The past couple of weeks have been quite hectic and dissapointing for our service due to the coronavirus which has caused all events to be cancelled till the end of the school year. Our service depends on events such as family festival, school plays etc. and now that they are all cancelled we have no events to participate and make a difference in. We have decided to improve our service portfolio and other aspects of our service to help it become more popular and clearer for people to understand what our aim in the service is. We have been working on that for the past weeks and plan on doing this for the next few weeks.

Over the past month, I have been training heavily and consistently for squash as I have my nationals coming up. The tournament takes place between 21-24th November at Kallang ActiveSG center. For the tournament, I am seeded as the 9/16 seed which I feel is good progress as I was unseeded for the last tournament back in August. In training, I have mainly just been polishing my game up and doing a lot of match play with other players on the circuit. I really enjoy these tournaments because I feel they are good learning opportunities through which I can understand where I can improve my game. I am hoping for a strong result in this tournament and hopefully all the effort I put in over the last month will pay off.

Over the past couple of weeks, since the start of the second half term, our service has done quite a lot. We lent some of our cups and cutlery to a few groups for enterprise week so they could be more sustainable by not using plastic cutlery and cups. In return they created awareness about sustainability and helped advertise our service and what we do to their customers. As a service, we have decided to do an outing together to the zoo to help our members bond and create friendships. I feel that as a service all the members are quite close and comfortable around each other which creates a relaxing environment for us to work and learn in.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been able to choose our new service leaders such as our chair, secretary and other positions. I have been chosen to take over logistics with another member, the role of the logistics is mainly to make sure that all the equipment is ready before an event and that the same equipment is collected after the event. I also volunteered to help my service in Swimdonesia where our service took care of lending and cleaning the cups. My shift was between 3-5:30 and I had another member to help me during the shift. I felt the event helped me improve my collaborative and communicative skills and I hope to volunteer is more such events.

For my activity, I have chosen to do squash, which is an external activity. I have played squash at a national level for the past 5 years in both India and Singapore. I train around 3-4 times and play the squash national circuit of Singapore regularly. Over the past few weeks, I had a tournament, the Safra Squash open which went on for 2 weeks. I participated in the men’s draw and was very happy to win the tournament. Before the tournament, I had trained very hard and mainly focused on my fitness so I could be able to last long matches during the tournament and it seemed to work and I was very happy with the result. My main aims for the next month are mainly to improve a certain part of my game such as my volleys and also my fitness as the Singapore junior nationals are coming up next month, at the start of November. Another big goal of mine is to enter the top 5 in Singapore Under-19 by February next year, I am currently ranked 19th.

For my creativity I had chosen pottery and I am really enjoying it. I have always found pottery very interesting as it is something that tests your imagination and is a great stress reliever as well. Over the past few weeks I have learnt to make a few different types of object such as bowls and different types of pots. I have discovered different techniques you can use to mould your clay and the different equipment that can really help make your moulding more efficient and faster. I have done pottery in the past but I find this class very engaging and fun, the teacher and the students also make the class have a nice and relaxing environment. I really find the class useful because it teaches me important lessons such as patience, balance and more.

I have chosen to continue Zero-Waste as my service from last year. I really enjoyed it the previous year as I felt that I really understood and connected with the missions and the goals of the service. Over the past few weeks, in service, we have mainly focused on learning what our goals are for the coming year, meeting and conversing with the new people – through icebreakers and voting for our service leaders for the next year. We have discussed the rules and requirements for each of the members in the service and the compulsory events all the members have to participate in. We have discussed our main aims over the next year which is mainly to participate in more events and make more people aware of our service and mission.

For my creativity I have chosen to do pottery which happens every Monday between 3:10 to 4:30 in the Arts department. For my activity I have chosen to do an external one, squash, for which I train about 3-4 times a week one-one with a coach at Safra Toa Payoh or Kallang Squash Centre. For my service I have chosen to continue in Zero-Waste which I did back in grade 10 as well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the different activities I have chosen to do are thing I really enjoy and am passionate about them.