Closing time

Well, here we are.  My blogging has been less-than-meticulous lately, but that's mostly due to a lack of new activities.  My schedule has been packed with all the old favourites that I've started and continued over these last two years, but you reach a point in each where there's not always something new and exciting to say.  I gave a pretty thorough status update in my January reflection video, but before I complete my final CAS reflection I'd like to bring this blog up to date on the new developments that I've faced over the last few months in each of my activities.

Yearbook:  Picture-taking and page editing, ahoy!

The struggles Jess and I are facing this year are the same as I've written about in the past, and with all that experience behind us we're much better equipped to deal with these hardships.  I needed dodgeball results from the student council, and so I buckled down and devoted myself to trying to get them; when they couldn't be found, I made the page work without them.  Drama is a waste of time and energy; that's what I've learnt most through yearbook.  Dig in and get things done instead of becoming overwhelmed by the task ahead; the results will be worth your effort.

Newspaper:  Another month, another issue.
 

The romance edition was published on Valentine's Day, and we're planning a grab-bag final issue to be released at the start of June.  If yearbook has taught me about the importance of hard work, I think what I've learned most through newspaper is the point where one should put perfectionism aside and just go with it.  Yes, my buttons are going to be pushed when the last line of an article get cuts off and yes, a sentence shouldn't be ended with a preposition, but it's important that one does not focus so hard on the trees that they can't see the forest.  It's important to work hard and do your best, but you'll never be content if you accept nothing less than perfection.  Our effort has created a newspaper of which I'm proud to have been a part, and that there is the forest.

Junior Achievement:  Business plan and the home stretch.

There's only a week or so left for Dechameleon, although I'd say it's a busy week ahead.  We've planned a 50%-off closing sale that has generated quite a bit of interest, so if we're lucky, this business will end with a bang, not a whimper.  Junior Achievement was the last CAS activity that I initiated, and I think that it really exemplifies how far I've come over these last two years.  We faced a lot of hurdles - troubles with the marketing department, company members resigning until only three of us remained, cancellations of selling events and production delays, sales difficulties, pretty much every problem conceivable.  In retrospect, I faced more challenges with JA then with any other of my CAS activities, except perhaps the great undertaking that is yearbook.  But I've blogged about Junior Achievement the least, because in the times of these hardships, I don't feel overwhelmed or like they're immense obstacles.  Through CAS I've expanded my horizons and my capabilities.  New challenges?  Bring them on!

I think those three are the main updates I wanted to write before I post my CAS conclusion.  This entire blog is evidence of my growth over the CAS program, but the following entries in particular are those that I think best exemplify the eight CAS learning outcomes:

1.  Increased their awareness of their own strengths and area for growth
Evidence:  Confessions of a seriously out of shape teenager (Write-up, October 8, 2012)

2.  Undertaken new challenges
Evidence:   Letters to the editor (Article/write-up, November 8, 2013)
The eleventh hour (Write-up/pictures, July 23, 2013)

3.  Planned and initiated activities
Evidence:  It's not easy being in charge (Write-up, October 29, 2012)
The end of an era (Write-up/pictures/audio, May 26, 2013)

4.  Worked collaboratively with others
Evidence:  IB victorious (Write-up, December 6, 2012)

5.  Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
Evidence:  A greener garden (Write-up/pictures, October 18 2013)
21 - 44 (Write-up/pictures, June 29, 2013)

6.  Engaged in issues of global importance
Evidence:  The road so far (Opening speech for Model UN, May 2, 2013)

7.  Considered the ethical implications of their actions
Evidence:  A trip down memory lane, 13:00 - 15:58 (Video reflection, January 29, 2014)

8.  Developed new skills
Evidence:  Easy as E, F, G (Video, August 19, 2013)

While I hadn't necessarily known it when I began my yearbook journey (Happy new yearbook, October 23, 2012), it quickly became a huge part of my high school experience, a two-year endeavour that I have no difficulty calling my major CAS project.  All my posts about this activity can be found using the yearbook search label.

It's so strange to find that my CAS experience is winding down.  I'm beginning to start new projects outside of the framework of CAS -- a literature blog with a one-hundred-book challenge for 2014, a physics enrichment class, a position writing for a Canada-wide student issues site -- and it's odd to not have a yellow sheet to sign or a reflection to write.  Before I started IB, I hadn't thought CAS would affect me much.  I was already the girl involved in way too many extracurriculars; I didn't need a push to get involved.  But over these two years I've found that CAS is so much more than just doing things.  It's about reflecting on what you've done, and using those reflections to improve how you see the world and find solutions in the future.

I might not have any "I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for CAS" memories, but this blog is full of things I wouldn't have realized if it wasn't for CAS.  We learn by doing, but we learn more by reflecting on what we've done.  If I had to choose, I'd say that's the most important lesson I've learned through Creativity, Action, and Service.

A trip down memory lane

After extended, theory of knowledge, and works in translation essays, who has fingers left to type a CAS reflection?  And thus, an idea I stole from Jessica:  reflection à la video.  Although I did start to lose my voice towards the end, so perhaps that's karmic retribution for my attempt to save my fingers from further hardship.

I may have been shirking my blogging duties, but I think this video does a pretty good job summing up this past summer/autumn/winter and my CAS experience over that time.  In case I said it a bit quickly, the url for my Junior Achievement website is crhsja.wix.com/dechameleon.  If you decide to check it out, you'll get to see the adorable logo I mentioned.  Tempting, no?

