#LO1: Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
Below is the initial reflection on the activity that I am doing in season 3 of CAS:
The audio briefly summarises the following points:
#LO6: Engaging with issues of global importance
Memoirs of the Pioneer generation always gives me the platform to learn a wide range of global issues among which include health and fitness as linked to this idea of ageing. I essentially learned that it is important to stay fit and healthy at all times when you are old and this is a significant issue to me and to everyone out there because at one point in our lives we will too get old and similarly have to make sure we are in a good state of health at all times.
My actions have been of a positive impact on this particular issue because in our service we do activities that contribute towards the health of seniors. For instance, we play various games such as ball games and board games that all enable the seniors to exercise their bodies both mentally and physically. My participation in this activity taught me a million-dollar lesson that it is essential to maintain fitness every time so as to slow down ageing as well as ensure that by the time you are old you would be fit enough to do anything for yourself.
#LO4: Showing Perseverance, Resilience and Commitment
As time went by, my saxophone teacher suddenly developed this useful idea in which he started giving me songs to play on my own but that is not all, he made sure to give me an audio of the song so that I could listen to it and figure out myself how the song is played. I must say that it took what is called perseverance and commitment to learning everything almost by myself. We reviewed the songs that he gave me every week so as he could get the chance to see if I am making progress and if there is anything that he could clarify. What always kept me going in this creative portion of CAS was the joy I got from playing the saxophone and also the dream to be a great saxophonist someday in my life.
Sometimes I got really frustrated when I was not able to figure out the right music notes to play as part of the song but that became better when I learned more notes and keys to playing the saxophone. On an occasional basis, I kept feeling like it was too late for me to play the saxophone but then whenever I told this to my teacher he told me that, “it is never too late to follow your passions” and even related this scenario to himself where he said that he started learning how to play the saxophone when he was as old as I am. This made me have hope and belief that indeed I will succeed in this journey.
Below are some of the songs that I was assigned to work on by myself as practice:
#LO2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills
Things have been progressing smoothly with my saxophone lessons but not totally smooth. After constant practice a couple of times a week, I was given the opportunity to do a recital. The idea behind this was so I could get my first experience of playing the saxophone in front of an audience. I was a bit disinclined to do the recital the moment my Saxophone teacher brought it up because it would be my first experience and I was truly afraid of a mob. As days elapsed, I began sitting down and asking myself why I wanted to do music. I later remembered that music is not necessarily something that you do with just your teacher as I thought. Not that I did not know this but that it was a bit unexpected for my teacher to suggest doing the recital more especially since I was doing the lessons all along. I, later on, mustered up the courage to do the recital and thus I started practicing really hard.
The song that I was assigned to do at the recital was called Ostinato by Costel Puscoiu. It was not that hard of a song after all since I played it together with my teacher during the recital, more like a duo. The major challenge to this activity was standing in front of a mob. I have not really performed in public that much so I at some point became too nervous as to what the recital was going to look like. In the future, I intend to overcome this challenge by gathering up every bit of confidence that I have and make sure to keep eye contact with the audience. I firmly believe that in the end, it was worth it because I learned new skills being, Public speaking, time management, collaboration, creative thinking, self-expression and so forth. All these skills ensured that my performance was great during my saxophone lessons and that I was a fast learner. I would like to believe that these skills that I acquired in the recitals and all my saxophone lessons would be applicable in other areas of my life such as, in a family set up, school, career and also in my daily social interactions.
Below is an attached music sheet and audio for the song that played during the recital;
#LO7: Considering the ethical implications of actions
Although fun, working with seniors, especially those with certain disabilities has never been that easy. There was always so much to take into account, what you say, what you do and so forth. Part of our service, which happens to be crucial, entails us asking the seniors about their life in general as well as their thoughts of Singapore then record all these stories. I always thought about it for some while and realized that this task is quite easy to do with my age mates or middle-aged people but then a bit hard and challenging when its old persons, more especially the physically underprivileged ones. For an unclear reason, I thought that it is disrespectful and rude to ask old people about their personal lives and perspectives on various topics. This sometimes made me panic every time I was supposed to interact with the seniors and collect their stories because I was not certain whether it was ethical or not.
I approached this really easily. I constantly reminded myself of what our service is mostly about and sometimes talked to the supervisors to get the assurance that it is ethically right to hold conversations with seniors on sensitive matters.
