Final CAS Reflection Essay - 810 words

At first when we were told the requirements for the IB program, I was not looking forward to the amount of extra work that we had to do. This extra work included the CAS activities. I knew creativity would be no problem for me to complete but I was worried about the remaining two categories, the action more than the service. As time went on I grew to really enjoy these additional activities, they were a way to get my mind off my school work but still be productive and contribute to my community. I have learnt that getting out of my comfort zone is an important factor in enjoying life. Additionally, I have learnt that I cannot learn new things, I cannot grow, without undertaking new challenges and experiences that force me to improve my skill set within my community, wherever that may be. Growing up internationally I feel much more aware of the multitude of different cultures I come across every day. Doing the CAS program has helped to heighten that awareness and teach me the importance of collaborating with my peers as well as my mentors and the people that are part of the world around me. I have been provided with equal opportunities to attend and/or plan my own activities, this has taught me to respect leadership but also to embrace it when the time calls for it.

Although the CAS program often calls for a lot of experiences that require you to do something new, I have really enjoyed doing activities both new to me and familiar to me. Looking back I found that I did a lot more activities in the creativity category than the other two. This was expected due to my personality but looking back I also see that some of my favourite activities were in fact not in that category, for example, learning how to horse ride and attending the KSPCA service trips. I also wish that as a student I had more time to participate in these activities. I often found myself feeling overwhelmed with my newly found busy schedule but despite this I found that I just could not permanently stop any of the activities I was involved in. At the beginning of the IB I had so many plans as to what I wanted to do activity wise. Unfortunately I was unable to do all of them and now that I am so close to finishing the IB, I wish I had found time to participate in those additional activities.

I have to admit that I am still not that fond of doing action activities but I have learnt that I really enjoy them if I can find an activity that suits me. Although this may be true, one thing I have learnt while doing CAS is that it is too difficult to find an activity that suits you but rather the purpose is to mold yourself with the activity you need to do. This is true not only for your attitude towards the activity but also for how you communicate with your fellow students and how you react to the final outcome of the activity. I have learnt through every activity that I have done that there is always something new to learn in an activity, something more to add to your growth as a human being. Doing the CAS program, I have come to understand that we, as people, never stop learning and growing. Every day of our lives is a new experience, like that to the activities that I have done with the CAS program, and each new experience is like a new lego block that is added to the top our building. This lego block enables us to grow, to become bigger and stronger but still provides the means to grow even more. Similarly, every activity I have done with the CAS program is a new experience to add to my pile, it is a new method of thought to add to my understanding and it is a new accomplishment to add to the community.

I understand that although my work with CAS and the IB is coming to a close that the activities I participate in will have less significance within my education but it is my hope that I will continue to develop this balance, between creativity, action and service, needed to really live a worthy and significant life. I have grown immensely over the past two years, but I know and understand that I am still growing and that I will still continue to grow. I still have a long way to go before what I have done to contribute to my community becomes anything worth noting but because of my many positive experiences with my CAS activities I am looking forward to working up to that point in time.

[810 words]

Book Club - Overall

While book club is not quite finished for the year, it has been a wonderful, really relaxing club to attend. I have bonded over literature with other students that I would normally not talk to. I have learnt that books outside my preferred genres are also just as good and just as worthy to read.

Photography Club - Overall

Previously, I have not talked about photography club at all in my blog. I have been in the photography club relatively throughout all the years I have been at ISK. While doing the high school production my involvement in the photography club lessened due to time constraints. Once the play had finished, however, I jumped straight back into the weekly meetings just in time for the annual photography trip. On this trip we went to Maili Saba near Nakuru. With us came a professional photographer, Mr. Stuart Henderson. Mr. Henderson worked with us over the weekend we were staying there and taught us lots of new techniques and methods to use in order to create amazing photographs. He really criticized and critiqued our work to the point where he may have sounded rude but one thing I learnt from this trip was that he was really trying to encourage us to be the best we can in what we want to do in our lives, whether that be photography or not.

Another major part of photography club this year is our plan to design, make and produce a school year calendar to sell. This is still in the process of happening but I thought I should include it as it really encourages us to be proud of our work, and reminds us that we can accomplish anything.

