Final CAS Reflection

It has been a very long and arduous two years, and it is almost over. With my final exams and university decisions coming is less than a month, the pressure is extremely high. Right now, my main goal is to study as much as I can in order to obtain the highest possible grade for my diploma. However, i would lke to take this time to reflect on the achievements I have made in the past two years regarding my extracurricular life.

In the past two years I have undertaken many new challenges, and through this increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth. This is mainly through my increased involvement in Archery and obtaining a spot on the National Archery Reserve Team and in ranking nationally in the sport of Karate, and my success in my first instrumental guitar piece.

This has also enabled me to develop many new skills within each of my interest. For example, after writing my first piece, I feel more confident and have since written a few sample rhythms which will hopefully form the base for a few new songs. In addition, The practice which I put into archery in preparation for major tournaments has allowed my to develop my skills greatly within the context of the sport. This also applies for karate, in which not only my technical skill, but also my fitness has greatly increased.

I have recently also planned an initiated a very significant activity which hopes to allow students in local government to be able to learn archery, possibly at a competitive level, through instruction provided by the Colombo Archery School.

I have also had many opportunities to work collaboratively with others, primarily through cooperation with my classmates in my community service activity involving teaching English to children from the SOS Children's Village in the local area. This has also allowed me to participate in an issue of global importance and consider the ethical implications of my actions. To elaborate, teaching English to children less fortunate than myself has given me new perspective into understanding just how privileged I am to enjoy the luxuries which I have.

I believe that I have shown perseverance and commitment to each one of my activities, as i have continued participating in each one of them on a regular basis over the past two years. In addition, I plan to continue my participation in many of these activities even after I graduate from school and go on to University.

The Bright Side of my Music Makers Setback

Sadly, while attempting to balance the workload of finishing my IA's and studying for my final exams, I did not have time to properly prepare a performance-ready piece for the Music Makers event at my school.

However, it did allow me to do something which I have never done before.

I have recently composed my first instrumental guitar piece. it was meant to be for the Music Makers show but because of other obligations I was unable to finish it in time. This a great achievement for me because composition has been one of my weak points for the longest time, with most of my ability lying in in my improvisational ability. 

Through this, it has increased my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and allowed me to undertake a completely new challenge. I'm sure that this primary success will allow to to grow further as a musician.

New Community Service Endeavor

Following the end of my participation in the SOS Children's Village Community Service Activity at my school, i felt that there was a gap in my participation in service oriented activities.

To remedy this, I consulted the head of the Colombo Archery School to begin a training program which would incorporate archery training into local schools for a reduced rate. This would provide many under privileged children with the ability to develop a new skill as well as providing the opportunity to gain recognition on the competitive level.

This program has not yet begun, but contact has been made with school such as Nalanda College and St. Peters, among others, to start this program with their students.

This has allowed me to plan and/or initiate an activity, which has been an aspect missing from my extracurricular life in the past two years. In addition, it also allows me to deal with an issue of global importance by possibly providing opportunities for those who have less facilities than i do.

Last Day of SOS Children's Village Community Service

For the past two years, I have participated in the SOS Children Village Community Service Activity held at my school. Through this activity I have taught two children, Thilini and Harsha, to read, speak, and write English. It has been a wonderful experience to see them grow throughout the course of my IB Diploma program.

I personally have never been very fond of children, but with my exposure to Thilini and Harsha, and therefore never imagined that I would come to enjoy teaching Thilini and Harsha as much as I do. They have been wonderful to teach and their innocence is very soothing to me. It is all these things which makes stopping this activity as difficult as it is. However, it is necessarily, in order for me to have ample time to prepare for my exams, which are in only a little over a month's time.

I even made goodbye cards for each of my children. I am not the best at artistic things, but I felt that i should have, and genuinely wanted to, especially after the wonderful cards the two of them had made me during Christmas time.

Through my participation in this activity over the past 2 years I have Increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, because I never imagined that I would become as personally attached to "my kids" as I did, and I also became aware of communication skills which I never thought I had. It has also allowed me to engage in an issue of global importance as it allowed me to teach a language to those less fortunate that I am.

Music Makers 2012

Due to a very large workload during the past year I have been unable to participate in any of the school music activities because of insufficient time to prepare anything worth performing.
Due to the long amount of time fiven before the auditions, I am planning to participate in this activity.
As it stands, the piece I am going to practice is Groove or Die by Andy Timmons, and after learning that if I have enough time, I will try and make a cover of Little Wing by Stevie Ray Vaughn/Jimi Hendrix.
This will allow me to show perseverence and committment in my activities, as well as develop new skills, because both these pieces are relatively difficult, especially the first, and i hope that i will be able to finish learning them before the auditions.

Guitar Lesson Channel on Youtube

The video lesson i have put on youtube has now accumulated over 3,000 views with the majority of the comments being positive, and the only negative comments being constructive critisism rather than the rude negative comments present on other videos similar to mine. I greatly appreciate the politeness displayed by those watching my video.

I had made the second part to this lesson many months ago but have still not been able to update is due to technical problems regarding my inconsistent internet connection. I have attempted uiploading the file in the school technology labs afterschool, when the bandwidth is higher, but the time for the upload is stil about 4-5 hours, which is niot practical as the labs close approximately 1-2 hours after school finishes.

I have also placed a link to my CAS blog to my first video which should give it greater exposure.

Through this i have undertaken new challenges and learned new skills through the introduction to the world of running a youtube channel, replying to comments on my videos, etc. I have also increased my awareness of my own areas for growth throught the constructive critisism given to me by a few of the people who have viewed my video. I have also perseverance and commitment in this activity through my repeated attempts to upload my second video, which has unfortunately not yet worked out for me.

SOS childen's orphanage

For the past 2 semester of school (approximately 7 months) i have participated in the afterschool community service program concerning SOS Children's Orphanage. In the course of this activity, the group interacts with a group of childen from the SOS children's orphanage, teaching them to speak english. A presentation is also given each on the country of origin of one of the members of the group. I have not done such a presentation as the children and I are all from the same country. However, this has allowed me to bond with the two children i have been assigned to more than most of the others in the group who cannot speak sinhala, and therefore are limited in their communication with the children.

I personally have development a bond with the children i have been assigned to and have become attatched to them to an extent. This is unusual for me as i am usually not very approving of the behavior of small children as the ones i have been exposed to are generally overindulgent and unappreciative. This is greatly contrasted by the humility and politeness displayed by the children who visit from the orphanage, particularly in the two chilren i take care of.

Through this experience, i have undertaken a new challenge and developed new skills, s the interaction with children is very new to me, helped plan and initiate activities such as the occasional parties thrown for the children like the upcoming christmas party, and engaged with issues of global importance through the interaction with and aid of children who are facing difficult situations in their lives, brought on by their lack of financial security and the loss of their parents.

Also, I have worked in collaboration with the two leaders of this program to make the presentations and learning process more organised. In addition, we have planned many parties for them during which allowed me to collaborate with others in a productive manner, to better entertain the children.