Our new spring lineup

This CAS season features some old favourites as well as new and exciting premieres.  Classics return such as newspaper and yearbook, and we'll also be seeing the swan songs of 750 Words and provincial ringette, both reaching their crescendos in April.  Now, what's new on the horizon?

First off, there is Model UN, which will run from May 3rd to May 5th and entail much preparation prior to the actual event.  I have been accepted into the school delegation of twelve students, although we have yet to hear back with regards to which country everyone will be representing and on which committee they'll be.  My first choice was Tanzania, and I somehow doubt that will be a popular selection, so I hope I will end up receiving that option, although I am sure no matter with what country I end up I'll learn some fascinating things about both it, the world, and the issues that affect the two.  My first choice of committee was ECOSOC, and its topic this year is "Commission on Sustainable Development", so I think I would learn a lot about both the current critical situation with the environment and also how developing countries regard this issue.  Recently we had a guest speaker into our school to talk about climate change, and while what is going on in our world today is undeniably terrifying, I think it is definitely something about which we are better off being informed than remaining blissfully ignorant.  My second committee choice is "A Reconsideration of the Responsibility to Protect", which is an ethical issue that I find fascinating and would love to learn more about.  It's something that is so hard to wrap your head around, and I'm not sure where I stand.  I'm reminded of all those sci fi programs and futuristic novels where the most important rule of everything is that you shouldn't interfere (think Star Trek's prime directive), yet when one is talking about things like genocides and mass killings, how is it ethical to remain uninvolved?  All in all, it would be a fascinating thing to learn more about, and while I'd still rather be accepted to ECOSOC, being part of either committee would be a great experience.  The school delegation will be meeting sometime in the near future to learn about our country and committee assignments, and I can't wait!

Secondly, we have what is going to be my major CAS group project, fitting into the realms of service and creativity:  something we've been calling alternately the "gardening club" and the "school beautification project".  It has a number of components (only befitting of a major group project), and I suppose it would be most logical if I told them in the order in which we developed them.  First of all, our chemistry teacher used to teach botany, although this year there wasn't enough student interest and the botany class wasn't offered.  Despite not having a class, it's her responsibility to tend to the sad-looking indoor garden we have in the lobby, although with all the other important things she has to do, fixing it up isn't something she has either the time or energy to do on her own.  That's why a group of us decided to start a gardening club under her leadership:  we'd have access to the school greenhouse, we'd water the three nearly-dead trees and the sad looking cactus, we'd learn which plants grow best under our school's conditions, we'd clean all the trash out of the bed as it is currently being used like one big garbage can, and we'd use our newly gained knowledge of plants to grow flowers and the like in the garden.  That sounds like a nice CAS activity in itself, but what really propelled it into the big group project level was what happened when we went to go check out the bed.  It was a mess -- even more so than we had thought.  The paint on the wall was peeling all the way back to concrete due to water damage, chocolate milk containers and muffin wrappers abounded, and one of the trees was no more than a few sticks surrounded by dead leaves.  But the garden layout was interesting:  on the bottom level of the school, there is a wall in front of the garden and you are standing below soil level, and then there is also a wall behind the bed above your head on the lower level but under you if you're standing on the school's main floor.  Looking at this, we were struck by how perfect it would be for a mural.  So, that's our plan.  We'll do all the gardening things previously mentioned, but we're also going to learn how to plaster and repair the wall, do it, and then paint two murals.  The one behind the bed will be a foliage or a jungle theme, creating a sort of 3D effect with the real plants that will jump out in front of it, and on the lower wall we'll create an underground scene, with things like tree roots and dinosaur bones and stuff like that.  It's going to be a lot of work, but we have a great team of people (we'll also be opening the gardening club up to anyone else in the school who is interested, although we'll be spearheading the project), and I'm excited to help make the school just a bit more beautiful.  Currently, Adrian is composing a proposal to send to the principal to get official approval of our idea, although she already expressed interest earlier and I strongly believe that she'll give us the go ahead.

