-CAS Reflections-

Feeding the homeless:

Starting Amaaris:

SLP Run:

Ambush:

Guitar:

For a long time now, I have put down my guitar. It lay in a dark corner of my room bagged up and
muffled. Silently weeping. I joined the IB program this year and going it I didn’t actually know much
about it. We were briefed on our requirements where I found out that CAS- creativity, activity and
service was another integral part of this journey. I thought back to the days I started learning and
and I immediately knew I wanted to pick it up. Though I might’ve started because of the IB program,
for which I am grateful, I do want to further myself as best I can.

My fingers hurt and this is all too tiring. I forgot the pain involved in starting again. Your fingertips
with which you hold down the frets constantly rub against the metallic coarse strings. My fingertips
are starting to harden again which is good. I’m starting to recollect the older songs I used to be able
to play. I was only professionally taught in the starting years of guitar after which I just used
YouTube or the internet which seems to work for me. I started doing that again.

It’s been a few weeks now and I’m regaining my lost proficiency. Somehow this time around I’m
doing a lot better than better. Maybe it’s cause I’m relearning the guitar and my foundations are
already solid. I can play quite a lot of songs already. This kind of feels good.

I got a chance to perform with my classmates in front of the Cambridge section of the school. My
performance was quite rusty and I’m not really pleased with myself. I could’ve done a lot better.
Things like this make you regret certain decisions. I mean I would’ve been monumentally much
better if I continued learning and never quit. It’s still not too late now. I feel as though I am regaining
that rhythm I had learning previously. Performing with my classmates also taught me values of
collaboration. This little 10 min performance was impossible to do without days of prior practice and
working together.

This is a couple months later. My practice has stagnated a lot. I’ve been so preoccupied with my
social life that I’m neglecting not only guitar but my studies as well. I did practice the past few
months but it’s been a lot more reduced. I hope to bring it back up again.

I’m having random bursts of great motivation to sit and do nothing but make sweet sweet love to
my instrument. Though not the most appropriate visual, it accurately depicts my growing
relationship with this instrument. I started playing again and I find that it helps me cope. IB isn’t
exactly hard. Finding motivation to do well (or do anything), though, is exceptionally tough and
sometimes purposelessness eats away at you. I tend to think too much. There are sides to me I’m
yet to discover but their traits become clear and annoying at times. Especially when I’m down about
something. When I play the guitar, it feels as though these sides all lapse and fall and congregate to
form one single mass of pure peace. That being said, I’m playing a lot more but it’s highly irregular.
I’m having bursts where I play hours on end and times when I don’t touch it for a week sometimes
Well damn. My dog died. Guitar has been beneficial therapy. I made a piece. Mors autem somnio
(death of a dream). I’ll add a snippet of it here later. I got my dog around the same time I started
learning guitar. Personal tragedy does inspire genius.

Boxing:

My brother suggested it as an activity to relieve some aggression and bust stress, something
I needed after losing my dog and best friend of 9 years. I’ve gone a week now and to put it
simply I love it. It’s exhilarating and I’m fond of the idea of violence. In today’s world an
emotion like that really has no place. I’ve found a home to hone my aggression but also
learn an art. I would like to see how far I’ll take this. So far though it’s been hugely helpful in
dealing with grief. I can channel that pain and anger somewhere.

Been a month since I started and I’ve gone everyday religiously for a minimum of one hour.
Sometimes I stay in for 2-3 hours. I find myself liking this activity and I plan to continue it.
For a curriculum like IB it’s hugely recommended. Funny as it may seem in midst of all that
thrashing and punching and chaos my mind gains total clarity. The bag becomes my only
friend and everything else seems blank.

Another month. Progress is good. I’ve started learning advanced techniques. The coach
even started letting me box in the ring which is honestly an extremely unique experience.
The facility has a professional ring we can spar in. It’s fun and exciting and something I never
thought I’d be able to try. Apart from learning new techniques, I’m being properly trained
for my body. It’s painful and I hate every second of it. But I like the idea of me improving.

I haven’t gone in a few weeks. My interest is still definitely there but school started and
exams are coming up so I could only reduce the amount of time I go. After reducing for a
while I kind of stopped for a bit. That break is still continuing. But parts of me are itching to
go back there. I failed to manage time properly and I’m slightly getting lost in my school life.

I started again after which I increased the intensity of my training. It’s much much harder
now. I like this challenge and I like challenging myself in general. I have found that though I
don’t really take school or life too seriously once I’m interested in something, I become
obsessed with it. Like guitar or boxing. But I’m worried this, like my guitar practice, will
suddenly stop one day. It is definitely one of my greatest strengths.

It stopped. I haven’t gone in a few months. But I’m itching to start again. I got a new dog
which got me really busy so I barely had time to even breathe. He’s a nuisance and my
family hates him so it’s hard caring for him. But that itch. It’s starting to become more and
more of a bother. This may be crucial in finding out passions. I rarely itch.
Thermal inversion occurs due to a lack or air movement when a layer of dense cool air is
trapped beneath a layer of less dense or warm air. This causes concentrations of air
pollutants to build up near the ground instead of being dissipated by normal air movements.
Normal condition- normal warm air from a city will rise, allowing pollutants to escape. On
warm days (high temps and low pressure) a hot layer can trap the cooler air from the city
trapping the pollutants.
Rain can clear air pollutants and wind will disperse it.

The global rise of urbanization and industrialization has led to an increase in urban air
pollution.

Teaching underprivileged children:

Project Xerxes:

A monumental pain in the backside. Those six words accurately describe my new dog
Xerxes- king of kings. God knows why I brought him home, I was extremely impulsive and he
was extremely cute. At first he was fine and did puppy things which were annoying but
manageable. But as soon as he got used to us he turned into the devil incarnate (that’s why
we named him Xerxes. He’s the antagonist in a movie called 300). Dealing with him has
been emotionally challenging for not only me but my family as well. My mother isn’t quite
equipped, mentally, to have another dog. It was selfish of me to disregard everyone else
and get him home that impulsively and though I think back sometimes and also regret
sometimes, I wouldn’t have done it any differently if I had the chance to go back. My gut
speaks and I do as it bids. Which isn’t all that bad, it was my gut that got me into the IB
program. Through all his failings as a normal dog though, I sometimes see myself in him. If
you think about it me and my dog are quite alike. Even with all his inadequacies he manages
to make me happy and that is enough for me.

He’s a smart dog I’ve come to realize. Since I got him my intake of dog training videos has
quintupled. He really is smart and he listens when he has to but he’s just extremely
mischievous and gets a kick out of destroying the house and slowly but surely our lives. But
it’s a process and I understand that. Xerxes is teaching me a lot about myself. I lose my
temper too quickly. And teaching and raising him is slowly teaching me patience and a trunk
full of other useful skills I won’t like using.