The last year, as the juniors of OSC, was a very special year in my life. It as filled with crazy and compelling adventures along the way. From being one of the new kids to become almost a senior, I have learnt and gone through many things from the variety of subjects to all the activities and service.

The journey as a gecko started for me on the 6th of August 2019 when I entered the OSC main gates for the orientation for the new kids. We were given an overview of the school and the diploma program and taken on a school tour. On that first day, I never realized that someday these walls and these people would mean so much to me. OSC made me grow not only as a student but as a person accomplished with discipline and flourished with the skills I had and acquiring new ones along the way.

My first expedition with the DP was the orientation in Kithulgala. It was a really good trip filled with fun and thrilling activities. We engaged in many activities over the course of 3 days spent at Borderlands Kithulgala. It was very helpful for me to get along with the other kids and teachers in my grade. When the first month of DP ended like that we were extremely happy for a moment only to be met by piles of work and assignments in classes. The following months included some other fun activities like the sports day, UN day, Science trips, WWW etc. Overall it was a great year and I think I was able to get the most of it.

CREATIVITY

This year for creativity, I was a member of the Advocate at school and attended performing arts and dancing outside school.

I along with the other members of the Advocate organized the annual contest for poetry, prose and photography. It was a lot of work of collaboration and perseverance but I enjoyed working with them and had a lovely time. I also improved my literary skills on the way. Dancing is always fun and this year I’ve been attending regular practices. I was able to discuss with Ms Fleming and perform at the school during the National Day assembly. It was a big challenge for me. I have danced plenty of times either in groups or with my partner but this was the first time I danced solo in front of an audience of about 500 people. However, I practised for about 3 weeks straight so I can reduce the probability of forgetting any steps. It was a really good experience and was amazed with all the appreciation received afterwards. As for performing arts, I spent the last year preparing for my diploma but unfortunately with the current situation the examination was postponed. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun and got the opportunity to engage in different workshops.

ACTIVITY

My overall goal for activity this year was to stay fit. And I believe I was able to fulfil that. During the first season, I played volleyball at school. Being a novice to the game of volleyball, it was quite hard at first. It requires a lot of stamina and concentration. Ms Kelly and Ms Chandler were really helpful in teaching me the correct techniques of the sport. I did badminton this year for the second season and I really enjoyed it. It has always been a sport that I was interested in playing. Playing badminton requires commitment, collaboration and communication. Especially when playing doubles you have to make sure that your partner is aware of what is happening and you have to work together.  I enjoyed playing badminton and I am looking forward to playing again next year.  Apart from this, I went for jogs during the weekends and did stretching at home as it helps with dancing. I also joined up for Zumba at school. Since I loved dancing it was a bonus achievement as it helped me to stay fit while doing something I love.

SERVICE

Last year for service I signed up for the service group Girls For Girls. It is a service group that works to the empowerment of women around the world. This year girls for girls has accomplished many things and we have been very happy with the progress that we have made. Since each service day is assigned to a particular group member I had to initiate and plan an interesting and suitable session for the girls from the Emerge Center. This is one of the things I like about our service group. This allows all the members to know how a undertake a challenge and successfully face it. This also teaches leadership qualities and time management. We were able to do wall climbing, make milkshakes, play sports, watch music videos, sing-along and I enjoyed all our service sessions. With the current situation, we had to push down some of the activities planned but next year I hope to organize a dance session for the girls to teach them some of the basic steps. This is something I learned the girls loved to do. I also hope to have a women’s week at school where we could work towards our goal as a whole school.

Apart from this I also participated in my first and last Week Without Walls trip to Hambantota. Here we worked with the Janoda foundation, where we taught pre-school kids for 3 days. It was a lot of work but at the same time, I was glad that we were doing a service to the village. We also built a mini-railway for the kids and then conducted a beach clean-up with the Shangri-La.

Overall I think this year has been both successful in CAS as well as academics. I’ve always loved the blogging aspect of CAS and can’t wait to start the new school year as the seniors of OSC.