With a new academic year in the horizon it felt essential to review and reflect on my CAS goals so that I can maintain a balanced extracurricular lifestyle in my final year of school. Despite the many challenges I faced the previous year when switching between online school, in person school and lockdown I overcame countless hurdles although now I look towards the new year with renewed optimism. I feel as though I have now experienced enough of this unusual pattern in the post COVID era to understand how to best juggle my CAS activities in a way that puts me more at ease. Now naturally there is a good chance that this year may be even more unpredictable than the last considering that it is going to be a hectic final year in the DP in addition to the fact that we might return to face to face school as early as November because of improved vaccine rates so really only time can tell but I have created an easily adaptable set of goals for what I want to accomplish in the following year.

Creativity

In the past year I challenged myself with a wide variety of creative activities ranging from running service related social media accounts to writing letters, pursuing recreation photography and so much more while my central focuses were on editing, cooking and baking (which was unexpected but soon evolved into a regular hobby of mine) as well as music, i.e. playing the guitar. In DP1 I also took on the tasks of getting involved in events like the IVY Girls Lead which helped develop my people and leadership skills. In the upcoming year I feel that as a long term goal I plan on spending at least 30 minutes each Saturday and Sunday learning a song on the guitar or alternatively the piano. I can learn how to play the song with Marlon (my guitar teacher), by using YouTube or Ultimate Guitar. On Saturday I can just practice, acquaint myself with the chords etc. and then use the Sunday to really spend some time perfecting it. If I find the piece particularly challenging then I will also use the second week to my advantage as well. In addition to this I feel that it is important to maintain my progress making food especially as college draws nearer. I am rather ecstatic with how far I have come and certainly do not want to fall behind now. I will try and make at least one meal / dish every week from a variety of different cultures so that I can not only make the dish but also learn about its origins.  As for editing which was one of my goals last year, I feel as though I cannot keep up at the same frequency in which I did last year, naturally my studies are a bigger priority to me this time around so editing up to 3 times a week seems a bit unrealistic alongside coming up with inspiration, which is why I have decided to do it whenever I feel motivated to do so, because, like Atticus once famously said, “Art takes time – Monet grew his gardens before he painted them.” In addition to these central goals I naturally aim to continue to apply my creative abilities and outlets in other potential areas as well as a form of relaxation.

Activity

While my plans for activity haven’t gone exactly according to plan last year having highly anticipated the ability to train and participate in SAISA and be outdoors for badminton and diving and other previous goals, things last year had to be a lot more spontaneous and adapted to the constantly changing regulations regarding leaving the house. However, that being said this unexpected turn of events also enabled me to do so much more than regular football training including a lot more adventurous endeavors since I’ve had the incredible opportunity to travel to many places within Sri Lanka on vacation during this time. I have gone surfing and hiking and dome more activities which are things that are either entirely new experiences or somewhat outside of my comfort zone while I have also had the ability to maintain my general fitness through means such as home workouts, yoga, biking, football, tennis etc. By the end of this semester I would have liked to accomplish at least three new physical activities that aren’t regular for me hopefully whenever I get the opportunity to go out. Living in Sri Lanka and my Activity blogs for the past year have made me realize how lucky I am to live in a country that offers such amazing outlets for keeping fit and because I enjoy trying new things or just challenging myself in general I look foreword to participating in them. As for general fitness I aim to continue to my regular workouts (perhaps try the Cirque Du Soleil workouts which are known to be extremely strenuous if I feel capable) and I hold myself to continuing my football drills to not lose complete touch with the sport and if the circumstances allow I would also like to do another hike in the upcoming months. An absolute cherry on top would be being able to go diving although I am unsure as of now whether that would be possible given the situation in the country and lastly, if COVID allows, I would like to finally join TAFA a football club outside of school to play in my free time. These physical activities would keep me fit and healthy for the next year.

Service

This school year, I plan on rejoining Hope For Kids as a returning member. This will be my 3rd consecutive year in this service group which I have been in since I first joined OSC and if things go according to plan I would be service leader alongside Saesha this year. Once again a lot of our action depends on the situation here because our levels of interaction with the children we work with are heavily dependent on health and the risks associated with COVID as we would in no way want to put them in danger. Naturally, we did accomplish a lot last year with events ranging from fundraisers to food drives and activity sessions so hopefully we get to continue along this successful streak (while also preferably returning to school) and I hope that I can satisfactorily guide the members of our service group into another productive year :)) Aside from that I will try and make smaller contributions to the community whenever possible as well including within my own home and outside of it while participating in groups like The Margin and Girls RISE once again if they are reinstated in school.