information. From there I was able to locate a public basketball court while also becoming friends with the local high schoolers. I have been playing basketball with them everyday from around 4:30 to 7:00 and it is great exercise as I do not have the equipment to exercise like I usually would in Colombo.
This has been a very good experience for me as it has exposed me to a lifestyle that I have never been around. As an international school student, a lot of the problems that I face are different to the problems they face. Though they didn’t even know that Sri Lanka was a country and asked me if I spoke Asian, we were still able to allow basketball become a medium to create bonds.
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
The main skill that I have developed through this experience is how to nap efficiently in order to wake up in time for school while also being rested enough to function properly. This has been especially hard as I am trying to balance exercise, time with my family and school all at once and at varying times. The skill of napping was completely foreign to me before this month as I had always relied on my extreme energy levels to get me through the day, no matter the amount of sleep I get the night before. With this new skill, I will be able to have more productive days and rest my body more efficiently this benefiting me in all aspects of life. I have also improved my social skills as I got the opportunity to bond with kids my age that have completely different lifestyles from me. This has taught me more about how it is living in the suburbs of the United States as a high school student, a lifestyle I would have never been exposed to before.
Supervisor: Marcus Floyd