About and Goals – Isa's CAS Journey

CAS Goals (Let senior year be the best one)

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.

Rough Introductions

As a society we put so much significance on school. On grades, on what university we are going to. We measure value by who’s the smartest, who’s the best, who is getting a business degree. But that’s ridiculous because nobody’s identity is ‘school’. Everybody has a life outside of this big competition. We all have relationships, dreams and ambitions that have nothing to do with being successful because I think to everyone, success is defined differently.

And I hate that students around the world suffer so much to be the exception. To be that one percent that goes to Harvard. But we are so much more outside of that label. And we don’t give ourselves the chance to be. That is what this blog is for. It is to share the person I am outside of school, grades, and things other people will tell you.

This post is called ‘Rough Introductions’. So here are three things about myself that I know as of right now. And that’s very little.

The first thing you should know about me is that I come from a Latin American heritage. But what does that even mean? It’s conflicting really, something I’m discovering. I’m starting to realize they don’t like each other too much, the Mexican and American sides of myself. I wouldn’t categorize it as an identity crisis, but something I’m discovering in little bits and pieces when I have the time.

Second, I’m a songwriter but an odd one because I lack a good voice to sing. I like to think that if I had the voice, and maybe played better guitar, I’d be one of those teen idols you see in those interviews with Jimmy Fallon. But that’s probably stretching it.

Lastly, I’ve wanted to join the military ever since I could comprehend the idea of what it even was. My dad was a Marine and raised me like one. But then my mom, a veteran too, was deployed for almost a year when I was 7, and that experience taught me a lot about what I actually don’t want for my children. The military gives and the military takes. And at a young age, the military as an institution was one of the only things that felt like home. So I talked to some recruiters about enlisting recently, but got rejected for medical reasons. And it blew me apart. Who was I without the possibility of it? Alas, I continue to figure that out. But I think I know now that I don’t need to risk my life for my country to prove something (thank you Casey).

But it’s what literally brought me into to this life. The military. So I am forever in debt to it.