Category: Resilent

Hong Kong Expedition (NYAA)

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Challenging would be too undermining of a word to describe the journey NYAA pushed me to pursue. This journey was one which created everlasting memories, of the good, as of the bad. Of course, where there was the view from the ‘mountains’ we climbed, the rewarding moments of finally reaching a campsite after a long day, and other rewards, there came the sweat, anger and even tears throughout the trip.

It wasn’t something I appreciated at the moment, but am grateful for regardless as it made me into a better person. From the internal conflicts we all faced, to those we said out loud, it brought us together and pushed us apart but as a group, we stuck together and learnt to overcome these obstacles. There was a time once, before the first day itself where the group decided to sit and have a chat, to talk about our concerns, our expectations and personal goals. It was a private, only 8 member discussion from which we pushed away other friends and members which would have seemed rude but nevertheless something we needed in order for us to work together, better. The conversation generally was going well, some distractions here and there but nothing you wouldn’t expect from a group of lost teenagers. But tension soon started rising, and unlike a spark which set out all wild, I could see where the conversation was going. We started to become louder, wanting to be heard, less so listening which was the main point of the talk itself. Then out of nowhere, someone recalled something a member of the group had once said. This something wasn’t the politest or even close to meaningful enough to say. It resulted in one or two tearing down, while the others had to call the teachers for help before the beginning of the actual trip.

It all happened in moments, in the middle of the night, before our actual trek. I was mildly shocked at this fact but believed that I could keep it together for us all. I would try hard to help everyone. I was somehow very motivated, hopeful even which was strange, even for me. I tried my best by sharing my snacks, and sense of humour with the others. It definitely sort of helped. During the day, we all became better in keeping the situation under control. It was probably because they wanted to support those – mainly me – who wasn’t very physically fit or were sick during the trekking.

It was an incredibly thoughtful thing for my group to do on their part, and in return, it did make me feel so much better, physically and emotionally. One of the group members offered to switch bags with me, his being lighter whilst mine was not packed very well and therefore much heavier. It made me realise, that I could and should try to do better on my part in ways I can. This motivated in helping the other members by doing simple things, like cooking for them or giving them water during the hike to Shark Peak and even helping them do a successful bottle toss. It made me into a bigger person really, the actions of these people.

It also helped me grow strong, physically. Before, I never could have imagined being able to hike and trek for such long hours in such inclined locations. I may not be able to lift more than fifteen kilos of weight, but I definitely can work longer and harder with these weights. My stamina has definitely improved, and this is incredibly beneficial for my overall physical health.

Not to mention, that this trip also made me reconsider my packing techniques. I think I am left with much to think about my own skills.

Another one of my skills I was often loud about was being able to love and share space with animals. Boy was I wrong! Just throw in a wild boar, food going missing, and someone around you breaking down because of it, to bring your beliefs crumbling down. The key though as I have learnt now is: food and sleep. As simple as that, and you solve more than half the problems. This wild experience definitely brought me back to reality to make me re-evaluate everything I knew about myself, but more so taught me that there is not much one can do but let someone else be, and just stay as a presence there as a sort of support. If this person doesn’t want help, there is nothing you can do but be there anyway. I realised that it wasn’t my fault, or theirs even. It was just in human nature, and sometimes you have to let nature be.

The NYAA Expedition to Hong Kong taught me much more than I initially realised, even during the trip I never truly considered all that happened, and merely let the thought go. But what is there to learn if you do and forget? I think that reflecting on this expedition in itself is a skill which I have developed being a part of NYAA, which I will take onto helping other aspects of my life.

