Out of the list of behaviors of emotionally intelligent people, I noticed that I didn’t resonate with quite a few of them. But the three that I really couldn’t see myself doing were-

1. You don’t hold grudges
2. You let go of mistakes
3. You’re a good judge of character

Well, I have a short temper, I never really forgive anyone and I don’t forget either. I am also a terrible judge of character.

I hold grudges depending on how big or bad of a mistake the other person made. If it didn’t really affect me, I wouldn’t care too much. If it was something that affected or impacted me negatively, I can’t not remember that and I am likely to deal with them more cautiously in the future. Although I might let someone forget the mistakes they made, I personally have a mental list of all the wrongdoings they’ve done. I often mix with the ‘wrong crowd’ or so my mother says and I’ve found that she’s mostly right and I end up getting in all sorts of messes because of the people I hang out with.

This year, I hope to work on all three of these things as it worries my mom how long I can hold grudges. And because apparently, I am becoming a bitter teenager, or so my mother says. I also really want to be done with making terrible friends.

Hi! I’m Swasthi and this is my audio recording of ‘About Me’.

Math Audio- Swasthi

The whole process of writing the extended essay was one of the most impactful things we have done this year. It really helped me put things in perspective and gave me some experience that I can definitely use next year. My Extended Essay was on “Who Really Benefited From The Partition Of India”, which focused on the behind the scene working of the partition, I intended to show the different perspectives of different communities, ethnic groups and religions. I learnt that it was rather hard for me to avoid bringing my own opinions into this, which I consciously tried to avoid while editing it. My essay revolved around the effects that the partition had and changes in perspectives. I used opinions of famous freedom fighters such as Gandhi and Jinnah to show the growing conflict.

I found that it was extremely hard to find strong sources and sites and realised that I should have organised my time into sections in order to avoid using too much of my time on insignificant parts of the essay. I realised that editing based on feedback was the hardest part of the essay because my perspective on my essay had changed after talking to Mr Sharry. So, I found it hard to edit the essay that was mostly based on my own opinion. I think this will really help me with my actual E.E next year and I hope to avoid the mistakes that I have made now.

The service PCF Kindergarten was more of a fun activity than an actual service. It quickly became a part of my weekly routine to go meet the kids from Sparkletots Kindergarten. I really enjoyed holding activities for them and playing with them made my day. I think the most useful part of the planning was the google document, where we planned activities months in advance and assigned ourselves to different activities.

The assigning of activities made sure that everyone in the service was able to lead an activity. This made the actual execution of the activity easier as we had created a list of the materials required side by side. It’s safe to say that the kids were not the only ones who enjoyed our sessions. I think that apart from just our leadership skills, we were also forced to think from the children’s perspective to make sure that while we entertained them, we also managed to incorporate moral values and a sense of friendship.

To be sustainable is to live a satisfactory life without worsening the conditions of the planet for the survival of future generations. There are multiple aspects of sustainability, each represented differently.

The most popular representation includes three of the major aspects- Economic, Social and Environmental. This is represented in the form of a Venn diagram that shows the balance between the three factors, establishing their importance. With the right balance between people, money and nature, we can live a sustainable life as depicted by the centre of the Venn diagram.

Ecological Footprint

An ecological footprint is an impact you make on the planet and its resources. Global Footprint Network has released a series of data that show the development of humanity’s ecological footprint. In 2013, they released data that showed a decrease in global ecological footprint by 1.1% per person. The test I took states that if everybody lived like me, we would need 1.7 earths and that the planet’s overshoot day would be the 6th of August.

A major contributing factor to my ecological footprint is mobility because I travel back to India every holiday. When I repeated the test, removing the flight information, I found that if everybody lived like me, we would need one earth. The fumes that aircrafts release cause more harm than any other form of transport because their emissions are released directly into the upper part of the atmosphere? These fumes are a huge part of CFC gases that destroy the ozone. As we all know, the ozone layer protects us from the harmful UV rays of the sun. The harmful emissions that have been released from factories, vehicles and other manmade products have already created a hole in the ozone.

