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2 years of CAS have zoomed by (That was a terrible joke i’m sorry). It seems like it was just yesterday that we were young, naive DP1s sitting in Mr. Lockwood’s classroom where we were just setting up our CAS blogs. Unaware of the crazy journey we were embarking on. Filled with lockdowns, power cuts, and other crazy events. As I near the end of my CAS journey, and also my time at OSC, It’s only fitting to reflect back on the times I’ve had writing about CAS.

Creativity –

With the pandemic sweeping in and out of the country, it was tricky to keep school open for the entirety of our DP journey. This made things difficult for me being a passionate singer and drummer. ASAs were absent up until February of 2022 so performing opportunities were rather limited. I decided that this time would be good for me to work on my drumming, considering I had a kit in my room. I practiced almost everyday for nearly an hour. It helped me clear my mind and relieve the stress associated with IBDP.

I definitely feel like the lockdowns did some good for my drumming. My hand to food coordination improved significantly.

As far as my singing, There was little opportunity for this. Thankfully however, COVID died down after our last lockdown in September 2021. An opportunity presented itself that December in celebration of the school’s coffee shop being opened. My first performance at OSC in nearly 2 years.

Another singing opportunity arose in April in the form of the Spring Gala. Being that I was also a drummer, I was placed in majority of the performances as part of the ensemble. Further helping me improve my drumming skills.
Overall, these opportunities improved my confidence in singing, as well as drumming in front of an audience.

Activity –

With Sri Lanka constantly running in and out of lockdown, it proved difficult to stay active and fit. However, during the times where we were free to roam around freely, I made every effort to get out. My primary source of activity (and my favorite) was taking my overweight dog for a walk. Initially I would take him to the Thalangama lake due to the peaceful nature of the area. However, the opening of the beach park at Port City proved less of a trek and for the remainder of my CAS journey, I always went there.

I also took time to work on my volleyball skills as I was keen to try out for the volleyball team (A plan that couldn’t make happen as I had to prioritize concert band. I had played volleyball during lunchtimes at school, playing with team members like Chloe and Kaalep. It was apparent that my form was not the greatest.

In this short period of time, I felt like I had improved my serving skills and felt satisfied with the physical activity I had taken part in.

Service – I became service leader of my service group; OSC’s Room To Read, at the beginning of DP1. I was extremely grateful for this opportunity to improve my thinking and confidence skills with engaging with other members of the community. We hosted a number of events including literary afternoons, book drives, and our most recent event, a weekly session of books n cookies.

Throughout the years of being service leader, I feel more involved and willing to express my opinions and ideas when partaking in group discussions. I also owe it to my co-leader and classmate, Zoe Pringiers, and of course Ms. Lockwood who both helped me improve my confidence and encouraged me to have more input on the group.

My CAS project was also service based. I hosted a car maintenance workshop during our “Life-Skills” lessons for CAS/SAC. I was asked to do this by Ms. Fleming as I am known throughout the grade as the car guru. I was excited to take up the challenge as I was able to input my own knowledge to my peers and provide a service to them that would be useful in the future.

This helped me engage with my class in a way that I hadn’t done before as I am not close to every one of them. It was a unique experience, not only for me but also my peers as I was keen to educate them on something I was so passionate about.

Conclusion –

To conclude, my CAS journey has been eventful, fun, and challenging. My confidence and thinking skills for certain situations ranging from all 3 strands of Creativity, Activity and Service have been greatly improved since I first joined OSC in September of 2019. I am truly grateful to my teachers and my peers for assisting and guiding me throughout this journey that wasn’t always easy going. CAS showed me to think outside of the box and be resilient in times of lockdowns and power cuts. It will definitely be useful to utilize the skills gained from this journey in my future endeavors, either in university or in the workplace.

After School Activities (ASAs) at OSC are finally back up officially! I say officially because my service group; OSC’s Room To Read was already up and running last semester. Albeit it was just Ms. Lockwood, my classmate and co-leader Zoe. However, we can now function as a whole with new members and more importantly, new ideas!

During our first meeting, Zoe and I had prepared some ice breakers in order to get to know our new members. I was excited to finally be interacting with my service group in person for the first time in a long time. Prior to this, the only way I was able to interact with them was through a computer screen where it was much more difficult to get to know people without actually meeting with them face to face.

With this being my final semester at OSC, I feel like this service has helped me greatly over the 3 years i’ve at this school. Now being service leader, I feel more confident when speaking to members of the group as well as interacting with peers outside the group. Our second meeting where Ms. Lockwood was absent due to quarantine, Zoe and I led and I had never felt so confident in addressing the group and instructing them in what we had to do. This semester, we also started advising our next generation of leaders for Room To Read; Thevuni and Eleez from DP1 and enlightening them with the work they will have to input to ensure the group functions efficiently and effectively as a whole

Looking back on the time i’ve had with this service group, I feel satisfied with my inputs and contributions. The guidance both from Ms. Lockwood and Zoe have been extremely helpful in helping me reach this point. All that’s left to do in the final few months of is help our partner schools the best we (Zoe and I) can before we leave for good (A day i’m low key dreading) and hopefully our contributions will be a useful guidance for the next generation of leaders.

