Recently I have achieved my Duke of Edinburgh bronze award! It benefits young people and develops the skills and attitudes they need to become more rounded, confident adults. Qualities that colleges, universities and employers are attracted to.
To get my Bronze award I needed to complete 13h of skills (Acting), 13h of physical recreation (yoga), 26h of voluntary service (Community based care for the environment/ Eco-Schools), a practice journey and then the final adventurous journey.
Acting – Antigone now!
For my acting, I wanted to really push my skills and aimed for the main role of Antigone. I spent time going through the script and imaging how I would perform as that character. I’ve never wanted a role more. The play fit into my favourite genre of hopeful but dark, not having the fairy tale ending, and exploring using sets in unique ways along with lighting and sound.
Part of me believed with such confidence that I would get the main role, but the other part of me recognized the skill of the others auditioning for the role and remembered to remain humble. But that feeling inside of me was growing so strong. I remember when Ms Jackson offered me the role. It was at the end of a theatre lesson when she pulled me aside. I was panicking at first, assuming the worst that I hadn’t gotten the role that I worked so hard on to get. She assured me and told me the amazing news that I had gotten the role. I remember running out of the class to tell my mom and celebrate together. She embraced me tightly and I started to cry tears of joy. A little later that day Ms Jackson sent out an email announcing the roles to everyone.
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From then on I worked closely with Dasha, one of the co-directors, to modify the text. It was this way that we scrapped many lines and found better ones. We came up with one of my favourite ones of the play in which Antigone says “It’s not cinnamon, it’s rotting flesh. And pictures don’t capture scent,” in retaliation of Ismene romanticizing her sisters life.
As I mentioned in my CAS post about the play, it was a night to remember and I couldn’t have done it with my incredible cast mates.
Service – Eco-schools
As a leader for Eco-schools, this was like hitting 2 birds with one stone. Well, three. I could pursue my passion of caring for the environment, fulfill my CAS requirements, and gain my Duke of Edinburgh award.
I worked hard to organize events such as the Baton Relay, and hosted a books and cookies on my service which expanded to coming in front of the school board and parents to introduce them to us. My highlight was helping our school get awarded with the green flag award from FEE. We all worked so hard with other environment focused groups to get this award and it has truly been a honour to impact the community in such a positive way.
Physical Recreation – Yoga
I have always wanted to explore yoga because I have grown up in communities where it was prominent but had never really delved passed the white-washed versions of it. Where it was seen merely as a way to get fitter with lower effort. In fact this is a complete myth. Yoga requires a lot of focus and self-awareness. You need to know your limits, and be able to push yourself forward comfortably. It also connects you on a spiritual level, allowing you to understand yourself and work with your thoughts in a healthy way.
I worked my body hard but not too hard and learned to listen to it in ways I had never done before. I learnt to care for myself, knowing when it was too much for me and therefore got a healthier understanding of myself and my needs.
The Practice Journey
Even though I had more freedom choosing my activity, service and creativity; it was the journeys I loved more.
For our practice journey we stayed in tents in a camp by the river which we swam in after our hikes of the day. The tents were comfy but of course school likes to describe our accommodations as ‘rustic’ but I enjoyed being in the middle of nature. Our meals consisted of traditional Sri Lankan curries and delicious fruits.
On the day we arrived we hiked to our camp and got settled in before having a briefing on the days ahead. My group got together and discussed our aim. We had decided for this trip to take a picture with a coconut everywhere hailing it. This idea stemmed from the fact that our group was called Ponty Mython and the Holy Coconut (a spoof of Monty Python and the Holy Grail). However, we soon realized that we would need to re-strategise this plan as we lost the coconut on the trail.
I had a personal issue on this trip which required a lot of perseverance. I had started my period and my cramps were numbing my body with the amount of pain I was experiencing. I was often driven to the point of fainting, Mr Lockwood even offered if I wanted to go back to camp but I denied. For one, what would I do for the remainder of the day, and two I couldn’t leave my group alone. So I swallowed the pill (in a literal sense too because I took some panadol which didn’t help) and set off. My group however soon noticed how I was in a lot of pain and took turns carrying my bag upon occasion. We collaborated well together here, helping each other through their struggles. It was a point in our journey where the mission of bringing people together shined through. We would ensure no man/woman/person was left behind and ensured we hydrated often and took rests when necessary. I’m so happy with how our group came together so quickly without a second thought.
