As we approach the end of the 2020-2021 school year, I felt it was time to reflect on the roller-coaster of a year we have had over the past couple of months.
We returned to school F2F in August of 2020 and I was excited to be able to socialize with my friends again. I had some ambitions for DP1. I wanted to try out for Volleyball and Basketball. Despite there being no formal practice of either sports, I gained little knowledge about Volleyball as me and a few of my peers and SAISA Volleyball players like Chloe, and Anish spent most of our lunch breaks playing. More so, I also realized how much nicer it was to be able to learn in person after being forced to learn online for the prior months in the end of MYP 5.
I also became service leader this year and I had absolutely no idea what I should be doing. Thankfully I was leader along side my friend and classmate, Zoe Pringiers and I learned a lot from her about leadership, confidence in speaking to our fellow service members, and how to initiate ideas for the service. We held a literary afternoon in February, 2021 as a fundraiser and raised funds for the school that our service is planning on helping rebuild a functional library space for them. I am satisfied with the knowledge that I have gained through the year being service leader and hope to do more for the service next school year.
Towards the end of DP1, we went into lockdown yet again as the 3rd wave of COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka. During this time I decided to try and be more productive during my time alone and inside. I spent a lot of time with my family as I realized that ever since the previous lockdown ended, I spent most of my free time meeting friends and staying out of the house. considering that wasn’t an option, I figured that spending time with my family was the least I could do. I also spent a lot of time playing my drums as I realized that that was probably the most fun way to pass the time. Keeping my spirits high during lockdown seemed to be the most challenging. I missed my friends a lot and I don’t remember the last time I met any of them. People from OSC or outside of school. It was rather challenging at first but thankfully, I had soon got used to it. It’s weird being stuck inside because you basically have nothing to look forward to. You can’t just get in your car and go to a friend’s house, you have to make do with being imprisoned in your own house.
During my first year of DP I feel as if I have developed not only as a person but also as a member of the OSC community. I got closer to my friends as we all helped each other one way or another during this pandemic. I feel more confident to approach people and socialize or even reach out to people if I need help with something. I’ve enjoyed my time as OSC so far and I hope that my final year will be filled even more happy memories and other events like OSCars, Gecko Factor, and so on.
During my final year at OSC, I want to be more engaged in the school. Do more both for and with the school and make an impact. Senior year of High School is supposed to be the best and I really want to make it worth while. Let’s just hope and pray that this pandemic will be gone by then or at least not to prominent to the point where we can’t enjoy ourselves in our final few months of being together. As DP1 comes to an end, I look forward to my last year here and hope to make it one of the most memorable years of my life. Good friends, good times, and good memories