For music, Mr. Kim, our music teacher is forcing us outside of our comfort box to perform a song in front of a live audience. I chose the song ‘Strange’ by Celeste. I had always viewed singing as self-humiliation but this taught me that it doesn’t have to be. I got used to being on stage, and as much as I was so happy when it was over, I am happy to do it again.
This year for UN day (which this school calls Unity in Diversity Day), I will be dancing a Sri Lankan style dance in the assembly with other teachers and students. Ms. Tanuja, a kindergarten teacher, has created a choreography that many people are struggling to learn, but I’m sure the final performance will figure itself out….
Pep, a friend of mine, and I learned some of the skills yesterday. We will be dressing up in blue, representing water. An image of this is below:
I have danced various styles of dancing, but out of any style I would classify Sri Lankan dance as the most unique. Similar to African in many ways, the style is simple but performed with strength and force. I find it difficult to perform it correctly as the dance should seem peaceful but demanding at the same time. It is a challenge to balance both moods. Having a good teacher helps.
The Performance
I had never in my life been nervous to do something I’m good at. But performing in front of my entire school, friends, teachers, principal and acquaintances took it to a whole new level. I am fine dancing my heart out alone, in MY bedroom, in MY house. I’ve never especially loved putting my talent out there for the world to see as it is slightly uncomfortable, but, I think I did well. I messed up on one small part and my mind over-analyzes it shamelessly. But I had fun. Surprisingly I loved it, and thus, it was a good experience. It’s something I hope I will get used to over time, as I do want to pick up competitive Latin dance in my future. But that’s a whole other post…
This year I will be writing goals for myself so I can better complete my aspirations. They are centered around my personal interests only. I will make it short and sweet. They are the following:
For Creativity: Publish music or create and finalize songs I have been meaning to perform, choreograph a dance for an outdoor show, complete my CAS Project, create a spontaneous personal art piece (just to try it out), learn how to play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on the drums, publish my writing (can be anything), read books, write creatively in Spanish.
For Activity: I am going to try to participate in a Latin Dance Competition, keep active at the GYM, compete in all three International SAISA competitions – volleyball, basketball, football, teach gymnastics, teach myself how to do a muscle up, travel a few times in Sri Lanka with my family.
For Service: I want to volunteer for an organization called the Child Protection Authority (If that one doesn’t work there are other options) continue leading Housing and Habitat service group, and keep babysitting my close family friend (Gillian) and other Embassy kids when I can.
Last year I took over one of the three service leader spots for OSC’s Housing and Habitat Service Group. We had our first orientation session last Thursday, and have been preparing consistently to organize all of the plans we have for this year. We have created a calendar which incorporates all our SMART goals for this semester and will be sharing it with a group soon.
We have also counted all of our earnings from last year’s home run and bake sales, and have somewhat decided what materials we are buying with those finances.
But more than the thankless tasks that are involved in being a service leader, I’ve realized there are so many other personal things I need to address to become the best leader I can. Being a leader means many things. It means having good communication and collaboration skills, and being able to problem solve.
Additionally, interacting with people and trying fit the needs of all of our members, is really important to me. I want people to feel comfortable and create an environment where we can share our ideas. That is going to be my number one goal as service leader this year.
This past summer, I became an unofficial real estate agent for the US Embassy in Colombo. I got an internship in the GSO section. GSO stands for “General Services Office”. And the job description is pretty much exactly what you do. General Services. I had to wear proper work clothes, which was fun.
I enjoyed a lot, numerous, way too many meetings. I visited many houses that I had found online, looking to increase the housing pool number. I worked on my how professional writing skills as I and wrote up reports on the houses. Additionally, I reviewed Embassy members’ housing concerns (you would be shocked to know some of those), and led Final Walkthroughs for houses that are awaiting new arrivals. Other, more pressing matters, included discussing money issues with partners such as the Shangri La Hotel, and terminating a property contract we had started no more than two years previous.
I both enjoyed and excelled in the workplace. I was able to create my own rhythmic schedule and thus, with this freedom, I used the Embassy gym everyday, ate really good cafeteria food, and attended Zumba classes. I visited my parents in their offices from time to time. I got very used to the Embassy community and my coworkers and I was sad to leave at the end of summer. I will miss my amazing colleagues who were so dedicated to their work and my boss who treated me like a real employee and taught me so much about the professional world. It was truly a great experience and I would love to do it again.
Edit: Recently the team and I went to lunch to catch up. I hadn’t realized how much I missed them!