Media

  • Terminal 3 Departures Changi Airport, Singapore @ 7 am SGT, Friday 30th March 2018

  • DAY 1 to DAY 3

  • Terminal 3 Arrivals Hall Changi Airport, Singapore @ 7 pm SGT, Tuesday 3rd April 2018

NYAA Training Weekend 1 + Kit List – Reflection

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NYAA Training Weekend 1 – Reflection

I had reached the NYAA Training prep class at exactly 4:32 pm. The large rucksack, organised and unnecessarily so, hugged off my back and I didn’t do much to adjust it. I was too jumpy, not really in an excited way but still in the way that adrenaline was pumping hard in me. I dropped my bag at a table and head over to the group of six boys and a girl. I knew them all by their names, and that worked well with me. My friend, Yeji followed soon after and we were there as a group. Eight in total. A seemingly large but nice group, but one which I didn’t think would work well. General observations taught me that most were in the last ‘core’ in PE. How were we going to get through 40km of uphill and downhill trails? I had no idea. I did, however, know that our constant communication over the last few days before the Training Weekend, had got us somewhat organised and closer as a group. This was an observation which helped us on the next day. During the first night, we discussed the route for the next day, figured how to set up a tent and cooked a decent dinner, we seemed to understand that the trip required a lot of support from one another. Though I didn’t realise this first hand until the next day.

The trek from W hotel in Sentosa, back to UWCSEA, Dover was a long trip where we all seemed to hate on each other because of the pain on our backs from all the unusual weights, and the pinch in our feet, as each step made a stop in the sensation of my feet. As a group, we were no longer connected, no longer together as some walked too far ahead while others fell too behind. There was no controlling in each others pace, as no amount of shouting could get this sorted out. In the end, we redistributed the weights. It was one out of many ways of sorting out the problem, but we didn’t realise this. When we reached UWC, we were 2 hours late from the time we were expected to arrive. This was because of the number of times we had to stop for the other members to catch up, as to not get in trouble with the staff. In the end though, the plan of stopping and waiting only slowed us down further as we continued to have elongated breaks and got nothing but slowed down. When we reached school, it was a little embarrassing but nothing we couldn’t cope with. We set up the tents once again and had a shower. This was one blissful reward. We then cooked and were told about the route we were following for the next day. We tried evaluating the day and came up with new solutions, which we applied the day after.

On the last and final day of the trek, our journey seemed longer as the pain from yesterday had not really left me. My shoes were prickling and I was mere seconds from losing it. But I decided that it was a waste of energy and tried to keep to the front of the group, as we travelled from UWC, Dover to MacRitchie Reservoir from a twisting but an interesting natural path. There was mud, and swampy ground, but instead of caring for my shoes I walked on them. They were a great reliever of pain. The group functioned so that everyone got a turn to guide the group using the compass and the map, and it was considerably better, as there was lots of communication and we were working together more often, allowing the slower ones to lead and being more motivating to the group as a whole. We soon enough reached the checkpoint and had a filling lunch before we departed for school, where the first NYAA Training Weekend came to an end.

NYAA Supplied Kit List – Reflection

We mainly carried all our things in the rucksack, including the ones supplied by the NYAA office at school. These items included, cooking items (e.g. stove, gas, lighters), tent and groundsheet, sleeping mats and its covers. During the first day, we managed to lose nothing, however, on the second day we realised that we couldn’t find the cover for our tent. This was because we set up our tent too late at night, and left the case when we were shifting our tent to the ground we were all supposed to be sleeping on. We did, however, go back to collect it as it was left amongst some of our other things like rucksacks and sleeping mats, however, we found that the cover was not there.

Since it was already past 10 at night, we decided to get it sorted tomorrow morning. This, however, was a bad idea, as I couldn’t seem to find Fiza, who looked after all the kit supplied by the NYAA office. However, I did find a teacher who helped me look for it, alongside the NYAA Gold, Dylan who worked with our group on both days. With their help, I found the cover and was allowed to leave the tent at school on time.

Grade 8 IGCSE Options Night 2018 – Explaining Enterprise

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On the night of the 29th January, I was found standing amongst a group, explaining one of my taken subjects to my juniors who were to enter Grade 9 in the coming term or so. It was a long and excruciating night, packed with a lot of quick thinking, explaining and very often repeating. However, not once do I regret it as I spent an hour and a half, not tired but energised, ready and encouraged to talk about one of my really interesting subjects to my peers who would want to take it as an IGCSE subject in the coming academic year.

My job as a helper was to give basic information about the subject, Enterprise to be specific, and what the two-year course program held as I outlined the syllabus to some extent and used past papers to further elaborate on points based off exam papers and answering questions. I also suggested why Enterprise may be a good subject to take, and explained that I took it because of the coursework program, which was 50% of the IGCSE finals as it gave me an opportunity to apply my learning first hand in a real situation, which made learning more effective and acted as a simulation if I wanted to set up a business in the future or if needed for IB Business Management (since 40% of what we learn is applied in Business Management in IB).