 My third new activity is more of a summer preview than an entry to my spring lineup, but it's something that I'm too excited about not to mention.  I've been accepted to Shad Valley, which is a pretty prestigious summer program for high school students focusing on the sciences, leadership, business, teamwork, and innovation; I've already gone through an extremely intense application process just to be accepted.  That in itself was a good learning experience, particularly as it is quite similar with what one might expect to see when applying for universities in grade twelve, but the actual Shad Valley program is going to be a thousandfold more extraordinary.  For one, they're big proponents of the IB program, and they particularly cater to the IB core, including, yes, CAS!  As they write on their website:

Through their active participation in the design/entrepreneurship project that’s a key element of Shad Valley, IB diploma students fully satisfy the Creativity and Action aspects of CAS. Through their involvement in this entrepreneurial endeavor, they build their knowledge, skills and understanding; explore the ethical responsibilities that surround innovation; experience the excitement of inquiry and discovery; build confidence in their ability to initiate change, both as an individual and as a member of a team; practice autonomy and self-reliance; and develop a strong appreciation for their own, and others’ talents. Many schools acknowledge participation in Shad Valley as fully satisfying the Creativity and Action requirements; others allocate partial hours. Because CAS focuses on in-depth experiences, the month-long, residential nature of the Shad Valley program makes it strongly aligned in helping satisfy this requirement.

So that's what's on the docket for summer CAS.  I'm going to be gone all of July for Shad Valley, living on campus and engaging in so many cool activities and learning experiences.  I won't know which campus I will be attending until early April, but my A choices were Waterloo, Queen's, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, so I'm hoping to end up with one of those.

That's what to expect from me over the next few months.  I do have a couple of other activities in mind that are either still in the planning stages or are yet to be approved, but for the most part this is what I'll be looking at in terms of CAS as I enter the home stretch of my grade eleven year.  I'm looking forward to continuing with what I'm already doing, starting these new projects, and getting that satisfied yet melancholic feeling of wrapping up a long running activity.  While school is definitely going to be keeping me busy over the next few months, I'll be sure to make time for all these exciting opportunities!

Ringette problems

Over the last few months ringette has been going well, but recently I've hit a stumbling block.  We've been having a lot of practices lately in preparation for Atlantics next week, and that likely will be fine.  I will have to miss one day of school (Friday), which I don't want to do at all, but it's just one day and I'll manage to get caught up.  What worries me is what else is on the horizon:  Nationals.  I had always wanted to just go to Easterns, seeing as Nationals is kind of above our paygrade and we likely won't have as many close games than if we went to Easterns.  But the older girls decided right out the gate that for whatever reason they wanted to go to Nationals, and so that's the way it was.  I didn't like it then, and it's even worse now:  while for Easterns I'd likely only miss two days of school, for Nationals I will have to miss an entire week.  And not just any week: The week of April 2nd -- exam week.  I can't miss six major IB tests; I just can't.  I would have to do them right when I get back, and it would be impossible to study while I was there:  I'd be sharing a room with three of my teammates as we are forced to do to increase 'team bonding' and I'll have no time for myself.  Last time I was at a tournament like this I ended up sitting on the top landing of the hotel's back stairwell to read the novel that was assigned for French class.  Trying to study for six big exams is not going to end well.  So what am I going to do?  I don't want to drop provincial ringette entirely; if I tell my coach that I can't go to Nationals he'll blow his top; I can't even take a third option and drop down to the A team that they created to go to Easterns because of some 'roster rule' that states you can only be on one roster per season, even if you leave the other team.  That's a real bummer for me, as all I ever wanted to do was go to Easterns, and if I had known that they were going to make this team later in the season, I would have held out for it in a heartbeat.  I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here, and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Setting the parameters

Today I reached a streak of 48 days writing on 750 Words, and I have got to say, this second month is much, much harder than the first.  I'm finding it really hard to keep motivated, in part because of my busy schedule, but also because it's quite difficult to keep something going without an end in mind.  My first month was manageable:  I had the tangible goal of writing every day for a month, and along the way I was accomplishing the smaller goals that were rewarded with badges, such as writing for three, five, ten, and thirty days.  Now, however, I've lost those manageable little slices.  The next streak badge is not until I reach one hundred days, and the challenge of writing every day for a month sort of loses its novelty when you already did it the month before.  That's why I think that the reason for my struggle this month is because I lack direction -- I haven't really stated where I'm going with this activity or where my endpoint is -- and I therefore believe that if I decide on that, it will help me be more motivated in reaching that goal.  I need to set the parameters, if you will.

