Over the past few years, the global warming issue has worsened due to the increasing use of fossil fuels, in many countries as they transform from a developing to a developed country. However, with the current COVID-19 situation, the use and consumption of fossil fuels have drastically decreased especially in China which has been the “main driver of global warming” (The New York Times). With multiple factories, refineries, and flights stopped, the usage of fossil fuels has significantly decreased, therefore decreasing the emissions of greenhouse gases. China normally experiences a dip in coal consumption due to the Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays where businesses close down. However, once the holidays end, the consumption of coal significantly increases to its original amount. This year, the consumption of coal did not rebound after the CNY holidays due to the lockdown imposed to reduce COVID-19 transmissions. As a result, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has noticed that “NO2 pollution in some cities fell by as much as 60% compared to the same period in 2019” thus improving the air quality as well as improving the  global warming situation. This has not only been seen in China but many other countries such as the US and India. 

Nevertheless, now that the number of COVID-19 cases are decreasing, countries are slowly easing their precautionary measures (e.g lockdown), therefore, allowing factories and refineries to reopen, and flights to take place. As a result of this, many people, including myself, are concerned about the environment. We can only hope that the environmental problems do not worsen.

Over the past few weeks, I have realized that although my house does not have exercising equipment, there are many ways to utilize my house to the best of its ability. I live in a two-story house, where the staircase has really helped me stay fit. I have been climbing my stairs daily, and throughout the week, it has been quite an interesting cardio workout. Additionally, with my long balcony, I have been walking almost every night with my family and this has really allowed me to spend more time with each and every family member. I have also started to appreciate my house, where at the beginning of the lockdown period I was quite frustrated that I couldn’t go to the gym so I was quite worried as well that I wouldn’t be able to stay fit, however, with the great qualities of my house, I am glad that I have been able to maintain my fitness rather than worsen it. After the lockdown period is over, I still do hope that I workout at home as well.

Now that I am coming towards the end of Grade 10, I feel very proud of myself as I was able to successfully balance my academic and social life towards the end even though I faced various obstacles from tests to IGCSE coursework deadlines.

I had set multiple goals at the start of this academic year which included:

• Reading more books
• Joining MUN
• Improving my Spanish speaking and listening skills

Reading more books:

In my opinion, I have accomplished this goal since I have read more than 15 and I am still reading a couple more. I was able to achieve this by reading during my free time rather than watching movies or tv shows.

Joining MUN: 

Joining MUN has boosted my confidence in terms of public speaking and it has developed my critical thinking skills, where I am able to think faster when in pressured situations.

Improving my Spanish speaking and listening skills:

By watching movies and tv shows in Spanish, I feel like I have improved my listening and speaking skills where I have learned more vocabulary to build on my skills.

Overall, I believe that I have successfully accomplished my goals, and I hope to do the same for next year’s goals.

Currently, climate change refugees are becoming a more prominent global issue that is unknown to many and taken lightly. Before learning about the issue, I assumed that a very small population of the refugees around the world would be considered as climate change refugees, however, many countries and cities are facing many different natural disasters and weather conditions in which they are unable to live, thus forcing them to leave their homes and seek refuge in other places such as New Zealand, Turkey, and Central America. Climate Change refugees are migrants that are forced to leave their home or country in order to escape a natural disaster or an extreme weather condition. Due to these situations that are faced by multiple different countries, many residents and citizens are forced to migrate in order to survive. 

Additionally, the unprivileged refugees that live in developing countries suffer the most as they do not possess the financial capabilities to survive in other countries with high costs. Now, of days, many countries are limiting the number of refugees they accept each year, thus causing more dilemmas for the refugees themselves. For instance, in New Zealand, the court rejected a Kiribati man’s claim for climate change refugee status. The man had said that the rising sea levels threatened his home in the island nation of 100,000 people,  making it very dangerous for his family and himself to stay. Unfortunately, the family was deported. 

In our world, there are many people that are in this situation where many countries are not accepting them even if they have a family to feed.  However, I do hope that these situations and that climate change status improves in the future.

This week has been a very fun and interesting week. I met all my friends and made new ones. I got the opportunity to meet FIB students, and their journies were quite interesting.

This week has been quite relaxing and I enjoyed it. I hope that the weeks ahead are not too stressful. During mentor time, I had a lot of fun especially when I played Hide and Seek with my classmates. Even though we disturbed a few mentor classes, it was a great experience, I felt as if I was in junior school again. I hope that we can continue playing Hide and Seek but in places where others would not be disturbed as it would be a great refresher from academics.

During the week, we played multiple games and had introductory assemblies about our PSE units, and our wellness. Overall, I felt it was a great experience and I hope I get the opportunity to meet more new students.

While thinking about my subjects in IB, I was also thinking about my future occupation where I  was uncertain about the career that I wanted to pursue. However, the ‘Alumni Careers Carousel’ has positively shaped my subject selection since I have a clearer idea regarding my future career path.

