CAS 2017

Dancing is one of my hobbies and always been passionate about this activity as it is a stress buster for me. I have always wanted to join dance classes to learn new dance forms, however Hip-Hop is the dance form that I am more passionate about and loved doing it but never got a chance to learn this dance form from an expert. So I joined Dance Classes in my school. We leant 2 dance forms Hip-Hop and Contemporary.   Attending these dance sessions have always made me feel fresh and made me feel more energetic. I managed attending the dance classes for 2 days a week for more than 3 months with my regular school. These dance classes have helped me in many ways like developing new skills and improve my previous dancing skills.

Learning Hip-Hop and a new dance form Contemporary has improved my body posture, also helped me get control over my body while dancing and by attending these dance sessions my body has also become more flexible.  By joining the dance sessions I have started enjoying dance more than ever and now I can feel the intensity of these dance forms. By learning these dance forms I have also improved my stamina because dancing continuously requires a lot of stamina and especially dances like hip-hop need a lot of stamina because it is a very energetic dance.

In theses dance sessions I also learnt a new dance form Contemporary which helped me to get more balance and focused. I didn’t like Contemporary just because I thought it was a very boring dance form. However after learning this dance form I loved it because it helped to get more balance and focused. As this was my first time, learning this dance form was a very big challenge because this dance form is quite hard, but after learning this dance form I felt very energetic and flexible.

We performed our dance in “Kalakriti” which was an Arts event were we students performed on stage in front of our parents. As this was a stage performance in front of such a huge audience it needed true commitment and dedication. Sometimes during the practice we were supposed to come early to the school and we did that. This is where I was committed towards the activity that I was doing. To have a great performance we had to cooperate with each other to have a synchronized dance performance as we had a group of around 13-15 students, and this helped me in interacting with students from different grades which improved my communication skills.

Dancing one of the mediums through which I can express myself when I am out of words and I have become more expressive due to dancing.  Dancing gives me extreme happiness and immense pleasure, every time I dance I get to know a new side of me and dancing has brought grace in my moves and clarity in my steps.

 

 

I was selected for an U-16 Inter-State Gujarat Football Tournament which was held in Olive Green International School Ahmedabad. I was feeling very enthusiastic and was looking forward for the tournament. As it was a long time since we played as a team in a tournament, we lacked coordination. I was self-assured that I would perform to my best ability, however, as football is a team game it is necessary for all the teammates to have practiced together instead of each being   

 

We played our first match against Podar International School who were last year’s champions of this tournament.The pressure was at its peak because our match was the opening match and for the first time I got an opportunity to be the Vice Captain of the team. We(captain, coach and I)  had a difficulty deciding the lineup for the game. The difficulty was mainly because all of us had contradicting views  and consumed a lot of time, however after a long discussion we came up with the starting lineup. I learnt to accept differences and others point of view which i wouldn’t have learnt if i would not have participated in this championship.  

 

We lost the match 3-0, however, I was satisfied with my performance throughout the game.  However I was quite happy with my and the whole team’s performance. We had several attempts at scoring goals but missed by mere inches.  Coordination and communication seemed to be the major reasons for us to lose this match. I think that I gave my 100% in the whole game, I was making many passes and was playing in the whole ground however I feel I was able to execute all the techniques that I had practised effectively before the match, nonetheless, I was able to identify mistakes and where to improve (long passes and heading in defence).  We lost our first match. However, even before the match had begun, we were aware of their strengths and knew they had a greater chance at winning, but still we didn’t show that and planned on showing the best that we had.

 

Through all this, I have experienced playing against a strong team, accepting failure and managing a team. Managing a team isn’t easy when you are also a part of that same team, many issues rise up as this was my first time. This tournament gave me an insight into how you can manage and collaborate equally with teammates.  Also a new thing that i leant was working collaboratively with my team mates. 

 

The Government of India had initiated to build an artificial forest which was named “Janki Van” and we had to plant saplings in that area. We started our journey at 7 in the morning and left the city by school bus. We reached the place of plantation at around 10.30 AM and started to work after a short tour of the whole project.  

It was the first time I was planting saplings and found that it is not as simple as it seems. Planting saplings was quite difficult and I had to get out of my comfort zone to do so. I thought it would be really fun and easy, but no it wasn’t. We had to dig in some places and sow the plant there. We also had to carry the plants from one place to another which was a bit tiring. As I did this activity first time in my life, it was completely uncomfortable for me to plant the saplings. Putting all dirty, wet, soiled saplings under the ground and then cover it with sand was quite unhygienic and awkward for me.

I thought this activity might be boring however it wasn’t. I quite enjoyed it. The reason behind my participation in this activity was to expose myself to a different subject; which was the plantation. My aim of going to the trip was to gain knowledge the way farmers work, what are the processes they use to plant the saplings, do they use pesticides or chemical fertilizers etc. This helped me to explore an agricultural aspect. I learned many things about myself after doing this activity including my strengths and weakness and where I need to improve. The strength I noticed about me was endurance; I worked for 5 hours without much tiredness. As I mentioned earlier,for  this activity i had to step out of my comfort zone which  became a great weakness of mine while doing the activity. However, I felt good, after doing this activity I would like to be more open-minded towards different things and conditions.

Without collaboration, we could not do this activity. Our coordination helped us to plant nearly 100 plants, It was a great pleasure after doing so. I was the person who had never planted one tree in my whole life and suddenly planting these many trees was an honor itself. So therefore YES, this was a successful activity.

 

We travelled to a beautiful place called Naggar which was located near Himalayas. This was your first CAS trip. The place where we stayed did had numerous stories of ancient times. The beauty of snow in Manali added up the enthusiasm and fun we had. However the thing which terrified me before the trip was the cold weather. Although after going there, chillness didn’t bother me that much, thus I could do activities with a lot of ease.

 

We did explore different ancient temples and paintings which made us know about the existence of creativity in those times. While this trip I could identify a strength of mine that I could easily trek for 2-3 hours without any hesitation which really helped me on this trip. However, the only weakness which I faced in the trip was laziness, at morning while waking, restricted me to be on time for distinct activities. It is a great frailty on which I need to work upon in order to use time effectively. Waking late restricted me to be on time for distinct activities. It is a great frailty on which I need to work upon in order to use time effectively. Skiing was one of the greatest challenges for all of us. Skiing was something we don’t do customarily and personally I never did skiing so this was a new activity for me. However, the expertise provided by them made me and my friends do a very good job in skiing which made this trip more interesting and adventurous.

We were 30 people travelling together, we needed to make sure that we needed to work with a lot of coordination and without any conflicts among us. Keeping this in mind, we coordinated and adjusted with each other while travelling by bus and train, while choosing rooms for staying, trekking etc which really helped all of us to stay peacefully. Furthermore, the main focus for me of this trip was to enjoy the nature and treks. So it was compulsory to stay away from gadgets and, therefore, our school didn’t allow us to bring any type of gadgets especially, mobiles. So I didn’t bring a mobile phone and enjoyed the beauty of nature. Additionally, I also did not throw any type of  garbage on the road in the whole trip which helped me to save the nature. I could also get an opportunity to know local people of Naggar and their lifestyles which helped me in developing my communication skills.  Overall, this trip was a great success because due to this activity I could identify my numerous strengths and some weaknesses to work upon.