LO 1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

Traveling has always been one of my favorite things to do during my spare time. Exploring the country I live in and seeing how different life is away from the big city.  few weeks ago, my family and I took a road trip down to Yala. I’ve been to Yala 2 times before and loved it so I was excited to head down there again.

We left early on a thursday morning. Total time took us around 4 hours to get down there. Far cry from the early days of traveling to Yala where it would take 6 sometimes even 7 hours to get there. Being an ESS student, I wanted to see if I could apply some of my knowledge that I had gained in that class. We were staying at Wild Coast Tented Lodge. Basically fancy camping or “glamping”. The rooms were well constructed tents, kitted out with, AC and so on. The Interesting aspect of it was how hot water was provided for showers. The AC had to run at a temperature below 21 Degrees Celsius. Any excess water produced by the AC was disposed into a small bowl just outside the room where you could use that water to wash your sandy feet after walking to the room

In the afternoon, we headed into the park. To do this in your own car, you need to have a tracker with you. The tracker I got knew a lot about birds and showed me the many different types of birds that were visible throughout the park. I was eager to see how much of my ESS knowledge I could apply on this trip as the last time I visited Yala, it was during the summer break between MYP 5 and DP 1 So I hadn’t had any ESS knowledge at the time. As we entered the park, out first siting was Spotted Deer (Axis Axis). Unfortunately they were so far away so I couldn’t get a proper picture of them. I remember my ESS teacher, Mr. Lockwood, speaking about them in our lessons in the past. For day 1, majority of our sightings consisted of birds. Peacocks predominantly, along with a fair share of monkeys running along the tracks.

The following day, I got a different tracker to accompany me. On this day we saw a larger variety of animals functioning in their eco system.  We came across a fair number of bulls and they made me somewhat uneasy cause my car is the most red thing in the entire park. When we came across elephants, my tracker taught me something really interesting that I did not know prior to this trip. Apparently, after living together for roughly 10-12 years, the female and male elephants separate into their own packs and begin living on their own. We came across more Spotted Deer (Axis axis) again and this time I got a much better video of them as they were crossing the road. Unfortunately the file is too large for me to upload. The highlight of this day in the park was the leopard we spotted. My tracker told me that it was likely that his name was Atlas and was 1 of 2 leopard brothers known be roam the specific area which we witnessed him in.

Looking back on this trip, I enjoyed applying my knowledge gained from being an ESS student as it allowed me to view Yala from a fairly different perspective and one of which I would never had done if I wasn’t an ESS student. I also enjoyed gaining knowledge about the wildlife in the area from my 2 different trackers and how their ecosystems functions, etc… I hope to go back to Yala again sometime soon and not only apply the knowledge I currently have, but also gained even more knowledge that I could perhaps apply in my ESS class.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

It’s officially here. My last year of high school. I remember when I was in like 7th grade, I’d see seniors and think “Wow they are old It’ll take so long for me to get to that point” and well, here we are. It’s not off to the greater of starts if  i’m being honest. We are still in DLP so we couldn’t meet each other in person. I did meet a few of my friends over summer break however which was fun. But this year I really want to make it worthwhile. DLP or F2F. It’s my senior year. It’s supposed to be the more exciting, the most eventful, and of course the most emotional. One thing i’m really not looking forward to is being separated from my friends. I’ve grown to love all of my friends at OSC and to be honest, I don’t want to drift apart from them, considering i’ve only known most of them for just under 2 years. It seems surreal that I’ll be graduating in just 9 months. Hopefully in person.

This year, I hope to be more engaged in school activities. Service, ASAs, Productions, etc. I also hope to improve myself as a person overall. Improving my grades, thinking skills and my participation. Should school reopen sometime soon, I really hope there will be  either Basketball or Volleyball try outs. 1 thing I always regretted was never doing sports at BSC. Corona hit shortly after I joined OSC so there was no proper chance to participate in sports.

Another activity I want to be more involved in is service. As this is my last year, I really want to bring good ideas to the table as service leader along side my classmate Zoe. Being service leader helped me further understand the service group as a whole and who we were helping, especially through the hardships with the coronavirus. Should we open up in person, I want to ensure that we do as much as we can to help the surrounding schools in our area, as well as set an example for the next generation of service leaders after Zoe and I leave OSC for good.

