–> Link to the song on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5Tpd782bdfg0hi82hQhZVp

You are a rare generation (I hope)…So what are you learning from your experience of the coronavirus as a global issue? And how is it prompting (testing?!) your ethical considerations?

Throughout my entire CAS experience, I have been constantly communicating and collaborating with my peers to achieve a successful outcome. The most prominent area in which I collaborated was most definitely in basketball. This is simply because to wins games there is an abundance of moving parts within the team which need to all essentially line up and work like a well-oiled machine to achieve success. Therefore, communicating with my teammates on a constant basis allowed us to build chemistry with one another, enabling us to understand our strengths and tendencies as players so that we can facilitate each other in order to get the most productive results from everyone. Collaboration was also vital in-service group (SGM Murni) where I took on an unofficial leadership role as our group needed to work together in order to create a cohesive and effective learning environment. Everything was pre-planned and thus, communicating and collaborating to understand each of our roles was necessary to create the best possible learning experience for the children. Finally, in boys Sonos it was necessary to communicate as we all had to coordinate our movements and vocals thus, lots of practice and constructive criticism was needed to ensure that our performance was as coherent as possible.

The process of planning out the entirety of the project week was an interesting and important activity that truly aided me in planning and budgeting which are necessary life skills. Even though project week ultimately got cancelled it gave me the opportunity to experience what it’s like to tackle challenges and bumps along the road as well as make compromises with my team to come to the best solution to these issues. Firstly, the major challenge was deciding the group members, there was consistency for a few members within the group, however, there was a persistent conflict between some of the members and thus, having a solidified group by the deadline was proving to be continually difficult. However, over time we were able to solve the conflict between the group members and come to a consensus on who will leave and stay in the group whilst avoiding grudges and such and therefore, I along with my other team members were able to problem solve and deal with social quarrels in order to progress in the planning process of project week. Once this issue was solved, another arose. Our plan for project week revolved around commuting to the Biosphere centre in the Bali Barat national park and learning about wildlife as well as indulging in activities as well. However, through discussions with this group, there were not allowing us to stay anywhere us but inside the complex and made it mandatory to be there 24/7 which impeded our plan of exploring and learning about Bali. Moreover, certain activities that were major reasons for us choosing this location were cancelled. Although we communicated our thoughts with the organisation we were unable to come to a consensus and ultimately project week got cancelled. Although project week did eventually get cancelled we learnt many useful skills that came along with its planning process that we wouldn’t have been able to learn anyways such as planning flights, contacting and negotiating with organizations, budgeting and more which are all valuable life skills to possess, therefore, it was still extremely useful at the end of the day

Basketball:

This has been something that has been apart of my life from a young age and being exposed to the competitive world of basketball. I was inspired as a young kid to play the sport and I still have that same drive today. I think the main reason I have the motivation to continue to practice and play is that I just truly love the sport. It is something that I do when I feel overwhelmed and stressed and hence, it has become a sort of coping mechanism for me as it keeps me calmed whilst also helping me think. Therefore, its not like I play basketball for the sake of CAS, it is something that I truly love and am passionate about, that’s my motivation to continue.

Above is a diagram displaying my happiness in regards to CAS throughout the 2019-2020 academic school year. The first point was fairly low as I was quite stressed about CAS as I had signed up for many activities and I was getting settled into school and hence, it was slightly overwhelming for me and it was tough to get my footing. The second point was my peak, this is when I felt the most comfortable and I had just been to Bangkok for a basketball tournament which was extremely fun as we had been training since August hence, it was good to finally put what we practice to use. The 3rd dip is during Chinese new year, I was away from school due to covid-19 and wasn’t able to return for about 3 weeks, however, I still was excited to come back to school and resume CAS (boy Sonos) and basketball seasac! However, the 4th dip is due to COVID which essentially cancelled all activities which I was very disappointed about. I was quite used to having a jam-packed schedule and always having something to do but that all stopped almost immediately, this lead to extreme boredom. However, I am excited for this year, not as much as the year before but I am excited to try things that I didn’t try last year and now that I am more comfortable in this school it’s going to be a lot easier for me to enjoy and get into the swing of those activities once again, ergo, the rise on the graph during Aug’20!

In my eyes, collaboration has been a key and vital theme throughout this term for me. I knew that from the very beginning that it was going to be difficult for me to adjust to a whole new school and therefore, I was prepared to not be afraid to ask questions and ask for help if I truly needed. Collaboration with my peers in the boarding house is a huge factor that increased the speed at which I felt comfortable here as they were able to help me understand what was expected from the students in terms of quality of work and behaviour etc. The comradery that was built throughout the term shaped me for better and the fact that my friends and I are able to help each other (collaborate) to solve issues that we are facing creates an atmosphere that is very welcoming and comfortable. Moreover, collaboration in CAS was also apparent as for example in the basketball team all of us try our best to work with one another as we all share one common goal which is to win. Therefore, I often experienced everyone helping and collaborating with one another to create a competitive but helpful atmosphere which ensures the more rapid development in the level of team play as well as chemistry which are the two most vital aspects of the sport. Furthermore, collaboration had a firm role in Culturama as we all collaborated with one another, showing different techniques and skills in dance to help us improve along with the coordination that we had to develop to successfully execute the dance in tandem with each other. Ergo, immense amount of collaboration was used throughout this term and it has been especially important for me and my development here would not be possible without it.