┌──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────┐

NYAA
April Progress Report

└──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────┘

Since this month was short, and I was ill for half of it, I’ve combined both my reflections from Service and Healthy Living into one!

This month in Service…
I’ve felt a lot more comfortable interacting with the students at CPAS this month. Despite the fact that we’ve only had so many sessions, I think that the impact this service has had on me has been profound, and I realise that I’ve obtained such important practical knowledge that will help me for the rest of my life.

Something that I’ve found really intriguing is that the students won’t laugh whenever we laugh, they would only laugh when they themselves simply found something funny. It makes sense, also, when they laugh at something. Their sense of humour is as simple as the rest of us. Perhaps one student will flick something off the table accidentally, and another student will find that funny. There is nothing else that affects their sense of humour, only them. However, lots of psychological studies take place where people tell jokes that aren’t even funny, but the fact that other people are laughing makes it funny, but this isn’t the case.

This makes me think. There is no such thing as a disabled person, is there? We are all disabled in some way. I wear glasses. One of my friends sprained her wrist. That counts as a disability.

All in all, I think that I’m really starting to see these kids as individuals. I’ve been really striving to stop thinking of them as ‘Kids with Cerebral Palsy’ but more as just ‘kids’ who I’ve been spending time with and who I’ve been making friends with.

This month in Healthy Living…
I’ve been giving my practice schedule a lot more thought. In piano masterclass, we’ve been focusing quite heavily on skills and technique. I’m no virtuoso, but I know that my skills and technique definitely need working on, as I’ve never really given them the attention and priority that they deserve. This means modifying my practice schedule in some way to include more workouts for my fingers but also to give some structure to my practice.

One of the modifications I’m thinking of making is time. I don’t practice for long at all. Most of my practice sessions are from 20 – 40 minutes, and with exams around the corner, I don’t have time to practice every night. So, I’ve been thinking of rigorously timing myself for exactly 40-minute practice sessions at least 4 times a week. This gives me lots of time to work on my skills as well as my pieces. Practicing a lot more at home also means I run the risk of listeners, which will help curb my performance anxiety even more. I also think that putting a schedule in place will restore some order to my practicing life and relieve the element of chaotic, stressful practicing.

I’ve also been thinking of buying a ‘piano finger exercises’ book to warm up my fingers before I start playing pieces and to further develop my virtuosic side. This will help me feel confident about playing more difficult pieces; I want to show myself that I have the skills to be able to execute this piece perfectly.

In conclusion, I think that I’m going to work towards my goals in the best way I can while approaching exams and the end of the year. Please look forward to my end-of-year reflection in Grade 9! Thank you for reading!