One thing I loved about high school is how much it pushed me academically and how much I liked pushing myself further in terms of academics. I think one way the school pushed me was in presentations. I have learned how to prepare for them more eg. my English poetry oral presentation. I do not think I have worked that hard ever before in my life. What sucks was I messed up due to nerves and the whole thing went to waste. I liked how I constantly push myself in my favorite subject Physics. I love physics; I find it so difficult but still I am constantly blown away by the power anyone gets after they learn how to control, manipulate and predict phenomena. I love working on more difficult physics concepts myself outside of school just because I find it interesting and I just really want to be a good physicist.
Another thing was how I pushed myself to lead my group Coding for Good. That was scary for me as I do not think I am a natural leader but my passion for this group was seen very strong and so I was voted. I find myself doubting myself a lot thinking that I do not know something very well and someone else knows better, but in this situation, it was not the case. I knew the workings of the club and the service bureaucracy inside out and I was the one informing people, planning events, keeping everyone on task. Because I was so passionate and knew so much and put in always 100 and 10 percent I found it actually easy to be a leader and annoying when I was not in charge because I cared so much about the trajectory of this group and thought that since I understood the dynamics so well I should be the leader. It was rewarding as I was passionate about something that I could fight for it; this was a first for me.
The third was this very recent summer activity: leading an IFP conference in Timor Leste. It was great fun and pushed me completely and utterly out of my comfort zone. A year of planning culminated in a great and rewarding week, training a group of able and capable, fun-loving Timorese students on how to project peace in their neighborhoods. Truly life changing. I will be writing a reflection about this and how this was so amazing.
What am I most proud of?
Her Shakti. I put a lot of work into it. Coding for Good’s Hackathon. It was a success. I poured my soul into that, so happy it turned out amazing.
The work I put into my English Poetry Oral. My physics report. My English creative write-up that scored really well. My ToK presentation I did with a friend (super last minute – literally the night before till 4am and minutes before presenting (like, when we were connecting the plug to the presenter, we were adding more slides, and writing the conclusion slides)), but we scored top marks in both of his classes. My science notes from IGCSE.
