Final CAS Reflection

The goals I set at the beginning of senior year are in the link below:
http://thofto.blogspot.com/2012/08/cas-goals-for-semester-one-of-senior.html

Looking back over my goals, I realize they were very general and not directly linked to the 8 learning outcomes. I still feel like I have fulfilled the 8 learning outcomes, while using the goals I had made to pursue personal goals.
In general, my goals such as blogging once a week and including a photo per post were difficult due to the time required and that there wasn't always a photo or creative evidence (another goal) of the activity.
I fulfilled my goals of perseverance and commitment to activities and bettering myself through my continual involvement with Hope for Kids, volleyball, track and field, and outside training. Through this commitment I also fulfilled my original goals of taking leadership roles more often and balancing in-school sports and out-of-school training. Having been made track and field captain and one of three seniors on the volleyball team I was required to take a leadership position which was a new challenge for me and allowed me to develop new skills in working and leading the teams. I also developed new skills in terms of pushing myself further - with an increasing awareness that my determination to push myself to the limits is a strength of mine and that an area of weakness is motivation, which I can address easily and grow through - managing to run further and faster in track and becoming one of the most solid and reliable servers and libero for volleyball. Being captain was a challenge for me as well as I was required to be a role model outside of track as well as during practices and meets, I also had to plan and initiate activities such as warm ups and drills while maintaining control of the team.
Overall I feel I fulfilled the goals I have set and the goals of the 8 learning outcomes, while enjoying the activities I have participated in.

SAISA Track

My final SAISA competition was the best one yet for me. I feel so lucky to be able to have been a part of the OSC team and SAISA Track and Field team from all schools. The dedication, perseverance and commitment people had to to their events, their teams and themselves was obvious and I hope that others could see that in me as well. It was lovely to be able to see people such as John (both of them), Forrest, and Caleb again as I had met them at last year's SAISA.

As one of the few seniors in all of the SAISA Track and part of the home team, I understood the need to set an example for others, while recognizing that I had to collaborate with the officials (who were difficult at times), my teammates (who I love dearly but occasionally want to yell at), and other teams (who were fantastic). I worked collaboratively with others as well, as we had to take care of the younger people on the team and frequently Dylan and I would be pinning over 10 numbers on minutes before a race would begin. 

I demonstrated good leadership during SAISA as well, initiating warm ups and drills for myself and others who needed it. While I am sad that SAISA is over for me, I am happy to say that I will continue running and training outside of school.

Track ISAC Competition

As team captain, I can honestly say I am so proud of the progress and dedication of the team, both individual and as group. As a group, we work very well together and push ourselves and each other to try new challenges and improve ourselves.
The weekend before SAISA we had our ISAC tournament with other Sri Lankan "international" schools. There was our team and more then 20 other teams in the competition and it was very formal. The track was at the local stadium with a beautiful 400-meter bright blue astro-turf track. As team captain I was required to represent the team, raise and lower the flag, take the oath on behalf of my team, and represent them.
Each individual was only allowed one track event and one field event, mine was the 1500 meter run and discus. I also had to make sure as captain and one of the few older individuals on the team that everyone had the correct numbers, bibs, shirts and were in the correct place at the right time for their events. I had to do this while being sick with a sore throat and a cough, making it difficult to breathe at times. I also had to plan and undertake new challenges such as managing the team for individual warm ups since every had events at different times and keep team spirit going.
One particularly difficult moment was when I was about to run the 1500 meters and had to make sure Nikita, who was at the field event long jump, managed to get the correct number for the semi-finals of 400 meters and got logged in to the system while he was competing. I developed a lot of new skills with managing everything going on at the same time.

I got a new personal best time for my 1500 meters, but did not throw as well as I would have liked to on discus. This lead to me to understanding that an area I needed to improve was my form for discus throwing, and in the 1500 meters during SAISA I needed to really push hard in the kick for the last 200 meters or so of my race.

I also got the chance to get to know my teammates even better as I spent three days straight with all of my team, I'm so proud that everyone showed such dedication and perseverance to this activity and to the team, as well as everyone understanding how important the competition was in Sri Lanka and how the implications of their actions would be seen. I am also so happy that so many people came and cheered the rest of their teammates on when they didn't have any competitions.

I really viewed the ISAC competition initially as a practice for SAISA, but it ended up being a fantastic team building opportunity that allowed myself and others to understand their strengths and areas of improvement in track and field as well as allowing myself to undertake new challenges in leadership and working collaboratively with others on team to accomplish everything that needed to get done. I am so proud of the team and cannot wait for us to go on to SAISA.