KSPCA - Overall

Unfortunately, due to time constraints I was only able to go to the KSPCA an additional one time. This time we fed the animals again and were again given the opportunity to interact with the different animals. A couple of us decided to go pet the cats and play with the kittens this time instead of what we usually do which is interact with the dogs. This adventurer spirit unfortunately backfired as we accidentally went into one of the kennels that held cats with really bad worms. Luckily we didn’t touch the cats that much but after that we weren’t allowed to go into any other kennel. I feel a bit gypped as no one who knew even considered on telling us before we went in or before we touched the cats, but only decided to tell us afterwards when it was too late. We then had to be very careful not to touch our own faces and had to go wash our hands intensely so.

Overall the KSPCA service trip was a success. The trip seemed much more efficient and organised than the last service trip I did with the school. I learnt a lot about the work that the KSPCA does for abandoned and injured animals in Kenya. I actually feel inspired to continue volunteering at an animal shelter in the next place I go.

IC Trip to Watamu

For our Senior Trip to the coast I was on the creativity strand. In this strand we did water colouring, a photography safari and sandcastle competitions. I didn’t choose this strand as a major addition to my CAS but I thought I should mention it.

While we were there we were also required to go either swimming or jogging every morning. I chose to go jogging because I only like recreational swimming in the ocean. So every morning we would jog or do a fast walk up and down the strand of beach. I’m not much of a sporty person so this proved kind of difficult for me and I often walked more than I jogged. Unfortunately we as students were unaware of this requirement until we actually got to our destination. Hence, a lot of us, including myself, came unprepared for these activities. This led to me having to run barefoot. I actually really enjoy running barefoot and the sand is supposed to be really therapeutic for your feet and ankles but I often found myself returning to my cabin after the jog with really, really sore ankles. I would’ve have enjoyed my time running on the beach but I often felt embarrassed due to the presence of my peers. This activity really pulled me out of my comfort zone as it forced to not only exercise in front of other people but also with other people.

In addition to the main strand, each student was given a free time block to pick any extra activity we wanted to do. I chose to go snorkeling. I absolutely love the ocean, and having lived near the Great Barrier Reef at one point, I really enjoy swimming with the marine life and watching the coral. Snorkeling in Kenya is not as good as some other places I have been but is still a wonderful experience regardless. What made this activity different than usual was the fact that this was the first time I had ever been snorkeling without my dad. When I was little I had a real hard time with the idea of stingrays and my dad was always there to teach me how to snorkel and how to be comfortable with my surroundings, including the stingrays. Seeing as this was the first time I had ever gone snorkeling with people other than my family my usual confidence dropped a little. Despite this discomfort, as soon as I was in the water everything seemed to just work.

KSPCA - Week 2

For this service trip we are supposed to go every second week. This is because there are too many students signed up for the service trip to all go every week. Fortunately I was granted permission to go every week in order to make my experience there more official and worthy.

The second time we went, the trip was just as organised but unfortunately a few of us were left with nothing significant to do. Feeling as pointless as we did we were left to wander around the kennels. Luckily we were allowed to enter the various kennels and interact with all the animals. Although to some this might not seem like service, I still felt that it was important to play with these animals who rarely get any attention at all. Especially for affectionate animals, like dogs, the attention is almost as important as the food. This week that was all a couple of us did, play with all the dogs and the puppies.

KSPCA - Week 1

The previous time I participated in one of the service trips after school on a Wednesday afternoon seemed to go relatively well. So, in the second semester of grade twelve I thought it would be a good idea to do another one of these trips. This time I wanted to do something a little bit different, so I decided to sign up for the KSPCA service trip. This trip would consist of going with a group of students to the KSPCA to help feed, clean and take care of the abandoned or injured animals sheltered there.

Fortunately for this service trip, one of my close friends also joined up which meant that this time I actually had someone to talk to while on the trip. The first time we went, the administration at the KSPCA split all the students into three different groups. The group I was in was taken to the dog kennels. There, we helped distribute and feed all the dogs that were there. While we were helping, one of the workers there told us all about the different dogs that were sheltered in those specific kennels. There were a few big black dogs that had only come in a few days earlier, who would have seemed intimidating if not for their immense shyness. All of the dogs there each had their own story, their own history, not all of them good.

After we fed the dogs, we were given a tour around the other kennels as well. The KSPCA has a lot of different animals including pigs and donkeys in addition to the usual cats and dogs. Near the end of our trip we were allowed into one of the larger cat enclosures. We were then allowed to play with and name a couple of the cats that were there. One of the cats that we named was a small grey kitten, we called him Jumper.