I thought that the responses from both students and parents were mostly good as I thought that they really took in what I said about the subject. It was a good opportunity to learn more about Enterprising as well since I tried my best to explain how some of my other subjects impacted on Enterprise and vice versa. The parents, more often had questions which I really liked being asked since I probably wouldn’t have to think about it if I didn’t sign up for helping out today. It was definitely a key learning point, as I found out why I really enjoyed Enterprise and how it made an impact on me as a person.

I think that my action had benefitted many students and parents as they got an insight on the subject and understood the basic outline. I believed that as a helper, my job wasn’t necessarily to sell the idea of taking Enterprise but to guide my ‘customers’ to finding what they truly wanted, whether it be in Economics or Enterprise, since in the end, it is for the benefit of the student and parent, if they take the right subject.

End of Term 1 Reflection

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I think that my strengths include Global Perspectives and Enterprise as evident from the attainment grades I have received from these subjects. I find these subjects interesting and enjoy working in them and I think that my general interest is shown in class (seen from the ATL reports).

I think that this term I found Foreign Language Chinese and Maths challenging because of the little effort put in or because of lack of understanding in the subject, respectively.

Some subjects I am interested in are  Global Perspectives, English, Physical Education and Chemistry (Coordinated Science 2). Not all subjects guarantee 7s, however, I have a genuine interest in these subjects because I am eager to learn and explore topics under them and also because they all offer me to work as both an individual as well as in a group and that makes these subjects more engaging.

I think that I started off the term by celebrating a 7 in Enterprise as I believed that I hadn’t fully achieved this grade because of my average test results, however, my contributions and classwork guaranteed my teacher the hard work I was willing to put into the subject to improve. This was also one of the main my proud moments I have had since the beginning of the academic year.

One challenging moment in this term was when I was doing my Chinese oral. The oral wasn’t one of my best performances because I was nervous when speaking to my teacher and found that the questions she was asking me was fast paced and required the thinking I couldn’t do in less than two seconds.

I think that most of my subjects matter to me, however, I mainly would like to focus on English, Maths and Chinese. I think that these subjects matter to me because I feel as if I have the need to improve in these subjects, attainment wise. I think that outside school and subjects, the service I do on animals, PAW matters to me as well since it is something I like to work for and support as much as I can.

I think that the subject I most enjoy this year is, Physical Education which is a surprise since I don’t normally do so well in it, however, I think that the people in my class are very friendly and good teammates so it is always a pleasure working with them. Not to mention they make the classes more fun.

UWC Day

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UWC Day

  • What did this mean to me?

UWC Day was a very informative and interesting day where, as UWC students we learnt so much about not only about ourselves but also the world around us, from the current events to find potentially possible solutions to resolve global issues which affect parts of the world, many of us have not had even a glimpse of as yet. We focused specifically on the Rohingya crisis currently happening in Myanmar. Since I read the news, and like to keep up with the global and social aspects of the world and its environment. Initially whilst reading an article about the Rohingya community in Myanmar, I found the details and facts very shocking as I couldn’t even imagine how they would have felt, being driven out of their homes and to most, the place they’d known as a place of before and after. It was their home, and they’d been brutally attacked by the army, injuring and even killing those who didn’t leave.

UWC Day, meant for me a time to gain knowledge through a more personal lense into the refugees lives. From the guest speaker, a UWC Services staff who used to live in a refugee camp, I got a bigger insight on the lives they led. It made me look at the numbers and facts on news articles, so that instead of scribbled down numbers, I seemed to spot faces. Completely unknown images of different people and their stories. To me it meant that I cared and that I wanted to help make a difference.

Coming from a community which regards Service, as it is ranked a high place in the school’s learner’s profile, I couldn’t have seen a better chance to learn and even suggest ideas throughout the presentation we were given by the class representatives. I expressed my views and opinions on my beliefs and occasionally made comments to those around me what I thought about the global problem.

Vidushi’s Student Portfolio

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