The next highest contributing factor is land. Since I live in the boarding house, a giant building with around 150 people, it is another contributing factor to my ecological footprint because of the massive amounts of construction and renovation that go into a building that large. It also means more individual products-electrical and household, in the boarding house, every floor has a sink, fridge, vacuum cleaner. Increase of product demand means an increase in production which is a direct cause of pollution on the planet.

Changes

To reduce my carbon footprint, I could switch airlines to find a more sustainable method of travel, I could pay more money to reduce my carbon offset. Not travelling by air, however, is not an option. To be more sustainable, aircrafts reduce carbon emission, spray engines with cool water to avoid overheating which in turn reduces burning of fuel. They also reduce their waste production and invest in biofuel.

In the boarding house, there is enough space to grow more plants. It is not possible to reduce the number of appliances because of the number of people that have to share them. On each floor, there are about 24 people sharing a microwave, mini-fridge and a vacuum cleaner. Since there is no option of a boarding house/ hostel in the test, we cannot count this as a proper contribution to my ecological footprint.

This sustainability project has brought me so much information that I didn’t know about before. I had no idea how much carbon emissions affected the planet or how living in an apartment increases your carbon footprint until I was forced to do research on it. I’ve learnt so much from just asking questions. The depth of my knowledge of sustainability has definitely increased. I’ve learnt about so many ways I can reduce my carbon footprint. Making the website to present all these things we have learnt only further established our understanding of the concept of sustainability, besides, we now know how to make a website! Overall, this has been one of the most useful projects we’ve done and its been very productive.

Sources:

https://www.cawst.org/blog/bydate/2015/10/global-goals-safe-water-through-local-skills-and-knowledge/

https://jmburchall.wordpress.com

https://www.kisspng.com/png-sustainability-food-and-farming-sustainable-agricu-6759633/

https://www.entergynewsroom.com/article/entergy-announces-new-sustainability-reporting-mechanism-for-2018/

http://www.waynevisser.com/tag/5ps

The best part of this project was the research after the interview. Surprisingly, I enjoyed finding answers to all those questions, it was interesting to learn for myself by asking not only the questions that need to be answered but also my own. I especially enjoyed the discussion after because we had different solutions and we could debate the best possible one.

During this project, I have learned a lot about how to be environmentally friendly myself. I grew up in a very eco-friendly family and so I assumed that I wasn’t too bad on the scale, but after I took the carbon footprint test, I realised that there is a lot more that I can do.

The most challenging thing for me was making the page and using the Divi Builder as I am not used to using technology to such an extent. This was the first time that I used the Divi Builder and so while it was challenging, it was also quite interesting and useful. I certainly know how to use it now.

I had to be creative when organising the solutions on the page. I feel that I was forced to be more aware of the organisation and presentation. Especially when choosing images and creating backgrounds.

In my team, I was the most creative because I had to come up with interesting questions and answers and present them in a way that engaged and convinced my client.

Personally, I do tend to worry about my use of technology today. Although I didn’t always care much, I’ve noticed the increasing cases of addiction to technology. Recent studies and research shows that people are addicted to social media, games and other technology. The fact that this is being treated the same way as a substance addiction is enough to make me think. How does it really affect me? Although I don’t use my phone much, I have been using my laptop quite a lot since I started studying at UWC. Most of the time, I don’t feel the need to check social media, but when I post something, I feel the urge to check the number of likes, comments and shares. I can go for a long time without technology, but I still need to have it near me, accessible to me. If I don’t have wi-fi or 4g, I do feel some anxiety. One of the most interesting quotes I selected is “The web is built to work just like how a casino works”. It really made me think about how I work with technology and how other people use it. But I often worry that I could get addicted to technology, I worry that I might eventually stop doing all my work and I would essentially be throwing away my life, especially since I stay in the boarding house and not my parents. My parents have always been aware and controlling about screen time and I suppose that worry passed on to me.

IRL Podcast-

https://irlpodcast.org/season2/episode2/

Peer Podcasts-

Germaine & Chloe- http://portfolios.uwcsea.edu.sg/ng92835/2019/03/15/buddy-podcast-final/

Sean & Eric- http://portfolios.uwcsea.edu.sg/toms93736/2019/03/15/dpers-podcast-turning-off/