On the way back we visited the biggest tree in the Sinharaja rainforest. As we came up to it I ran quickly to hug it. Pep, completely unaware of what I was about to do, took multiple snapshots as I ran into her frame. But what can I say, it looked great!
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On the second day my pain had died down and I was able to continue the day with much happiness. We started off on our journey and hiked along a roadside. It was a beautiful day which was only accentuated by the rain pouring down and I mean pouring. I became besties with Mr Lockwood as we talked about the flora and fauna whilst I sheltered under his umbrella.
We came to a bridge, although you could hardly call it that. It was a long piece of bamboo tied together to other pieces of bamboo with some string and a railing on one side of it. It was already slippery because bamboo isn’t really known for being rugged but the rain made it more of a risk but everyone crossed safely.
Once we got to the other side our guide, Major Ruhan, suggested we wade through the river on our way back. It started off with only a few people wanting to go but soon everyone joined the mentality of “when will we ever get this opportunity again.” We headed to a sandbank on the side of the river and took off our shoes and socks. The water was cold at first but then gave us much respite from the uncomfortable heat of the Sinharaja rainforest.
We soon set off, the cool water reaching our thighs. There were moments where the depth randomly got deeper and people got wet up to their chests. We all laughed as someone would scream falling into the water before helping them up, having our fun. I noticed soon that I was further ahead than Pep who was trudging at the back of the group so I turned around and came up to her. She got an action shot of we running back to her which resulted in lots of funny pictures. Mr Lockwood remarked how us wading through the river was like “being in the trenches in the Vietnam war.” Of course this shocked us all and we laughed about it;
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After getting out of the river and heading back to camp to collect our bags, we got caught in what seemed like a flood. The rain poured down so heavily that most people decided to just stay soaked and not bother putting on their rain gear. I enjoyed the rain dripping down my face and plastering my hair to the back of my head. It was a cooling sensation and made me feel happy. Usually I panic to get to shelter when it rains, but I was happy to stare at the sky with my eyes closed and let the rain fall into the crooks of my body.
Before we headed back to town we stopped at a waterfall and got as close as we could for some nice pictures.
We got to the place to eat and were given the luxury of a shower to get rid of all the grime. I hopped in first, needing to plaster off all of my clothes and get into something dry. We then ate a wonderful lunch of curry and headed back to Colombo.
Final Journey
If there was a high of my journey, it would’ve been the fact that it happened on my birthday. And my dad joined as a supervisor. After the basic briefing of the first day after the travelling we got into our bunks and organized ourselves before a game of volleyball. It was lots of fun to play with people who else I would never hang out with.
When we woke up in the morning my group quickly got together after breakfast and discussed the game play. We had decided to change our goal to creating a spoof video of Ponty Mython and the Holy Coconut and threw a bunch of coconut references in there. We had secured some coconut halves from the kitchen and used them for the iconic horse shoe clacking scenes.
Arthur, Pep, Dharani and I kept each other close when hiking and found every opportunity to stop one to film another clip using the scripts we had brought on the journey. I even convinced Mr Harrison to make a cameo as God to give us the holy quest. Mr Lockwood appeared as the bridge keeper and we had to whole DoE kids join us for some scenes which required a crowd. Everyone had fun and volunteered to take part which gave us all a spirit.
Our evenings were spent playing werewolf (to which Jed absolutely destroyed us), doing map readings, before having a bonfire and heading off to bed. Although I do have to say me and Pep stayed up a bit talking to each other about the day as she laid in my bunk next to me. It was a therapy session when we had a lot on our minds and helped the days to be more restful.
On the second day we hiked to many waterfalls and swam at the bottom of one too. we screamed as fish tried to nibble on us but sat in the middle on a sandbank, basking in the sun.
This trip was lots of fun and I really enjoyed doing it. Although the hikes could be hard at times, the people I did them with made it so much easier. Our jokes, songs and doing our projects made everything so much more personally engaging and I couldn’t have had a better group to do it with.
When I got home I started on editing the video and enjoyed the process a lot. I had to learn how to do transitions and edit the text but it was all worth it. I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I enjoyed creating it!