Skills and developing… CAS so far.

PLANT. Although it may seem mediocre in the grand scheme of things, the plant has helped me improve my skills. This plant though has a name which is hard to distinguish with its cousin. It is Cynometra Ramiflora, a plant. More specifically a tree. It seems as though the plant has helped me improve not only my memory skills but my identification and pattern recognition skills as well. It is simple, the plant is a plant but once you get to know them more, explore their habitats and let them photosynthesise in your mind you see a whole new universe of green. It is truly luscious.

 

Writing a Book. So far. Before CAS.

I first came to the realisation that I had time to spend during my year in Grade 8. Having a minimal workload and a creative imagination, it was almost impossible not to do something. Ever since I conjured up the first sentence of the book, I had been on and off with it. Writing a chapter every 6 months, which, for some people, is a good pace. However, I had no direction and at the time, did not even know how to finish the story. Figuring out the details in which plotlines come together and separate was something new to me. However, when I started writing I knew how I was going to convey emotion. The book is a narrative of the protagonist’s life, specifically his visit to his old hometown of ‘Titok’ and his memories in relation to the place. I wanted to incorporate as much symbolism and metaphor into the book which is why most of the names are words that come from different languages. ‘Titok’, for example, is actually ‘secret’ in Hungarian. I quite like doing this, not only because it incorporates another layer of meaning to the place or person it is referring to, but also because it adds ambiguity to the region, something I want to keep in the book. I wanted this ambiguity mainly because I want as many people to find themselves immersed in it in their day to day lives. Although it is set particular coastal town, the slight alienation and comfort in solitary are themes I want present throughout the novel. After sitting down and deliberating on how to end the book, I discovered that it should not have a happy ending but a bittersweet one. Mainly due to the fact that the book imitates life and the reality of life is that plans go wrong and people go missing. Life is a fickle river, a river you never know how fast it goes, but you have to ride it. However, you decide what raft you ride it on.

What first inspired the idea for the story was actually a prompt in a test. It was a pair of shoes and possibly because of living on an island with beaches around I thought of a sandy background with the wilted pair of shoes. I wanted to anchor the story onto an object, so I rewrote the story from the test into the first paragraph. I took the shoes out of the story after some revising. Although I am not finished with anything. I want my tenure here in UWCSEA to be symbolised by more than just a diploma, but something for myself that I can truly be proud to have created. That’s why I came up with ‘Memories of a Day in the Summer’. Memories of a season without school and with others, without screens and with the sun, without routines and with the surprise that is life in all its capriciousness.

Jah and Kay: How does the simulation help me?

The Jah and Kay simulation mainly tackles two things: the need for diplomacy,  which is caused by the lack of communication, and the need for more mutual understanding. Humans are complex creations, we can either have strict biases or none, however, having none will lead us nowhere. Assumptions drive our daily lives and usually, it keeps us alive. We assume that the water in our kettle will boil, which it usually does or that the bus doesn’t crash, which it usually doesn’t. We assume a lot of things, however, there comes a limit to assumptions. I remember when I first came here, I had assumptions about my peers, which turned out to be false. I had assumptions about people purely because of the negative reactions I have been treated with for most of my school life were all I have ever known. I wanted a fresh start and I got it. Although I was Kay, I truly empathised with Jah (not only because their country is my name), because I understood the feeling of only knowing one feeling towards you. The lack of trust and faith, as well as the overbearing nature of strangers, did not help their situation at all. Jah and Kay, however, is a slightly flawed simulation with the premise being condensed into a short period of time instead of the lengthy amount that happens in real life. I did not want to impose my group’s help onto them because from being in a similar situation I know that someone in the situation needs space. They need to figure out things for themselves, but that doesn’t mean ignorance on our part. It means our continuous supportive presence rather than direct action. Presence rather than presents, because that is what true help means. Be with them, empathise with them, connect them, and improve with them. Trust is built over a long period of time, Jah and Kay was too short. The lack of freedom in actual action also exacerbated the problems. Diplomats are to communicate between people. Becoming equal and becoming like. Help is defined by existence beside and in action for and with someone.

To what extent does Oscar Wilde portray heterosexuality in “The Importance of Being Earnest”?

