The path of making most of (and enjoying) life

CAS Final Reflection

After 2 years of undertaking the IB diploma program it comes to a rather anti-climactic ending, experiencing my last day of school sitting in a chair in my living room. Despite this, I have still been fortunate enough to experience countless activities and projects with a range of different people and groups, developing myself in the process. While studying for the IB exams it is easy to forget about having a balanced lifestyle and just studying all the time. However, the CAS program allowed us to ensure that we remained balanced, risk-taking and open-minded students. This is especially true for me when looking back at all my experiences as I have diversified my interests and activities by taking part in extracurriculars that I normally wouldn’t have considered before. These activities have helped shaped me as the person I am today and will forever be part of my fond OSC memories, learning valuable lessons while acquiring new skills.

CREATIVITY 

My extracurriculars in the DP years all included a large amount of creativity. To start off my DP creativity journey, I suddenly decided to take part in the annual Senior production since it appeared interesting and I thought it could be a fun experience. Not only was I given one of the larger roles, but it was also a rare play in Shakespearean which was considerably far from my comfort zone. Regardless, I took up this challenge and with rigorous practicing, memorizing and working with peers for help, I was able to play my parts and enjoy myself through the learning process as well. Therefore, this activity had multiple learning outcomes such as having the perseverance to learn my lines, taking up the challenge of acting in Shakespearean, collaboration with the other skilled actors and learning some new skills in the realm of arts which, is important for a student opting to take chemistry instead.

Me (left) playing as Lysander, Madeleine (center) playing the role of Helena and Matheeuw (right) with the role of Demitrius.

Soon after, I would return to a familiar activity, COMUN. However, this year I would take a different approach and learn how to cover an event’s technological and logistical needs. Therefore, I joined the tech crew led by Anuda, taking up multiple roles such as finding sponsors, making promotional content, and documenting the event through media such as video and images. Not only did I work collaboratively with Exco members but, I also managed to learn some new skills in the realms of photography to improve the overall quality of my images. I felt that the tech crew’s efforts and accomplishments helped improve the 2018-2019 COMUN experience and contributed to its quality.

Me, taking pictures of the closing ceremony. Phtotcredit: Divyanshu Takur

Straight after COMUN Anuda and I were notified of a competition being held under the name of “Film, Fly, Australia”. This competition would allow a visit to a university in Australia to the winners of each participating country. Anuda and I were interested in this competition as it could give us insight into university life and explore a new part of the world we were not familiar with. Teamwork was essential in this project and soon we would realize that not all the equipment we needed would be readily available to us. To solve this we had to get creative and share our ideas to adapt and improvise our set to meet our necessities. Examples included of using an ipad with a tripod rather than a big camera since it gave a better field of view and was less heavy, therefore proving to be more steady with less shakiness. The video itself also enlightened me to the possibilities of the future with regards to our theme, AI and helped me understand the global importance of talking about the advantages and implications that such futures may hold.

Me (drawing on the board) with Anuda filming the drawing process.

Finally, I have had many involvements in Yearbook in regards to the creativity aspect of CAS. I have been able to translate some of my creativity into a book with both the pages and the cover design. I started off by winning the yearbook cover in 2019 and then going on to become an editor for 2020. Making pages for a book was very new to me as I was more familiar with making videos. Throughout the year, I was able to ask help and tips from other editors in the yearbook and work together to ensure that the pages of the yearbook merge with cohesion and maintain a similar design. I learned new skills in image editing and using Adobe InDesign as well as understanding the concept of “packaging” content.

An example of a divider I had made.

Overall, creativity has been a large aspect of my CAS journey and has led me to work collaboratively with others, learn some new skills, and expand my comfort zone.

