A rollercoaster is the best analogy I can think of to describe what my DP journey has been. At times, the ride is very slow; only to build up the tension for the next big drop and then everything moves so quickly. But, I ride this rollercoaster with a group of 17 others who have made the experience far more enriching, worthwhile, remarkable, unforgettable, bearable, and most importantly: enjoyable. I would like to begin my final CAS reflection with a few words of gratitude to those people: the, no, my class of 2020. Thank you for being there for me, thank you for supporting me, thank you for encouraging me, thank you for inspiring me, thank you for your kind words, thank you for your criticism, thank you for the love that binds our grade together. None of this would have been the same without each and every one of you, so thank you.
Now, the rollercoaster analogy has a few more components that I should comment on, especially from a CAS perspective. Every rollercoaster has its ups and downs (quite literally), and so does every IB student. There have been many successes in my time in the IB program, but also many moments of improvement. At the beginning of my DP journey, I set eight goals for myself to accomplish by the end of this experience. In summary, they went a bit like this:
- Serve: give back to the community.
- Under stress: don’t over stress about work.
- Read: allocate time to read and enjoy literature.
- Variety: stay balanced and diverse.
- Independence: remain as an independent individual throughout DP.
- Value: value what we learn as students, in and out of the classroom.
- Active: participate in at least 3 sporting activities.
- Learn: learn new things and carry them with me to my further studies and university life.
An important lesson we must take from everything in life is that: everything is an experience and nothing is permanent. I say this because something I did not take into account when setting these goals was time. I did manage to achieve all these goals within my DP years, but I gained a lot more than the satisfaction of accomplishing these eight targets. I gained experience and lessons, which I will carry with me not only to university but for the rest of my life. The things I have learned from this experience are enriching, make me strive to be the best version of myself, and have deepened my learning.
The Reflection
Creativity
My activities for creativity have varied a lot throughout the CAS program. In DP1, I participated in 5 school events: COMUN EXCO 2019, UN Day 2018, Winter Gala 2018, Spring Gala 2019, and Senior Production 2018. In Colombo Model United Nations 2019, I was the deputy head of the international press corporation. Being a part of the COMUN EXCO has been a platform for my voice to be heard on global issues, and to come together with other MUNers to fight back against the deadlock that has fraught much of the diplomatic realm. It has provided me with a forum to hone skills in diplomacy, negotiation, critical thinking, compromise, public speaking, writing, and research. COMUN 2019 was a very enriching experience for me and helped me to grow as a learner and a global citizen. For United Nations Day 2018, I was the master of ceremonies for the secondary school assembly and leader one of the groups during the UN youth awareness presentations. I undertook new challenges by being the MC of the assembly, which was an experience I had never done before and was completely new to. It was a very fun challenge and hopefully will be able to do it again. I had to plan out and prepare the classroom activities and create the presentations weeks prior to UN Day, and additionally, had to write out a script for MC. And finally, I had to collaborate with the students in my classroom session and work with them when brainstorming ideas and reflecting. Along with this, I also had to interact with my audience when being MC. For The Senior Production 2018, Winter Gala 2018, and Spring Gala 2019, I was the master of lights for all the performances. My passion for technology drives me to support as many parts of the school I can through my experience in the field. I had a lot of fun working with Mr. Lakshitha and the rest of the tech crew, as always. The performances were conclusively very big successes when considering, lights, sound, acting, cues, etc. In DP2, my main experience of creativity was my CAS project: Hour of Code. Hour of Code is a global movement to promote and encourage programming for all, where all students are expected to program for an hour. I first learned about it from my Computer Science teacher, as it was an event hosted in his old school. I found it an interesting and unique way to influence people into the realms of programming, and a good introduction to computer science. I was also searching for an appropriate solution to my problem for which grades should be involved in the project. When reflecting on this, I noticed how children can begin programming from a very young age because it uses the same conventions of learning a language. Hence, I decided that the best area of the school to run this project on was primary school. HoC was a huge success and we received a lot of positive comments from the activity, I was very satisfied with how the project turned out and hope that OSC will continue to run it even when I leave school.