And finally, I want to enjoy my final year in school. DP2 is going to be challenging for sure. But I want to embrace the fact that this is our last year of high school. After this, most of us are going our separate ways and may grow apart. That’s why I want to make the most of in person time (if we have any) with my peers to really make it a school year that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Karting has always been a fun past-time but I didn’t expect for me to have a large passion for it. In 2019 I qualified twice for the monthly race that the track has because I was in the top 10. And last year I competed in the national championship. I came 6th out of 12 which was eh but I was satisfied with it. Unfortunately the coronavirus taking over the globe, I wasn’t able to partake in one of my favorite past times. I recently went again as I will be taking part in a championship that is taking place on the 3rd of April, 2021. There are 2 kinds of karts you can use if you’re going to kart just for the fun of it. The red karts and the black ones. The black ones are the faster ones and harder control so in order to qualify to be able to use them, you have to get a sub 47 second time in the red kart. On the day I went to practice, I had one of my friends, Induwara, who is a race car driver and has a lot of experience in Karting. I decided to watch him do his laps first to see how he takes his lines. The idea is to take the most straight line possible through the turns. So basically go wide and cut in as close as you can to the corner. This  After his 10 minutes were up, I had a go while being accompanied by him in his car ahead. I was very happy when I learned that I was only 0.7 seconds behind him. His time was 45.666 and mine was 46.382. The day after that, I went back for more training and I used a black kart this time. My time dropped to 43.648. The black kart is much harder to handle and I spun out twice which did not help my average lap time. I look forward to April 3rd and seeing how well I do.

In continuation with learning how to skateboard, me and my 2 friends, Enya and Naadira decided to go back to the racecourse parking lot and try and improve our skills. Unfortunately my friend Anouk couldn’t make it but that didn’t stop me from stealing her skateboard (don’t worry I returned it later) and using it for myself. We started off fooling around as usual because we’re kids at heart, but after about half an hour of just messing around, I decided to actually focus on trying to improve my balance. I realized that my feet are too big for a penny board. Though it is doable on a penny board, one of my feet are nearly completely hanging off the side which impedes my ability to balance. The skateboard on the other hand is much easier to balance with. After practicing for about 30 minutes I was able to complete a whole loop of the track. I was super happy because I was figuring out not only how to balance but also turn. I realized that keeping both feet parallel to each other, both at an angle made it much easier to balance. I also learnt how to do a flip trick where I flip the board with my feet and land on it perfectly.

IMG_4154 – The trick that I learnt.

After a few hours, it started pouring rain so me, Enya, and Naadira went and got cheesecake and discussed about our skateboarding achievements. We all came to the conclusion that while we were absolutely trash, we were a lot more productive than we were last time.

LO1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

LO2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Ever since Online School started, I have barely been active. One of my close friends asked if I would be interested in learning how to skateboard with her. I hadn’t met her in months and having been bored at home, I said yes. I had a skateboard around 8-9 years ago but I never really got fully into it. Unfortunately, I no longer had possession of this skateboard so I had to borrow one of myy other friends’ penny board. The friend who I was going to learn with, Anouk, was also not very skilled at skateboarding so I was curious to see if any of us would get injured. We brought in a 3rd friend, Enya, who also had interest in skateboarding. We all met up at independence square and immediately came to the conclusion that all 3 of us were absolutely trash and had ZERO skill. We then walked over to the Racecourse parking lot as I knew that would have a smoother surface and we found things much easier. We spent a good 45 minutes just fooling around and testing our limits. There were a few falls and close calls with passing cars but thankfully, no one was injured, hurt or killed. After we had got too tired we went to KFC and got drinks to cool down and had deep conversations about the meaning of life. I quite enjoyed, not only skateboarding, but also fooling around, meeting my friend after months and just getting out and doing something I wouldn’t usually do. We planning to go again and hopefully that time we end up being more productive in actually learning how to skateboard rather than be immature like little kids.

I’m not the only person in my household who needs to be more active. My overweight beagle, Jackson, is also a couch potato. So last Friday, I decided that enough was enough and it was time for not only me, but also Jackson to get out and go for a walk together. Bonding with him is something I feel I should do more of so this excursion to the great outdoors, better known as the Thalangama lake, was perfect. I met up with a friend who has a white Puppy and we took both dogs on a relaxing stroll around the beautiful lake. It was oddly refreshing. I don’t usually do something like this so it really cleared my mind. I think moving forward, I might make this a weekly occurrence with Jackson and hopefully other dogs in the neighborhood. IMG_3362

Life often throws many unexpected things at you that you might not always be fully prepared to face. Turns out, my dad’s car had a flat tire and whilst i’m overly obsessed with cars, sad as it may seem I have never changed a tire before so… I decided to take up the challenge and see what I can considering that during my CAS block I had to get something productive/ active done. OK to be fair I did kind of expect this since I was out the day before and was aware that the tire was losing pressure at a substantial rate but I thought it would still be a good experience to get my hands dirty and see what it takes. Turns out, not a lot. A long reach and a jack was pretty much all I needed. Still, I had a big fear of the car collapsing since I hadn’t done this before but thankfully, it stayed in place. Luckily the tire wasn’t so severely damaged and only had a puncture so it was an easy fix.