Recently, I presented a Ted talk called “How Not To Grieve”. Our school was doing their first annual Ted Talk event. I’ve seen plenty of Ted Talks but to write one was another story.
The amount of creative freedom I had was almost overwhelming. I chose a hard topic. One I had to curate perfectly. Grief is one of those things that is a hit or miss with most people. Either you get it or you don’t. I wanted it to affect someone. I wanted to make my audience feel something. I think I accomplished that in one way or another.
Interestingly enough, my self-confidence plummeted the second I walked on stage. The following is a list of what not to do when presenting a Ted Talk.
You can tell I’m shook with fear in this image. I was underprepared. I scrambled my way through it somehow still earning words of encouragement as I stepped off the stage.
I thought it was a disaster. I was disappointed in myself and my work ethic.
Alas, I later learned that my speech was valued, and by people I didn’t even know. There were some tears in the audience. There were people who walked up to me and mentioned how moved they were. I realize now that I said something powerful even if the execution was less than adequate for my standards.
My biggest takeaway? Not to criticize myself. Not to beat myself up. I was awarded and praised by the people around me. It may not have been my best work, but it called to people and that’s all I could ever ask for.
Basketball as a valuable passing of time never crossed my mind before this season. I picked up basketball because I wanted to occupy my head with something it couldn’t comprehend. I didn’t understand the purpose of basketball, how it flows and functions like dominoes. I thought basketball was a boring, very uniform sport. It was just back and forth, back and forth. But then I realized the culture, I saw the tactical chess-like movements it makes. And then I loved it. It was difficult and not easy to be good at. I became properly obsessed for a little bit, I played everyday, by myself for a month or so. That eventually slowed down but my passion for it has not.
I could barely dribble a ball three months ago, I thought the idea of hoops was dumb and now let’s just say I have a little more respect than that. I’ve gotten better, like anyone would. The school’s girls basketball team is travelling to Nepal in five days, which is not a lot of time left to come together as a team. We have an amazing coach (Mr. Hentz) who makes everyone feel positive, motivated, and happy – we really take advantage of this.
But I’m sure we can do it if we are patient with each other. We have been training for 13 weeks and now it’s time to put it all together. I think it’s important to realize that we all have strengths and weaknesses and we can overcome those easier as a team.
SAISA!! (some pictures)
Results: We got fourth place! I am happy with my personal improvement and excited to do it next year.
Most international schools have some form of ‘Week Without Walls’, where students travel to different visually stimulating locations, usually nationally, seeking knowledge that can be found more through experience and visual observation rather than that of learning in a classroom. We spend five nights away from home, forced to reconcile differences with the peers around us, and forced to swallow any sign of homesickness. If you feel that sort of thing. It’s the IB version of a field trip but better.
This year the DP1’s and grade 10s had a combined trip (this is something of a tradition here). There were four trip sign-up options. I traveled to Sigiriya, also known as ‘the biking trip’.
Sigiriya is supposed to be a relatively large tourist attraction. And now looking back, I understand why. Fields of green and gold went on for miles, looking like something of an animation, not a blade of grass out of place. It had this sort of undeniable beauty about it. The opening bike ride was a shock of culture and scenery. Society was so adapted to nature there. They never seemed to take too much, but always took enough for comfort. Balance was attained, so different from Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. Houses of compact mud and straw, wood and sludge, tile and brick trailed the outskirts of the small town. Rivers and channels of water followed us around the trails of our stay, moderately welcoming; especially on the hot day that it was.
Camp was amazing. A resort called Back and Beyond hosted our stay for all four nights. We slept in treehouses, branches winding in and out through the roof and open walls just above our beds.
As charming as it was, it had its drawbacks. It was the 2nd night that two members of the group had the unlucky experience of finding what we now know as the ‘Whipped Scorpion’. It invited its humble self to comfort on the wall above their toilet. It sadly died within a few minutes of its arrival. Its crunched and bloodied body now rests peacefully in the cracks between the bathroom tiles. A drawing for context is uploaded below (I will put it here eventually I promise).
The nights, though, despite the miscellaneous creepie crawlies, were some of the best I had had in a long time. I mean of course there were moments when my social battery got the best of me but other than that the evenings were great. We played mafia, ghosts in the graveyard, innovative table ping pong, and other miscellaneous games. Comfortable chats became more common after the second day. We were getting more comfortable. However, our bodies, not so much.