Activity
In both years of the DP program, I partook in the training for volleyball and was a part of the SAISA girls’ football team. In DP1, volleyball was a very new experience for me as I had not played it competitively before. I was new to the concepts of the game and was surprised by the complexity in technique and movement of the game. I focused on first learning the basics of the game and how I could use these techniques in other scenarios, but by the end of the season, my passion for volleyball had grown and I began to enjoy it more as a sport than a game of technique. I spent a lot of time working with the team and understanding their strategies and where I needed improvement. This is when I noticed that I was increasing my awareness of my strengths and areas of growth, as I started to play more attention to what I was doing wrong and how I could correct myself. Once I could identify these areas, the game became a lot more fun and interesting for me as I could tell what was difficult for me and others, and what kinds of plays would be harder to respond to than others. In DP2, I returned to the court as a way to also maintain my personal fitness in preparation for SAISA football, which is a tournament I do plan on traveling for. Volleyball training focuses on some of the same areas needed for football, such as speed, accuracy, and skill. I realized this last year, as, during football season, I used some of the skills I had developed when playing volleyball in some of the practices and games which helped me play better and more confidently. As a closing note, I would like to comment on what a fun experience volleyball has been for me and how much I’ve enjoyed it throughout my time at OSC. It is a truly intriguing sport that has always interested me, and I am really disappointed that I could not partake in this year’s SAISA team. However, I do hope to play it once again in my life, and cannot wait till I get the opportunity. SAISA football, on the other hand, was a very different experience for me, it is a sport that has remained constant to me throughout my high school journey. In DP1, SAISA football was held in Mumbai, after 3 days of hard work, we came fourth place after a penalty shoot-out against Lincoln School. By DP2, things had changed. We made it to the finals of SAISA and had come second place in the tournament. It was an accomplishment we were far from achieving for a long time. And, as I close this chapter of sports in my life, there is only one thing I have to say: the spirits, determination, supportiveness, strategy, talent, technique, and motivation this team has is beyond measurable, and if not for that shared desire and thirst to win we would have not come this far in SAISA as we did.
Service
An essential part of the CAS program is service, and I feel like I have achieved this goal of serving my community to a significant extent. I spent my first year of DP in the service group Gecko Network. Geckonet is a tech service in the school, which focuses on serving the OSC community by offering services with the aid of technology. This includes covering photography, videography and live streaming events, or simply making a recap video of an activity within the school. One of my favorite parts of Gecko Network was when we started “GeckoNet Microdocumentaries”. We used this to emphasize the phrase “learning through serving”. Since our service does not directly collaborate with a specific community in need of some sort of support, we decided to make a project where we go out to other services and take photos and videos of what they do while also learning the essentials of their service. I think this was the best part about GeckoNetwork as we were pursuing our service’s roots along with helping, working and learning about other communities in need. However, for DP2, I decided to explore a new avenue of service and decided to work with the service group Girls for Girls. Girls for Girls is a gender-equality service that aims to help a group of sexually abused, assaulted or raped victims, who are all female. We are expected to entertain these girls, by playing different games and activities with them and visit the emerge center once in a while. I really enjoyed G4G, it was an experience like no other. One activity I will never forget is when we did wall climbing together. At first, I thought it would be a fun and enjoyable activity for the girls, but it taught me something I could only see from the perspective I experienced first-hand. Everything we do is to strengthen the girls: emotionally and physically. But as I watched the girls support each other as they climbed up to the top of the wall, I understood the emotional trust they had in me. It was far more than volunteer-to-victim; it was friendship. The girls are strong; they are influencers. As much as we teach them about the world we live in, I only learn more from them. Our simple conversations with team building activities are all so inspiring and empower me to break the boundaries of what is considered to be standard in society, which is the cause of the silence on this issue. Collaboratively working with them has allowed me to understand that the only way to eradicate and increase the prevention of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment is to address the issue and spread awareness within the realms of my community and local culture in depth. I will miss being a part of G4G greatly, and can only hope and wish the girls the best for their futures.
A Final Note
As I write the last few words of my final CAS blog, I would like to thank all my teachers, coaches, mentors, supervisors, and all other supporters of my success in the DP. I am so grateful you were there to guide me through this “rollercoaster” and cannot express how thankful I am for you. Signing off now.
Truly yours,
Tan 🙂