Letters to the editor

While I'm still writing for the newspaper this year, I'm also stepping up in the literary world:  not only am I a contributor, but I'm also an editor.  The first issue of For the Love of Reading came out last month, and I edited every article.  To date I've only found one typo that escaped me for the entire eight pages of text, so I guess that can be considered a success.  The newspaper has been getting a lot of compliments this year, so it's nice to think that I've played some part in its good grammar, spelling, and syntax.

My article about Scrivener, a writing program

Year-end yearbook

I've been extremely busy lately (most recently with my year-end exams, and the week prior I was away in Ontario attending an invitational math seminar) but CAS waits for no man (or girl).  Today marked our last exam, with all the rest of the school having finished yesterday or earlier, and now that school is out of the way, our final yearbook deadlines are fast approaching.  The signature pages were delivered last week, but the book itself still has a lot of work to be done on its pages, especially with regards to recent or upcoming events like Prom and Graduation.  So, even though school is over, I'll be heading back there Friday morning to work on finishing the book along with Jessica, Adrian, and Mr. Toms.  Despite the work ahead, I think things are going along well.  We have pretty much all the pictures we'll need, save for grad, at least to the best of my knowledge, and I think the final product is within our reach.  That said, I don't know if Jess and I are going to be able to take on this commitment again next year.  So many pictures and so much work needs to be done towards the end of the year at the time we'll be writing IB exams, and so we may need to pass on the bulk of the responsibility to another set of grade eleven students.  Additionally, we've been invited to take the role of editors on the school newspaper this coming year, which while being a large commitment for most of the year would allow us to finish prior to exams.  A step down from one commitment and a step up in another might be a good swap for us; the timing fits better, and it lets us try our hand at a different skill set.  Still, nothing is set in stone, and I guess it will all depend on what next September brings.

That's a wrap

Since the school paper is run predominately by the Grade 12 IBs who just graduated, the last issue of the year came out this month.  I wrote a piece on upcoming events at the public library, and the issue prior I reviewed Beth Revis's Shades of Earth.  I'll definitely be returning to write for the paper again in the fall, and Jessica and I have been invited to take over as editors.  I kind of want to accept, although I'm also conscious of our other responsibilities, and I want to be careful not to bite off more than I can chew.  I guess it will all depend on what extent we choose to be involved with the yearbook committee next year.  The librarian, Ms. King, did express interest in reverting the newspaper to a literary paper as it was two years ago instead of the all-encompassing work that it has been this year.  A literary paper has a special niche market as there are none others like it locally, and apparently many different institutions wanted copies, something that stopped when it began covering school events.  Jess and I have been writing solely for the literary portion of the paper all the way along, so I would say if we did take on an editorial role, that would likely be the path we would take.  I think it is something I want to do, but I guess I'll just have to play it by ear and see what the state of affairs looks like in September.

Hot off the press (well, lukewarm)

It's been a while since my last update on the newspaper front, and that means two issues of the Rural Reader have come and gone.  In November I was responsible for writing a review of Reached, the final book in a series that I've been a fan of since the first installment hit shelves back in 2010.  The novel was released right during exam time and my article was due immediately afterwards, so I was under a bit of a time crunch to get it read and reviewed, but it proved to be a good diversion and provided me with a welcome break from studying.  In December I interviewed Ms. Riggs, asking her questions about what she's read, is currently reading, and will read.  It was a less labour-intensive article on my part, but our deadline in December was rather short-notice due to us wanting to have the paper released before Christmas break, and I felt like it was a nice change of pace from the types of articles I'd done in the past.  This month I'm getting back into the reviewing game; actually, it'll be a quite similar situation to back in November.  I'm writing a review on Shades of Earth, the final novel in Beth Revis's Across the Universe trilogy (another series I started reading when the first book was released two years ago), and I'm going to be in the same boat this time:  the novel comes out tomorrow, and my article is due this Friday, so I'll be pressed for time to get it read and reviewed while keeping up on my schoolwork and the upcoming exams.  Still, I've been a little slacking on the reading front as of late, so it'll be good to back into the literary swing of things.

My name in print

This is a little bit late, but I've been having some scanner trouble and I wasn't able to upload the pictures.  Anyway, a few weeks ago the first issue of the newspaper was released, and both my articles made it to print!

For the next issue I'm doing a book review on Reached, which, as you can see above, is released on November 13.  It's during exam time and I'll only have a few days to read the book and write my review before the deadline, but I'm sure I'll be able to make everything turn out a-okay!

So it begins...

I wrote my two articles for the school paper today!  By some rarity all I had for homework was a sole math problem, so I had lots of time to work on the two 300-word pieces.  I'm glad I had this luxury of time, because they took so much longer than I'd expected.  One was on the subject of teen books to be released in the near future, and it was considerably time consuming to research, since writing solely on the books I knew are coming out soon would probably give the article an extreme slant towards the realms of dystopian fiction and fantasy (with just a dash of pop physics).  The research was actually quite a plus, all things considered, as I've found quite a few books that I hadn't heard of prior to this point that seem right up my alley.  Still, it was a massive time sink for a measly 300 words (well, 303 to be precise), especially since I had already written the first half of the article last night.  The other was on the fall lineup of comedy shows, with short reviews on the premieres of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, and then a few lines on other upcoming sitcom dates.  To review those of course necessitated rewatching the episodes, and then finding upcoming shows required still more research, as again I didn't want to have the shows mentioned completely slanted towards the ones I prefer.  Suffice to say, writing a total of 602 words (as the TV article ended up totaling 299) consumed pretty much my entire evening.  Nevertheless, it did feel rather satisfying to complete the small projects, and hopefully with a bit more practice and proficiency these articles will start to come more naturally.