Tag: #NYAA

NYAA Outdoor Appreciation : Ladakh 2019!

by Parvathy

In the summer of ’19, I went to Ladakh – a beautiful region in North India – for my Grade 9 Expedition, and also for my NYAA Outdoor Appreciation trip. My trip was around 19 days long, and it was a really hard trip. I learnt a lot from that trip, and I feel like that trip changed me for the better.

My research question for this trip was “How do the residents of Ladakh sustain their culture for their future generations?”. After my trip to Ladakh, I realised that Ladakh is not that Westernised, it still follows its traditions, therefore allowing the younger generations of Ladakh to learn and follow them. The school which we visited in Ladakh, Lamdon school, is an English medium school, but the teachers and students all communicate in Ladakhi. The students also have a mini monastery in their school, which is almost like a mini heritage of Buddha. These things will allow the younger generations to embrace their culture and carry it forward to future generations.

Before going on this trip, I was very excited, and I thought that I would find this trip really fun and easy, but I was wrong. There were lots of things that I found easy and fun in Ladakh, such as socialising with the students of Dover and the students of Lamdon School. I also found it easy to get used to Ladakh and not get that homesick, mainly because of the beautiful scenery in Ladakh. But despite all of that, I found the most important thing of the trip hard, trekking. Trekking was the main activity we did during our trip and I found it really hard. I think the main reasons for that was because I didn’t train enough for the trekking. I also fell sick during my trip, so that made trekking pretty hard for me as I was very tired and sick during the trekking.

Despite being sick during the trekking, I still continued to trek, I never gave up. During the trekking, I went at a slow pace and took lots of breaks, but I never said “I can’t do this”  and that was because I knew I could do it. One of the members of Snow Leopard told me: “Every step you take brings you closer to your destination, even if you take a break after every 10 steps.”. After hearing this, I realised that I should never give up, and I should stay resilient, or else I would never get to where I wanted to. During the trip, I became so much more resilient, and I think that my resilience is the skill that I developed the most. Usually, if I end up not being able to do something, I would immediately give up and not try, but since coming back from my Ladakh trip, I became much more resilient and I still try to do things I find hard instead of simply just giving up.

On our second last day of trekking, we had a reflection session, where we sat by a rock formation and just spent some time to reflect on our trip. In our reflection, we had to write about our thoughts, and I wrote: “I’m so happy and proud that I managed to finish the hardest parts of this trek without dying, but more importantly, I’m really happy that I figured out I’m stronger than I think.”. This is definitely my biggest learning from Ladakh. Learning that I’m stronger than I think has given me a sense of confidence, and now I know that I can do anything as long as I am determined since I have the strength to do it.

“You can achieve anything, as long as you have a good attitude.”. One of the teachers on our trip told us this during our group discussions, and this became one of my mottos during the trip. Despite finding the treks hard, I still managed to finish them. This was all due to my resilience and my good attitude. I always tried to stay as positive as possible, and it really helped me to finish my treks and prevented me from giving up.

In Ladakh, I also did so many skills that I haven’t done that much before, for example, I took initiative to start an advanced group for the students in our trip. I told Amy, our Outdoor-Ed teacher, that I was finding the trekking hard, so I asked her whether we could form a group of students who left earlier and travelled at a slower pace than the rest. This helped a lot of the students on our trip as many students found the trekking hard, so they joined the advanced group.

Since coming back from Ladakh, I’ve started to appreciate the small things that I have in life, such as 100% Oxygen in Singapore; the exposure to other cultures that I get by living here in Singapore; the connectivity to all places in Singapore; schooling; clean water, and many more. During my trip, I realised that if one of these were taken away from me, I would be able to live such an easy and convenient life. The main reason for this realisation is because Ladakh’s Oxygen levels are much lower than that of Singapore’s. Due to the low oxygen levels, I found it hard to do little everyday things, such as walking, packing, and even eating. I would need to take small ‘breathing breaks’ every minute or so while I’m doing these activities due to the lack of Oxygen.

To conclude this reflection, here is a list of my main learnings from this trip:

  1. I am strong, I have the power to do anything.
  2. With a good attitude, one will be able to lead a good life.
  3. Every step you takes brings you closer to your destination, wherever that may be.

NYAA Healthy Living (January + February)

by Parvathy

During the months of January and February, I did an average of 6 hours of ballet each month. During these months, I mainly focused on my flexibility and learning the dances and perfecting them.

In the month of January, I asked my ballet friends, and my teachers how I could improve my dances and how to do specific steps. This is because I wanted to learn the ballet pieces, which I managed to do by the end of February. The reason why I wanted to learn all of these ballet pieces despite not doing the grade 6 ballet exam is because I want to still get exercise, and also because I want to keep doing ballet as I really enjoy ballet.

I also worked on my flexibility in order to be able to raise my leg higher during certain dances such as adage and grand battement. This will make my dances look more graceful and tidy. In order to get my right splits down, I practiced my splits during every ballet lesson. Right now, I am able to do the right splits, but in order to keep my flexibility and get my left splits down, I need to practice my splits more often, maybe once in two or three days.

My goal for March and April is to perfect the dances and be very confident when I am performing them. I will gain this confidence and perfecting by trying extra hard during my lessons, and checking the steps with my teacher and my ballet friends.

First service visit!!

by Parvathy

For my NYAA, I am doing the service PCF. In this service, we go to a local pre-school and spend a bit more than an hour with a kindergarten class. Our aim is to make these kids’ days better and happier. We want them to look forward to the Tuesdays when we go over and play with them. Another aim of this service is to strengthen the bond between UWCSEA East and local people. We aim to overcome cultural and age barriers and enhance our leadership and communication skills by doing activities with the pre-schoolers.

On the 5th of March, we went over to PCF, which is very close to our school, and we did our first activity session with the kids. First, we did musical statues, and then we took a big parachute and played with it along with the kids.

From this experience, I learnt that the kids really do follow you, therefore we have to have very high energy levels in order to engage with the kids and allow them to have more fun. I also learnt that some kids dislike certain activities, making it an exclusive activity, which is not what we are trying to do. We want to make the activity as inclusive as possible and make sure that everyone enjoys it, therefore I think that we should ask the kids what the want to do so that we can make the activities best for them.

NYAA (August + September + October)

by Parvathy

For my National Youth Achievement Award (NYAAI, i chose ballet as my healthy living activity. The reason why I chose ballet is because I really enjoy ballet, and also because I practice a lot of ballet. Ballet really helps me stay healthy and fit, as I barely ever exercise, and it is my only form of exercise.

Currently, I am in grade 6 for ballet, in SeptemberIi took my Interfound exam and it went pretty well. During the months August and September, I was training really hard for my interfound exam as I really wanted to get a distinction.

In August, I trained a lot, but not as much as I did in September. In August, I focused a lot on getting my splits down, and I did, but I pulled my hamstrings and I lost my flexibility. I really want to get my splits down again so that my dances will look better, and more graceful.

In the month of September, I trained very hard as it was my exam month. On some weeks I had four lessons a week just so that I could perfect my exam pieces to become a better dancer.

In October, I worked really hard to learn all the grade 6 pieces, as there are a lot of pieces that I have to learn. I was also working on my flexibility, and trying to get my righ tsplits down agian, but I need to work harder for that.

My goal for the next three months is to get my right splits down and to try to get my left and middle splits down as well, if I can. If I become more flexible, then I will be able to execute my pieces more effortlessly, making me a better ballerina.