For daily activities, biking took the obvious win over most of our time. Those without the common sense of bringing bike shorts (including myself) were forced to deal with the pain of sore (EXPLETIVE). Excuse my language. I hope this picture makes up for it.
Our longest day was day two. We rode 40-some kilometers. Definitely worth it. I would explain the scenery, the wetness of the forest and the heat of the fields but not even an image could do it justice, let alone words. I think that was the day I also got run over by a cow, if I remember correctly. My timid, small self somehow managed to scare the massive thing, leading it to charge into my bike head first. I fell. Obviously.
One of the hardest days was when we hiked the ‘mountain’. A multitude of stairs stood between us and the top but even through our poor cardiovascular endurance, we all managed the trek. The view was stunning. As usual. If you’ve ever looked out an airplane window on your way to or from the clouds you would know what I mean when I describe the innocence of the towns. The perfect squares representing pastures and farms.
But more so than anything, food had to take the roster for the highlight of the trip. Our 14-student team was split into three groups which cooked different meals of their choice each night.
Going home was really sad but it was also relieving to be able to sit down for three hours for the bus ride. I came back recharged and ready for school and able to ride a bike with no hands.
Last semester, I became a member of the service group Housing and Habitat. Our school promotes various service groups of all kinds to benefit many different communities around Sri Lanka.
The service group I am invested in, Housing and Habitat, has various purposes. Our first quarter of work we created the batons for a baton relay hosted at the school, raising awareness for Cop27.
Towards the second quarter we began building the four garden beds that are now completed and in use for different types of vegetables and garden greens. We spent many Saturdays mixing cement and laying bricks for this project. The biology teacher at our school uses the beds for experiments as well, by her request.
At the very end of quarter two, we set up a stall for a service fundraiser. Me and a partner made cookies and brownies which, I’d have you know, sold out immediately.
Now, coming to the start of this new semester we are organizing the details behind our annual fundraiser, ‘The Home Run’. We are in the process of designing posters and T-shirts. And later in the future, we plan to build furniture for local schools in Colombo.
Housing and habitat has taught me the value of being able to use your hands to accomplish tasks rather than just your brain. It has also taught me a lot about collaboration with team members and cooperating with people even though at times it can be frustrating. It gives me skills that will be helpful in the future especially when it comes to containing patience for the people around me.
Dancing, in general, is something I’ve always refused to take seriously because it’s “not a real sport” or “it’s a girls sport”. I’ve always loved to dance, but that’s not something I’m used to saying out loud because it’s an oddity. A few days ago I decided to not let a stereotype decide what I like, so I manned up and dropped in to a dance class. I had never danced in front of anyone in my life and everything I knew up until that point was self taught. I was terrified.
The first thing I tried was ballet at the Ballet School of Colombo, mistakenly taking it for something easy. The appearance that ballet is an innocent pastime is entirely false. I struggled brutally. I have never respected real dancers more in my life. It was enjoyable, but agonizing and took more flexibility than I could muster. It was wonderful, but repetitive, slow and not what I was looking for so I didn’t go back.
However, a few days ago I went to a studio called ‘The Dance Lab’. It specializes in different types of dance. The class I took was called ‘Lyrical Dance’ or what most people know as ‘Contemporary Dance.’ I don’t think I’ve ever been so much in my element in my life. Other than hitting a punching bag no sport has ever satisfied me to the same extent. As embarrassing as it is to admit that, it’s true.
All in all, unlike what most people think, dance is more than just some elegant show. It takes hard work, which I’m beginning to learn, and more strength than any school sport you’ll ever come across (as much as I love those, too). Dancers are tough and sadly, forced to have thick skin.
In my experience (experience being the two sessions I’ve attended), dancing is like having an extension of yourself that you can pretend to be. It involves a lot of self-awareness. Knowing your body, your limits, how your muscles and ligaments move together to make art. How you can express something so real to you through the simple things and movements. Dancing is an art form and I won’t let anyone say otherwise.
I plan to take more classes at The Dance Lab. For example, Latin dancing, which would be fitting for my heritage. Most dancing, especially Latin, involves significant collaboration with other people, synchronization and a level of comfort with another person. It’s similar to taking two colors of paint, and blending them to make one. It’s complicated and impossible unless done perfectly right.
Anyways, I’m sure I will learn much more. I’m excited too. Thrilled actually. Part of me wished I started sooner, but better later than never. My biggest takeaway is that not all sports involve balls. Dancing may be different, but it is awesome nonetheless.