Track Tryouts

For the beginning of track season I had the goals to compete in the 3000 and 1500 and improve my times for both. I had been doing smaller workouts in a gym for a while to condition myself to long-distance running, but the difference being outside in the heat and humidity immediately made me understand that, while on of my strengths was my dedication to the sport of track and field, a weakness I would have to overcome would be my own mind when the heat and humidity started getting to me and push through.
For the tryouts for the track team there was only two seniors and I was one of them. Additionally, I was almost guaranteed a place on the team because there were so few people for my age group. None the less, I immediately was told that I needed to push myself harder because I was afraid of failure which held me back from trying and giving my all incase I didn't do well. Addressing this while working within the team as a member who could contribute and as an individual who was striving for improvement, was my goal during tryouts for the team.
I was there for every track practice during the tryouts showing perseverance and commitment to the activity and the team, this and my desire work collaboratively with the other individuals on the team to increase our awareness of our strengths and areas for improvements gave me a place on the team. This also lead to me getting the position of team captain, which allowed me to plan and initiate activities for the team and individuals and made me develop new skills of leadership to keep all thirty people under control when transferring activities. When I asked why I was given this position, I was told it was not only my commitment and continual presence in track but also because of my support for my teammates and how I always cheered them on. Because of this new position I had to consider the implications of my actions not only in track practice but outside of track during school.

Hope for Kids Banner

For the past couple of weeks in Hope for Kids when the kids are allowed out of the ward we have been working on a banner for Hope for Kids. One of the initial difficulties is that we let someone spray paint the title “Hope for Kids” on it, along with the sun symbol, which turned out much more blurry and unprofessional looking. This was solved later on by Emilie and myself collaboratively spending an hour going over the title and sun with fabric paint. We both thought we did a pretty good job, until we saw the amazing art that the children had created. Several of the kids had done elegant flowers and butterflies, and one kid did a house with a palm tree next to it. The piece of art that impressed me the most by far was the lion Simba that a young boy called Kavinda painted. It was incredibly realistic and impressive. The next visit we had Kavinda asked us to help him because it was his mother’s birthday that day. Not only did he make a heartfelt card with pieces of folded up 3D paper, he asked each one of us to sing happy birthday to her before we left. While I am completely tone-deaf and cannot sing, as a group we did so anyway. The mother’s happiness and how she hugged Kavinda made my tone-deafness irrelevant.

Hope for Kids Update

Recently Hope for Kids has been arriving at the hospital to find that the kids can’t come out of the ward that day. While this hasn’t happened every time, it is more common now then before. While we do initially come to interact with the children, this is a good opportunity for us to help out in other ways. The past few times this has happened we have cleaned the books and the shelves they are on, organized the books by Sinhalese, Tamil, and English, as well as by picture book or text. Additionally we have organized the arts and crafts materials and areas, cleaned the general rooms, swept and mopped. While this is not initially what we intend to do when we head to the hospital, it still benefits the children, and the group and myself work together to get the cleaning finished. 

Christmas with Hope for Kids

The biggest thing that has happened in Hope for Kids in 2012 was the Christmas party we planned for them. We (the CAS) went out and got gifts and stickers for the kids, mostly Princess stickers for the girls and Ben10 and truck stickers for the boys. It was an incredibly good feeling to be able to engage in an issue of global importance such as caring for the sick, while being able to brighten up the lives of the kids who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to celebrate Christmas. We brought the gifts to the hospital, where we also began the time there that day with singing songs to (and sometimes with) a group of about 40 kids and parents assembled there, while the rest of us set up the gifts and handed out the stickers to the kids. Our collaboration showed how we accomplish several activities at once as a group while everyone felt comfortable because we understood each other’s strengths or weaknesses such as lack of comfort at singing. One of my favorite moments was when one girl handed back her Princess stickers and demanded a Ben10 sticker set. Some people tried to Gangnam style dance as well, which brought smiles to the face of several of the kids there.

About an hour into the party, Mr. Snyder showed up dressed as Santa Claus, and we began handing out gifts such as drawing supplies, small backpacks and school supplies. While some kids did seem surprised, many had huge smiles on their faces.

During the handing out of presents, several others from the group and myself began blowing up loads of balloons. The majority of the CAS group went to the wards with Mr. Snyder (still dressed as Santa), and handed out the rest of the balloons. Myself and a few others stayed behind and blew up more balloons, I stayed behind because I know a huge weakness of mine is my dislike of hospitals and my phobia of needles, so I knew I would be a hindrance if I went with the people to the ward.

The day ended with us leaving about 30 more balloons in the play room for the kids, and I felt good having been able to give the children a chance to experience Christmas.