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, published in Victorian England, portrays homosexuality through subtle symbols and double entendres. Wilde’s representation of homosexual ideas in a heterosexual play, only accentuates Wilde’s thoughts of high society and Victorian values, mainly its homophobia. While it is a heterosexually centred play, Wilde envelops himself into the novel through the representation of homosexuality. Wilde portrays his heterosexual characters as over sensationalised and vain. With the example of Gwendolyn favouring Jack, only because of the fact that the name of his alias is Ernest. Wilde uses the double entendre of Earnest and Ernest to contrast the character and the trait. However, “by the mid-1890s… there was already a precedent for doubling the terms ‘Earnest’ and ‘Ernest’ into a coded allusion for same-sex passion” (Powell).

Emotional Intelligence and Empathy: Its implications on life

Emotional Intelligence is a complex construct of society to calculate one’s interpersonal relationships with other people. However, it is entirely possible to have varying levels of Emotional intelligence as different aspects of our day to day life can affect our attitudes to certain thing. It is only ever truly an attitude to which we deal with our surroundings, which is primarily influenced by our surroundings. A tautology of environment and self.

CAS so far… Difficulties and Challenges

So far in the first week of activities, there have not been many challenges that have made balance difficult as most of my work I usually do before the due deadline. I have not found any trouble in balancing however I know as the workload increases I need to keep a steady head and a balanced schedule, but so far, no problems. The gradual increase in time is just a gradual increase in complications as years become many and memories become plenty, an organisation is just creating timelines for oneself.

IfP Peace Day 2019 – a reflection on interpretation

Peace is a word often overused and overlooked in the world around us. Peace is a concept often misunderstood and misinterpreted. Some believe that peace is only achievable through the indoctrination of common concepts which will foster a peaceful environment. However, one’s main interpretation of peace is truly relative to one’s own view, values and vitality. Life has brought us down different paths and passages through the tempest that is time and we have all come out having different perspectives of what the calm would be. We may be closer to the tempest’s eye without realising the calm is closer than it is. We may try to flee the typhoon craving a life without it which we will never get. I do not imply that war is the only way to achieve peace, but rather the opposite. There will never be true peace, it is truly a fact of life. The establishment of government for more than two centuries have been a snippet of this conclusion. There can never be a perfect form of government because there are too many opinions in this place. I do not deny the idea of peace, but rather interpret it differently as someone else might. I would rather interpret as mutual understanding among the human race despite differences because it is easier for me to understand. Peace, for me, is the brainchild of over-idealism. It is the marriage of idealism and realism where we can truly achieve peace. From this harmony of beliefs is where I think true peace can truly be achieved.

Graphic novels with Graphic material invoking Graphic ideas in our Graphic world

There has been a rise in feminism in the past decade and rightfully so as women have been purposely disadvantaged by the misogynistic ideals of society. With this rise, women have been finding new ways of communicating this societal flaw to the world via art and literature, notably through graphic novels. Graphic novels are drawn images accompanied with text immersing the reader a deeper into the literary world which the book has created. Female graphic novelists have shown the need for gender equality in the world through their art. However, some are finding the need to exaggerate female bodies in their art to get their point across, which raises the question of why? It seems as though the world needs shocking, sensational, sacrilegious images to get a point across. It shows through the development of news in the past century. News has been reduced to catchy critiques and captions with people only selecting the most scandalous and shortest. People have gotten impatient with the world, resorting to only the briefest sentences to get their information without ever really delving into an issue. This need for sensationalism is what might be making the analysis of modern media harder. Audiences have shown rave reviews to art which catches the eye rather than one that truly implies meaning. It is possible to have both sensationalism and substance in one’s art which is what graphic novelists such as Alison Bechdel try to do, however, people have a tendency to not like being told what to do, a trait hard to shake off. The need for direct honesty in a world where sensational nonsense rules, is the problem which artists nowadays face. It is a debated point which deserves more reflection on, however, it is often overlooked in our daily lives.

CAS – Plans for the future

CAS, being a holistic requirement for IB has helped me realise the many areas of myself I could unlock. Among all though, I am thoroughly looking forward to the Creative aspect of the whole experience. Being someone who loves the arts and the world around me, I truly cannot wait to use the raw material around me and process it into something I hope will be deemed palatable. Although I know that I should not fill my timetable with overly draining activities, I want to explore the depths of my abilities in different aspects of life. CAS is CAS and I hope to truly balance myself with it, to remind myself that it is what it is and not something else and I hope to have fun.