ACTIVITY

For CAS I have also been active in sports and personal fitness by participating in a variety of activities outside of class. This is even more important when considering that in the DP program, there is no physical Health Education to stimulate our physical health. I started off by joining the boys SAISA volleyball team and ended up being chosen to be part of the traveling team. Over the course of volleyball, I began to improve my skills with serving, passing and receiving, going to other players and the coaches for feedback. I also got to know many of the other team members better as Volleyball requires constant communication and collaboration between players to keep the ball up and set up a spike. I would return to volleyball for a second time in DP2 but would opt out of traveling for SAISA since I had to spend extra time catching up on some class content after missing out on school during the Sri Lanka Easter bombings.

Additionally, throughout these years I also practiced my martial arts in preparation for my karate brown belt. Karate is a quite solitary sport as it is mostly focusing on the self and development of technique and patience. This activity allowed me to become a more balanced and systematic person valuing technique over speed and eventually earning my brown belt under the guidance of my mentor.

Me (to the right) and my sister (to the left) during our Karate Examination

Finally, over the summer breaks, I would participate in the Belgian Championship of Patin Sailing and would have to endure the challenges of racing sailboats in the cold of the north sea. This process required a lot of perseverance and commitment as I have to both learn to sail patin (as I don’t sail much in Sri Lanka) and learn how to cope with the cold waters of the north sea. These competitive environments help motivate the self to improve and push one’s body to its limits to try and get an edge over the competition.

SERVICE

For Service, I have always varied the service I participate in so that I can get experience in as many services as I could and help as much as I can. For DP1, I joined the GeckoNet crew to provide a service for the OSC community by gathering media and formulating videos. During this time I worked with other members of GeckoNet to make videos and create a collection of photos of events and activities that take place at school. I developed my video skills from working with basic software like Imovie to more complex ones like FinalCut and Adobe Premier. These greatly improved the quality of my videos with the guidance of Anuda and other experienced members of GeckoNet.

Example of me anchoring the Pep rally video (right) along with a classmate, Aidan (left)

I then moved on to join the Hope for Kids service group as I felt like I wanted to participate in a service that is very hands-on and direct impacts on the lives of communities. This service made me more open-minded and appreciative of the life I have, hoping to be able to help in any way possible to improve the lives of the children in the Cancer hospital. When participating in the service I realized that the children would be entertained during our visits but less so when we left. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to get some books for the children so that our service could still have an impact on them despite our absence. I would go on to buy books at the Colombo book fair to get large amounts of Sinhala and Tamil books for cheap prices. Overall, I was able to entertain these children with my peers helping to translate and work together to plan for sessions.

Finally, for Week Without Walls I would visit the children at the SOS village with my group and interact with these children, learn about their lives and enjoy some sports and games. This was a great opportunity for me to get to know both the children at the SOS village and some of the members of the WWW group while learning about the culture and impact the community outside of OSC.

CAS PROJECT

The CAS project that I carried out would seek to encompass all attributes of CAS (Creativity, Action and Service). The first plan did not see fruition after difficulties in meeting at the Bellanwila-Attidiya Sanctuary. To counter this challenge Luca and I would switch over to plan an initiative that would focus on raising awareness of the deforestation occurring in Borneo. We would take action by raising funds during the food and funfair, we would use creativity to make posts on Instagram and then we would provide any funds made to reforestation efforts in Bornea as a service. Sadly, due to COVID 19 we wouldn’t be able to achieve some of the goals we had set however, as true IB students we would find alternatives still set up the Instagram running the page for 2 months, posting 3 original posts per week.

The general outline of our Intagram profile (left is the fact post, center are the appreciation posts while on the right are the action posts.)

CONCLUSION

Overall, I feel like my DP journey wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable if it had not been for my CAS journey. It has allowed for me to work with so many people, collaborating in many activities, planning for future sessions and projects. I have grown as a person in my physical fitness, creative capabilities and open-mindedness about the world we live in. I have learnt so many new skills along the way from new software in creative activities to techniques in sport and finally to improving interactions within service. Finally, many of the CAS activities have shown me that things don’t always go as planned and that it is up to me to work with others to adapt and plan with perseverance to reach the goal.

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