While selecting my subjects I was certain about 3 subjects: HL Analysis (Math), SL Spanish, and SL Language & Literature. However, I was uncertain about my sciences and humanities. I knew that I wanted to go into the science field, however, I was uncertain about the subjects that would complement the science field in general. At first, I wanted to do HL Economics since I was quite interested in the topic and HL Chemistry since it is a requirement for both Medicine and Engineering. I had considered the option of doing 4 HL subjects where I would also do HL Physics, however, after discussing with my parents and teachers, I realized that doing 4 HL subjects with double-sciences would be quite stressful in terms of workload and balance my academic and social life. As a result, I decided to drop HL Economics to SL because in the future, if I change my mind and want to pursue business or finance, then I would still have the option as HL Economics is not a requirement for this field. Additionally, I chose Physics instead of Biology because by doing Physics I have a greater variety of occupations in the science field as it is quite commonly applied in different aspects of science.

As a result, my final decision for my IB subjects are: HL Chemistry, HL Physics, HL Analysis (Math), SL Spanish, SL Language and Literature, and SL Economics.

Over the course of my school life, I have learned and developed many skills that are currently very helpful in Grade 9. I had never imagined that I would say this, but honestly, one should never give up, because eventually, they will earn their reward. I personally think that I have grown as a person both physically and mentally. However, I hope to continue to learn and improve my skills.

The 2 years in Mumbai has brought me closer to my culture. I have learned a lot about my Indian culture, festivities, and beliefs. I improved my Hindi speaking skills and now I continue to improve them. The years in India has not only taught me the importance of communication but also the importance of perseverance.

In the future, I wish to use my developed skills in my career. I have this urge to help people and grant them a healthier life. I plan on doing so by going into the world of science, however, I am not sure about the specifics. Either I wish to become an engineer where I build and invent new technology that helps people live a healthier life or I wish to become a doctor and physically help people live a healthier life. Nevertheless, the specifics will be chosen as I grow up.

Academically, I have been doing well in most of my subjects, especially science. Science is a subject that I can do every day because there is so much to learn and explore. One day I plan on becoming some type of scientist and math is a very important subject that is needed in science. Fortunately, extended math is my strong subject. However, my goal is to improve on Add Math. Add Math as a subject is very hard because we encounter different concepts that we have never seen before. Surprisingly, this year, I haven’t done badly for Add Math considering that it was a completely new subject for me. However, this year I have come across many new subjects such as Economics, Global Perspectives and many more. In these subjects, I find writing responses a little challenging, thus my main goal is to be able to correctly write responses, whether it be essays or long responses to questions. In the long run, this will help me when making science-related reports in my career.

In my opinion, all the goals that I wish to accomplish will help me in the future and I hope that I am able to accomplish these goals and the many other goals that I have set for myself in order for me to become the person I want to be.

I have not only academically worked towards my dream career, but I have also joined a service named ‘Tech Tinkers’, where I have learned how to fix different electronic devices so that they can be further donated to other services in working conditions. This service has increased my knowledge about different electronic devices, therefore, this may help me in the future. In any case, these electronic devices are donated to those global concerns and services that need it the most in order for them to accomplish their goals to help other people. I may be indirectly helping others, however, this is a great start to fulfill my dreams.

I plan on accomplishing these goals by using many different methods. For example, my goal to improve writing responses can be achieved by practicing and also remembering the requirements that are needed for the responses, such as the perspectives, consequences, causes, advantages, and disadvantages. My goal is to also improve in Add Math and I can do so by asking my teacher about my rooms of improvement and I can continuously practice different topics in Add Math. Practice makes perfect. Although perfection may seem to be unattainable, however, if I aim towards perfection, I can certainly achieve excellence.

Overall, my school life has been a great opportunity to develop my skills and accomplish my goals. I am quite happy about my achievements this school year and I look forward to next year.

My High School Journey will start off with many pathways, some that will lead to a dead end and some that will lead to the treasure chest. In this case, the treasure chest is the IGCSE exams. There will be many problems I will encounter during my journey, and that what the mountains represent. I will be going through tough times, but this will eventually take me to the treasure chest.

Here is the link to the photo of my High School Journey.

 

Last week, the whole of high school had an assembly, where the issue of plastic waste was introduced. And guess what, most of the waste produced usually comes from the food we order from Grab Food, Uber Eats, Mc Donalds etc. I personally, don’t order food from outside, but a lot of my friends do.

As high schoolers, we are trying to reduce the amount of waste produced, but sometimes, we have to order food. Either because we are staying late after school, or sometimes we don’t have cash available. Now, these issues may seem very small, and they are. Also, they can easily be solved.

Firstly, if someone doesn’t have cash available, they can still buy food from the canteen, it’s just that they will have to pay the same amount later. Additionally, if someone is staying late after school, they can always buy food from Santai, since it is open until 7 pm.

As a high schooler, I will try my level best to be sustainable and prevent others from ordering food. However, we need the whole school to help prevent this issue. So why not all of us help and prevent ourselves and our friends from ordering food.