#LO4: Planning and initiating activities
#LO2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills
Memoirs of the Pioneer generation truly gives me and probably everyone involved in the service the ability to think critically and make sound decisions when dealing with seniors. We mostly played board games and some other simple exercises that the seniors were able to do. I planned and organized this other board game known as Uno Stacko in which I basically just had to stack up blocks with the seniors and then remove them one by one from the platform without letting it collapse. It was a pretty funny and interesting game. On the other hand, I also became a bit creative and played a game a card game with the seniors, in which we stacked up cards and strived to make something that looks more like a house or just a simple platform. These games were preferable from my perspective since they did not really require much thinking or anything of that nature.
Despite the fact that the games were interesting, I did encounter some complications working with the seniors which had the tendency to make it difficult for me to execute my plan at some point. Most of them were Chinese and couldn’t really understand English so no matter how simple I tried to put my English they never understood a thing. Nonetheless, we were not alone, we enjoyed the company of the CareGivers at Tampines Home Care. Every time that there was a language barrier between us and the seniors they made sure to intervene and eliminate those barriers obviously because they could speak both English and Chinese well. The critical thinking skills I acquired when working with seniors ensured that I planned out activities that they were capable to play and that I was always mindful to not do anything stupid.
Here is a picture of the games that I planned out during one of the sessions with our service partner:
It is only unfortunate that we are not allowed to take pictures during our service thus the above pictures were sourced from the internet just so I could provide an idea of what kind of games we played with the seniors.
Weeks passed, as they did, we drew closer and closer to SEASAC which was apparently the prime goal during the cross country season. We went to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, for these very competitions. It was only a two-day competition in which on the first day, we did the individual 5K run and the last day, 3k relay. Uninteresting to say but I did not come first in the individual 5k run, rather I scooped the fourth position which is not at all that bad. Actually it was a fantastic performance given the vast runners that took part in the event. The following day I promised myself to obtain the first position in the 3k relay and it happened just like that, all thanks to my confidence and of course a bit of ego.
The course was what is called,” the real cross country course”, characterized by a hilly topography, muddy, bushy, a bit rocky and other conditions. Despite all these, I managed to become strong and produce as best the results as I could. It is therefore not a surprise to hear that we did not come back to Singapore empty-handed, we came back as the CHAMPIONS with each one of us having a gold medal around their neck although the girls’ team got Silver medals. Up in the air, we lifted the trophy. Overall it was an eventful experience to be put into the history books and forever cherished.
Awards won: MVP, Gold Medal
5K PB: 17.44 mins
3K PB: 10.09 mins
Here are the pictures taken during the moments at KL:
Lo4: Commitment, showing perseverance and resilience
A couple of months after extensive training, I got chosen to take part in SEASAC. I never really trained consistently during the season thus by the time the competition came about I found it really difficult and challenging. The course we had to run on was the source of this challenge. It was very hilly, muddy, rocky and bushy. Taking risks and managing them has always been at the core of my values which explains why despite all these complications I still became strong and proceeded with the competition. Doing cross country was an unfamiliar experience to me so sometimes I really felt like it was too demanding and even went to the extent of trying to quit and switch over to football. However, my friends were always there to assist me every step of the journey by urging me to be patient with myself and persevere.
what mostly affected my commitment was the injury that I sustained from the start of the season. The fact that it was taking too long for me to recover and that SEASAC was approaching really quickly made me doubt that I will do well and thus at times I felt like withdrawing from the Sport. What I learned during that hard time was that indeed “indeed no man is an island”. I always thought that I could manage everything by myself and that I do not anyone to direct me anyhow but I was wrong given the lesson I obtained in the end.
The following pictures show the daily routine that I had to abide by to ensure I was back on my feet again and pave a way to SEASAC :
To give a brief summary of what is going on in the above-attached pictures, I ceased running for about 2 months and only concentrated on these low-intensity exercises just so I could get my body moving all the time. I muscle rolled both my legs, pushed weights, applied cream (to reduce inflammation), iced the injured leg every time after the gym, cycled and a lot other simple but effective activities that are not listed here. I also kept close contact with my Physiotherapist who constantly gave me advice and recommended me stretching exercises to do to get my legs back to their competitive state.