So, what's my plan?  My goal for this activity -- the end product that I'm working towards -- is to write every day for one hundred days, and, while doing this, write a total of a hundred thousand words (so a thousand words, on average, a day).  If when the beginning of April rolls around I end up deciding that I want to renew my deadline and set a new goal, that's fine, but for now, my aim is to keep this up for a hundred days, and continue to improve my writing skills and creativity in the process.  I might be in a bit of a rough patch motivation-wise, but the quality of my writing lately has been higher than usual (which I suppose might explain why I'm beginning to feel a bit inspirationally worn out).  I've been writing a lot of fiction:  a multiple-entry spanning story about a girl coping with the end of the world; the tale of a skier who dies on the mountains; a chronicle of the future told from the perspective of an island, just to name a few.  I've been writing more short stories than I have in years, and it's making me remember why, when I was younger, all I ever wanted to be was a writer.  I have different aspirations now, but I'm really glad that I have this opportunity to get back into fiction writing, because no matter how long I forget about it or for how many years I neglect it, it will always be something I love to do.

Albatross, hamster, and a turquoise horse

Wow.  I cannot believe that I have been writing on 750words every day for the past 34 days.  I have yet to break my streak, and I think that in itself is kind of exceptional.  Doing something every single day is difficult; it's not always easy to put away a twenty-minute or so chunk of time.  Like today, for instance.  I woke up early, went to the university to work on a project, went to work, and I just got home and was supposed to leave again for a party.  But you learn to make time in your daily routine; like now, when I managed to squeeze in my writing between all my other activities.  It is hard to really understand the magnitude of committing to do something everyday until you actually begin, but I don't regret starting this project at all.

Forcing myself to make time for writing has done so many good things for me.  It helps collect my thoughts; it has gotten me into creative writing again; it forces me to reflect on what is going on around me.  Sometimes I spend my entry just whining and complaining.  During the week before exams I used it to help get myself organized with regards to my studying -- I had no idea what I was going to do in what order and was feeling overwhelmed, but by the time my 750 words had been written I felt more relaxed and with a plan in mind.  For the past few days I've written short stories:  today it was about a teenage criminal living in West Vancouver in the year 2028; yesterday it was a tale based on a character from an episode of a television show I had watched; a few days before that it was a psychological thriller about a wall, of all things.  Sometimes I talk about deep stuff like religion or my plans for the future, and sometimes I just ramble on about Jessica's facial expressions while watching Supernatural or talk about today from the perspective of my cat.  I love how individual and diverse this activity is, and I love how it is unlike anything else I have done so far for CAS.  Everything else has been so group oriented:  working to a deadline for newspaper, working as a team for ringette or dodgeball or GISHWHES, organizing a committee for yearbook.  750 Words is just me and my thoughts and the direction my mind takes itself, and forcing myself to make time for this is really helping me in exploring my own motivations.

You may have noticed in the picture up top that I've gotten a few new badges as of late.  The albatross was for writing every day for thirty days, and the turquoise horse was for completing the monthly challenge.  When January began I couldn't really imagine writing every single day; at some point I would be busy or forget and slip up, but thirty one days later I still had not.  Looking at a month from the beginning seems like such a long time -- looking towards the end of February right now seems so far away -- but when you just take it a day at a time, you've reached the end before you even had a chance to blink.  All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to stick to my commitment and complete the January challenge; on average it takes me twenty minutes to write an entry, so that means that I dedicated over ten hours of my January to writing, and I think that is just incredible.  I've signed up for the February challenge, and while typing this here on February 1st I can't imagine reflecting on these words twenty eight days later in either victory or self-disappointment, at some point I will, and I definitely will try my best to make it the former.  The other of my new badges is the hamster, another of which I'm immensely proud.  It rewards the practice of going ten days without a single distraction, and I've been working really hard to type all my entries in one sitting to force myself to keep my thread of consciousness going.  Sometimes it is hard to push through it, but when I log into my 750 Words account and start my entry for the day, I refuse to take a break until it is finished, and I think managing to push through the fog of writer's block is another accomplishment in and of itself.

Suffice to say my 750 Words adventure is going well as I close the chapter of its first month, and I hope that I can keep this streak going for many more days to come.