Pilates Season2 reflection

Activity season 2 was similar to season 1 in terms of the amount of work I had to do and academic stress.

During the weekdays, I did not manage to exercise even though I did stretching quite often. Therefore, as an alternative, I chose to continue to do pilates+ some other exercises on Saturday mornings. I think when one is busy and stressed, it is easy to choose to spend free time sleeping or watching TV or playing games. And I did that in the past. But I recently realized that moving one’s body regularly is not only important for losing weight but also for stabilizing one’s mind and overcoming extreme stress. And therefore, I am proud of myself who planned to do Pilates every week. I have previously learned Pilates back in Korea but at that time, I was having a more regular life routine(e.g slept earlier,  worked out more often) which meant my body was generally stronger and in better condition. But doing pilates this year was different. I had so many pains in my shoulder and back, had irregular sleeping routines writing university essays, and therefore found it harder to follow the movements. However, I was proud of myself who improved little by little in terms of flexibility and endurance. However, I am aware that I still need to strengthen the core which I hope to continue to work on in the future.

 

Dance showcase interim reflection

We as a group have done many rehearsals recently as some of our group members were missing during the last few weeks due to stay home notice. We had to change some formations and it took time to teach dances to those people, which took some more time for us as a whole group. I also realized my own weakness, which was finding my position when changing the formation and keeping an equal distance from people next to me. I think it is an important element when doing the team dance. I think I will need to focus on this area from now on till the show.

Pre season touch final reflection

Having been able to be part of pre season touch was very helpful for me. I was always tired and exhausted from tests and new ways of learning and studying in the IB and exercising in the morning made me stop worrying about upcoming test and just focus on touch. Also, developing even small skills made me proud of myself. I also think that I learned a lot from other players who had been playing it for a long time. I learned how to pass well and everything else from them. I realized that I need to keep doing workouts to be able to run faster and without being exhausted.

String Ensemble season 2 final reflection

During season 2, we focused on practicing the pieces we were going to perform in our concert. We repeated several sections of the pieces that we were struggling with, one of which was Mozart’s piece. Actually, cello part of that song is very easy compared to fast and tricky main melody that violinists have to play. This happens quite often as the cello usually plays the base note to create harmony with the main melody. When I was in primary school orchestra in Korea, conductor used to spend a lot of time putting effort into improving violinists’ skills and I used to think that the base sound of cello is not that important and I imagined what it would feel like to play main melody. However, through practicing with such a small group like ensemble, I realised that the fact that I learned how to listen to other sounds helped me become better cellist not only as a solo player but also as part of a group pf musicians. This is something I’ve always tried to do but never succeeded. This requires me to not only  count the beats but listen to the main melody as the cello usually plays base notes and  once I could hear the main melody, it becomes so much easier to count the beats when other players are playing their instruments and we are waiting. However, I think I will need to work more on dynamics(forte and piano for example).

Yoga with Tampines MINDS Season 2 interim reflection

Similar as before, we had our partners coming on a regular basis. I liked how my partner always came while some other people who used to come stopped coming. I think this was a indicator that I was doing quite well. To be honest, my partner still did not want to follow some moves. To help her stretch her body and relax her body and minds, I had to tell her to participate more and be more focused on the program. But at the same time, I knew that it was not only that she did not want to do it, but I could see that her being not as flexible than others sometimes made her give up doing postures. It was rather something more like fear. I faced this internal conflict for which I had to use my moral principle wisely to solve.

I decided to make her participate more by doing what she does. When she kept staring at the wall, I did the same, waiting for her to be back to the program. I lay down on the floor when she did so. I think this trial was effective as I did not offend or hurt her by forcing her to participate but rather I waited for her to back to the yoga mode. Through this experience, I realized that I am good at reading others mind and considering the impact of my actions on them before taking actions. I think it is skill that is very important. I will continue to try my best to make my partner participate more.

Culturama Italy final reflection

 

Another challenge we faced was that the costumes that our dance leader ordered did not arrive even though it was express delivery. Eventually, we gave up waiting for them and tried to find similar skirts as the original one in the  school drama costume office. There were red skirts that were not so similar, we had no choice but to use them. Collaboration was very important in achieving my goal as well as our team’s goal because without discussing the problems(challenges) we faced such as costume problem, we could not have made rational choices that helped us perform better. Throughout this experience, I also learnt that it is better for the members of the group to try to face the problems on the early stage of the progress than later because  it is hard to fix problems at some point even when ones discover it.  I would like to make suggestions to make some changes/improvement when I see errors/something missing even though it might be hard to fix that as a group.