Start of DP was an adventurous trip to Borderlands, in Kitulgala, which showed a path of how the DP will treat me. On 28th of August I saw 4:00 am on my clock, the time which I’ve never seen for years. Besides doing morning jogs, I was getting ready to leave for school with half my mind asleep. The time given for our departure was 6 am, but we all ended up leaving at 6:30. This was my 2nd time going to borderlands after 9th grade. I can’t forget how challenging those days were for me as I was and still am a non-swimmer, this was all I was thinking during the 4 hour drive.
Credits: Mr. Duncan
Our journey of DP orientation headed off with rafting, an activity which I’ve never done before and was new to most of us as well. 4 teams were divided and each raft had 4 students with 2 instructors or teachers . I was in a group with our trip guide followed by Anuda, Josh, and Taneishq, which I think was a successful group for rafting as each of us had the same coordination for paddling. While rafting we showed support among each other and worked as a team, the support I gained from my team gave me a relief from having our raft flip in white water. Although rafting was only 2 to 3 hours, but in that small amount of time I realized how much connected I was with my classmates which I think I could not have noticed while in school buildings. We did encounter some challenges such as being unstable while going through high current of water and downslopes, however I think those challenges had a positive impact on us as it gave chances to show our reliability and trust upon each other as during those downslopes we all guided each other and stayed close to the middle so the center of mass will keep the raft stable in those conditions.
Credits: Mr. Duncan
After rafting we rested in our camp for a short period of time. The camp was surrounded with natural resources and I felt relaxed there as if I had no studies to worry about, no pressure, no deadlines to meet. Soon after we headed towards canyoning, which was one of the best experience I’ve gotten from nature. We all cheered and supported each other while doing all the jumps, slides, and migrated from one station to another as a whole which surely improved our bonding as a class. We laughed and joked around while we did those activities, which made me loose my anxiety and I felt more connected with each other than we’ve felt during our regular classes. I think it was the first time in the 1st two weeks where we all 17 students spend fully 52 hours together or else in school I wouldn’t have gotten any chance to interact with some members of our grade because we have separate classes. Our day ended with floating down the river in which we were floating in water while holding hands and creating a circle, by this each of us had a support at any challenging points. Having a circular flow down gave us a chance to have fun discussions as a whole while supporting each other. We made jokes, shared opinions, got to know each other more, and shared our experience till now. This collaboration brought all of us closer as a group which made us understand each other’s comfort zone and personality.
Credits: Mr. Lockwood
Next day we headed towards a hike up towards a cave, where we had our TOK class. The hike was more like a climb, and during the hike each of us climbed as a whole and a decent pace by which all 17 of us were tightly together and showed a team support at every stage. Studying TOK in a cave was much more knowledgeable than studying in a classroom because we were able to connect with TOK more precisely by seeing the ways of knowledge such as carving on walls, the structure, location, etc. After TOK we hiked again till the abseil station, where we all abseiled down a 25 meter waterfall. I think this was the highlight for my journey in borderlands as I enjoyed a lot in this, the and specially the views I from that altitude and also got while abseiling down was tremendously insane, maybe that’s because I love high heights and altitudes. The rocks were slippery and we all had to have a strong grip on the rope, I felt that going down wasn’t scary but tough because of the grip of the rope. One fear I had was if I loose the rope and hit horizontally on the rocks with running water, that fear made me hold the rope even tighter. Everyone was supportive towards each other by cheering and giving confidence, however one of the key supports which defines DP 1 students is giving guidelines to the next student after their turn. This reduces the stress and the chances of falling or any injuries, and this attitude towards each other shows our future in the DP as we will always be as supportive as this.
Credits: Mr. Duncan
On our last day we did community service in the region of Kitulgala, different groups of students were assigned different locations where we did a general interview about the life of Kitulagala. My group interviewed a fairy driver about how his life is affected by the nature of Kitulagla and the dam being built. We also got to know a lot about Sri Lanka as well, and some history of Sri Lanka which impacted his life. Before leaving to OSC, we took a drive to the new dam being built in Kitulagala, the factor by which I was impressed from the dam was helping in the use of hydroelectricity power which is to be used all in Kitulagal and might also Colombo.
Credits: Mr. Duncan
Our trip had came to an end and we headed back to OSC on 31st of August, I enjoyed every minute of this trip and will remember all the challenging and fun activities we all did here, who know when will we all 17 DP 1 students will ever have a chance like this to spend time with each other. I was indeed tired when we reached OSC however I did learn a lot from this experience of team building and supporting each other. After we reached OSC I realized that the trip wasn’t as tiring as having a volleyball game right after we arrived from Borderlands.