My learning from this experience?

To be completely candid, I feel as though this whole situation with coronavirus has changed my perspective on life in general. It has made me realized that we take so many things for granted in this world; our freedom, our health, our relationships. Therefore, having this new outlook on life, I really wanted to make the most out of the time during quarantine and not take it for granted. I feel something I learned throughout this whole process is adaptability, having to not only go from face to face schooling to online schooling but from boarding to non-boarding as well was difficult at first for me to handle. Although I was frustrated at first, I learnt that patience was key in order to get everything running on full cylinders once again. Moreover, with my new found time I have been able to motivate my self to be productive (although initially, it was difficult for me to do so) and indulge in hobbies of mine such as music etc. I also ensure that I exercise more during these trying times as it is important to stay healthy especially in a situation like this.

How is this affecting my ethical considerations?

Overall, I believe that I have become more self-aware and conscious. This is especially apparent when I do out for runs and such, I maintain distance from everyone and intentionally avoid touching anything. Moreover, when my run is over I return back and immediately take off my shoes and take a shower without touching anything, including my own face. My family and I also recognize the severe damage the world is undertaking due to this virus, and because of that we all collectively and unanimously decided that we were going to donate money to a small hospital in Colombia (chaparral) where my father was born. We chose this place as it is being really badly affected as they do not have the money/means to provide support to people in terms of medical equipment, PPEs etc. Therefore, we just want to contribute and help in whatever small way we can.

Video Link!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/146-6RNjuxFhpC8YXOPhlswA_Fg-psqrV

What has been the biggest challenge within CAS so far and what might you do to improve this?

Basketball:

basketball has been extremely yet stressful so far. I say this because there were so many people trying out for the only 14 available spots hence, I felt a huge pressure on my shoulders seeing so many people try out for a spot that I degenerately wanted. Therefore, throughout the practice, I hustled and ensured that I stood out from the rest of the players in a positive light. Other than that, the transition went relatively okay, however, it was overwhelming to deal with a system of tryouts that I was so unfamiliar with. I was nervous at first because I did not know the quality of players I would be competing which further aiding my feeling of trepidation. However, after seeing the level of players, I was more confident in my skills and felt that I would be in a good position towards the end of tryouts. I am definitely looking forward to the following sessions as I feel I will become more comfortable with the coach and his coaching style as well as with all the players. For my improvement, I am going to ensure that I practice more effectively (such as practicing in-game speed to simulate a real game), and also solely focusing on finishing near the rim, shooting mid-range and 3’s and also ball handling.

Music with SGM Murni:

Currently, we are only at the planning stage of the services but so far it is going well. I am enjoying it so far as we have been able to discuss incorporating music effectively to the students in order to increase their confidence. I try to contribute as much as possible! We will have to visit the school next week for the first time, therefore, I am really looking forward to putting our plans into action.

The Heart of Robin Hood Production:

Recently, I had my first auditions which I think went well. It was challenging at first to be able to learn all my lines and such in time for the audition. Furthermore, I have heard such great things about the quality of the acting and performances in this school hence, I felt that I would not even get a named role (ensemble). After my audition, I did not feel confident at all in myself because I saw other people performing my preferred role better than I did. To my surprise, I got a recall, ensuring that I would get a named role (that being David of Doncaster). Although I did not receive the role I originally wanted, I still got a decent role which I happily accepted. This taught me that I should not have a negative attitude towards anything and make sure I always try my best as if you put in the work you may get results that you would not expect to receive. Nonetheless, in order to improve, I must practice my acting skills by recording myself perform monologues (to evaluate myself) and also study some actors that I admire.

Culturama:

This dance was quite difficult for me to grasp at first due to the fact that is very technically sound. This is because the steps were very meticulous, this coupled with the instructor being quite stricter on us dancers made me nervous. However, after continuous practice outside the ones that were organized by the school, my partner and I were able to make the final cut. For us, the main challenge was to get the timing of the steps correct as we would always be faster than the rest of the group hence, we need to slow down and listen to the music for the unobvious queues.

What aspects of CAS are you most looking forward to?

CAS has been something that has always been apart of my life. Coming from an IB school, they heavily implement community and service into their program and opened so many doors in that realm. However, this school has so many opportunities, hence at first, I was quite hesitant to decide which ones to indulge myself in due to the seemingly endless possibilities. Therefore, I simply narrowed it down to my interests, primarily, basketball (that being my activity). Basketball has been a passion of mine since the age of 8, hence, I have been grabbing every chance I got to play the sport, ergo, when this opportunity arose, I took it as I feel playing basketball here in Singapore (at a more competitive level than India) would challenge me and give me a tougher obstacle to overcome (aiding me in improving my skill set). This year, I also intend to do culturama. As a child, I was always dancing (according to my parents), however, I lost my passion for dancing as I grew up, therefore, I found culturama to be a great way to connect back to my past, and also it was a way for me to be apart of something bigger than myself as I would be able to be apart of a community. I feel as though culturama is a good way for me to get adjusted to a new school and create strong friendships. Following, I decided to join the theatre production. I joined the school play because I have been interested in acting again from an early age, seen as I involved my self in all the plays in my previous school (lead roles). I also find it to be a good way to make myself feel more apart of the school.

Lastly, for service, I decided to go with ‘Music with SGM Murni”. I chose this to be my service as it is predominantly music-based which is something I have been doing for a while (that being singing and guitar). Furthermore, I have always enjoyed working with little kids, ergo, being able to combine both my interests made it simple to choose this service. I enjoy making children feel more confident in their abilities by using Music as a tool to do so.

How might you plan your CAS to maintain balance?

As seen above, I have many activities to deal with (4 to be exact), on top of that schoolwork is also assigned to me. Therefore, I feel as though it will definitely prove to be a challenge to be on top of all my work simply due to the time required for each of the activities. However, I need to work on my time management skills and hence, putting this challenge upon me will force me to balance my social life with my academic life. I will ensure that I plan ahead and utilize my studying time effectively (focused) and get work done as soon as possible to eliminate the chances of procrastination and submitting work late!