Service This Year

September 15th, 2014:

My Hope for Kids service group continues to visit the same cancer hospital as we did last year. Although the whole building has been renovated now and does look cleaner and more suitable for the children to play and learn as well. Our group even had to move to a new playroom to meet the kids, which looked much more colorful and was a better learning environment in comparison to last year's playroom.

Last year

This year  

As you can see from the images above, the playroom this year is much brightly lit and has more tables for the children to draw and play board games on. These improved facilities to the hospital were really helpful and made the entire service experience a little more different to me.

Start of DP2 Semester 1

August 27th, 2014:

Creativity: My creativity activity for this semester will be Drawing Club, which is an activity I was in the previous year in DP1. I continued this activity because I really enjoyed it in grade 11, since I felt drawing was a great way to let a person's creative ideas be shown. Drawing club also gives me the chance to work independently as each session I have a blank piece of paper, and I have the freedom to just draw or sketch any visual that comes to mind. This freedom makes me feel comfortable and lets express my creativity in the best way.

Action: SAISA's season 1 starts out with volleyball, which is the action activity I am in. This is actually the second time I'm trying out for the volleyball team as I also tried out last year but didn't make it into the final team. Trying out a second time gives me more experience going into the first couple of sessions as I would know what to expect. Entering into the final volleyball team has also felt less competitive for me as I am now a high school senior and in the oldest age group. So I do hope to make it into the final team this year as there is a more likely chance for me. 

Service: I am continuing with the 'Hope for Kids' activity once again as my service component this semester. I decided to return to this service because I felt I did contribute a great part last year in playing instruments and entertaining the kids at the cancer hospital. This service is also a feel-good activity as making the children happy, made me feel like a better person.     

DP2 Semester 1 Goals

August 12th, 2014

Creativity:

• Have a leadership role in an activity, since I didn't try that opportunity last year 
• Bring in new and creative ideas to the activities I enroll in

Action:

• Be in a SAISA team as I have not experienced it before
• Try out a sports activity that I am unfamiliar to 

Service:

• Have a role in a service activity that I didn't do in the past 

Drawing Club

May 26th, 2014

Creativity: The pictures below are the sketches that I have made so far in drawing club:

Week 1:

Week 2:

Week 3:

Week 4:

I really did find this activity interesting because i found myself being inspired to draw something new in each weekly session we had. As you can see from the sketches, most of my art was inspired from anime shows such as 'Pokemon' and 'Attack on Titan'. I also do feel as if my drawing skills were improving by each session I had. Drawing club is different from the other creativity activities that I've done because with this activity; I can express my emotion and imagination in art. And that...is real creativity.  

Final Quarter of DP1

April 28th, 2014

Creativity: Since I have now finished my performances with the theatre production, my new creativity activity for this final quarter is drawing club. I already feel quite comfortable being in this after school activity because a few of my friends are also taking the activity, so I do feel I'm in a comfortable working environment. 

Action: My new action activity for this quarter is after school 3 on 3 basketball. Basketball is one of my most favorite sports and I actually wanted to try out for SAISA basketball last quarter, but was not able to because it was on the same day of my theatre production rehearsals. So I am pleased to now be able to play basketball as an action activity. 

Service: The 'Hope for Kids' service is now almost ending for this scholastic year, and our group is now planning ahead for one final visit to the cancer hospital for this school year. We will soon be making paper lanterns for the patients at the cancer hospital since the Vesak Poya day is in about 2 weeks. I am in charge of retrieving the stationary (items) our service group needs for the hospital visit.      

The Theatre Production - Final Performances

April 14th, 2014

Creativity: I have now finished my work with the theatre production, 'Yerma' as we had the final performances the week before April break, and it was a great success. I was definitely proud of the job I had done in the production, as I did receive positive comments from various teachers and students after the performance was finished. I was especially relieved to have finally been done with performances, because I believe I have never put as much effort into a production before, as much as I have for this one. I thought that the entire cast did an amazing job and all of the rehearsals we had were worth it, because we all did give quite an entertaining performance in the end. 
Here are some pictures of the final performances:

Three of the main characters having a
conversation. Characters from left to right: Juan (Me)
Yerma (Ixana) and Victor (Yannis) 

The death scene of Juan

Final scene of the play

The final scene between Yerma and Juan

Photo of the full cast

          

Development on the Theatre Production

March 29th, 2014

Creatvity:

The theatre production is now almost in the final stages of wrapping up this whole play and getting everything prepared (lights, costumes, sounds, props, and stage set) for the final performance. I am now at the point of already knowing all the lines for my character, Juan, but I now have to perfect the movements, emotions, and expressions that come with the words. It is a challenging task to complete but I think I will be able to pull it off and be ready for the first performance on the 9th of April. I now have practice rehearsals three times a week, which are on Tuesdays, Friday, and Saturday mornings. These extended practice sessions are what did help me improve my overall acting of Juan much faster. I have now also gotten to know the rest of the cast much better as I barely knew them at first and we are now all collaborating quite well with each other. I am also showing up on time more often as punctuality was actually an issue I had with previous rehearsals. So this increased number of rehearsals per week have also helped me with my organization skills.