amalscas

[amalscas]

Creative - Ongoing Wooden structure

From the beginning of Year 13, I have started on a wooden project as a way for me to relax while also being productive and creating something. Despite this, the wooden building is still ongoing and this is because there is barely anything relaxing about this creative activity. For one, the wooden pieces were not cut out properly and so whenever I had to take out a piece, I had to really drill my nails into the lines in order for the piece to pop out. Secondly, the instruction manual was one of the hardest things to read ever. Instructions were not visual, but rather gave numbers on each of the pieces, and with the numbers you had to locate which piece slotted in where. This was extremely difficult to do so because there must have been numbers of up to 300, and many of the pieces looked similar but then were actually different pieces. Additionally, the pieces did not slot in perfectly. Multiple times, the slots were too big and therefore the wooden pieces would have lots of room to just wiggle around, causing the structure to fall down. If one wooden piece fell down, they all fell down. This made it difficult as I had to make sure each and every wooden piece was secure, no matter how small they were. Despite these difficulties, I worked my way through this wooden structure, and although it is not finished yet, I am proud to say that I have been able to make it this far, as well as have it stand up.

[amalscas]

Activity - House Dodgeball

The last house sport for term 1 was house dodgeball. Because this term was so hectic, it was very difficult to get a large number of people to come and participate but we were able to make do with the people that did come. I admit that I was really tired to play our best, and there were so many instances where if I was to just jump or step to the left it could have caused an impact with how our matches turned out. However, I was also sure to not push myself as I was physically as well as mentally tired, and by house dodgeball being the second last day of the term I was ready to just take my well deserved break. With the disappointing ranking of house dodgeball, I was determined to improve my physical fitness through the holidays.

[amalscas]

Activity - House Basketball

House basketball this year was quite a rough patch in comparison to last year’s house basketball. I have the least experience in this house sport, and this was reflected in the way I played poorly during matches. Due to many people getting injured, we had little subs and therefore I was forced to play many matches. I have felt disappointed in my performance during this game, and I knew that it had let the team down as we ranked really low in the end. However, despite our poor performance we still kept our spirits up and played to the best of our abilities. I am aware that one of my goals is to be more physically fit, and this house sport made me acknowledge that perhaps I should take some time off of my busy IB schedule and start progressing further into this goal.

[amalscas]

Service - Helping out at Fun w Science CCA (August - December 2020)

Today marked the last day of helping out in the Year 5-6 Fun with Science CCA. Since Borneo Project ended, I actively tried to find more opportunities where I can help out, and since I never tried the service opportunities in school I decided to help out in Fun with Science. Since I do consider myself a science person, I thought that just helping out in a lab would be easy. Not only that, but I felt that I was able to improve and sharpen my leadership skills through helping out as I felt that at times I was awkward in attempting conversations with younger years, and therefore by joining this and given the time to converse with the year 5 and year 6′s, I would be able to improve.

I had to help out every Tuesday, and the activities each week would be different: such as slime, holograms, burning paper as well as smores. What I learnt from this CCA is the ability to communicate with people from a different age. As I am planning to pursue a healthcare profession, this is a vital feature, and I thought that I was lacking in it beforehand. By meeting up with the same group of kids every week, they were able to slowly open up to me, and I felt that progress was made in terms of being able to talk to younger years. Not only that, but I was not the only one who volunteered and there was also a year 10 with me. Since we spent most of the times simply looking over the kids’ shoulders and helped them when they asked for help, I was also able to improve my communication skills with the other volunteer. I also felt that I have improved my communication skills with and age range older than me as the teacher who ran the CCA was very open and friendly, and have actually helped me build confidence to talk to teachers. Now, because of the communication I had with the CCA teacher, I do not fear going up to my teachers and striking a conversation about classwork or an assignment. Overall, I believe that my communication skills have improved immensely from volunteering, and from this I am able to carry my skills forward in life.

[amalscas]

Creative / Service - House Social

As a deputy house captain, I helped plan and organize socials during the year in order for the girls in my house to be more integrated while also having fun. The house council agreed that having a baking session where they made pizza, and then afterwards just chilling in a room with board games was a good first social to have. During the social, one problem we had to overcome was that not everyone was open to mingling with people that they are not close with. To overcome this issue, the year 13′s and I made sure we had them mingle by playing card games with the younger years, and then ending the social with a Just Dance that everyone had to participate in. Overall, I believe that the planning that went behind this was well thought out and in the end, everyone went home feeling joy.

[amalscas]

Creative - Another miniature painting

With it being close to the Malay B exams, I found that it was time for me to set aside and make some time for some creative relaxation. This resulted in the painting above to be produced, which honestly is my proudest painting yet. The simplicity of the solid colors really show how my patience have really improved since the previous paintings, and the painting looks the cleanest out of all the other paintings I have done. Overall, this has really made me happy and boosted my mood to do well for the Mlalay exam, despite having no correlation whatsoever.

[amalscas]

Activity - House Football

Me looking fabulous blurred

Once again, it is the long awaited house sport: house football.

My spirits were really high in this one, and I was determined to try my hardest as we lost very valuable football players this year. One of the things that did not change from last year is my effort in football. I still did not do any football outside of house football, and I felt that this will bring difficulties for me as I will not be as experienced as other players. However, all doubt was erased from my head when I was able to score a goal for our first match: from then on, my determination and drive was at a constant high. Although I did get tired at times and did not play up to the ability I knew I could play up to, I was content with how determined I was in really helping my team achieve victory.

Sadly, we did not get 1st place, but rather 2nd place. Despite this loss of the winning streak, I felt so much more confident out in the field than last year, thus I consider this a win.

[amalscas]

Creative / Service - Popcorn Selling on Peace day

One big goal that the house council had agreed upon is an increase in fundraising events, and this was encouraged by the housemasters because we were raising money for the charity Bugtaw, which was created by a previous student who was in the house.

At first, the house council had to plan on what to sell in our stall for Peace day. The problem that arose from this was the same problem when planning for the first day of school, and this was that too many ideas were being thrown out without much thought into them. Again, to overcome this problem we held a meeting with only the House captains and deputies to find the most realistic ideas and solidify them. However, another problem that we encountered was supervision of the stall. Since the selling is during a lunch time, no one would want to sell because they want to buy from other vendors. Because of this, we had to step up and take big shifts while we encouraged other Year 13′s to also come help sell by sending out a form and having them fill in what time they are able to supervise the stall.

On the day of the selling, one problem that arose was that I had no idea how to use the popcorn machine. There were many things to look out for, such as making sure there is enough golden syrup as well as the lid of the popping machine, and it was hard to grasp the machine at first. However, gradually I was able to understand how to work the thing and afterwards was able to fill it up with minimal help. From this experience, I was able to learn the importance of having multiple people helping out because some had to cater to the people buying whereas others had to be preparing the popcorn in bags, and this can get quite difficult if there isn’t enough people at the stall. The form that we sent out for people to fill in when they can help sell was really useful in minimizing this problem as it ensured that there will be at least 3 people at the stall at once for any given time. Overall, I believe the execution of the sale was great, and we were able to create well over $100.

[amalscas]

Activity - House Frisbee

With a new academic year meant that the house sports will repeat once again. The fortunate thing about having done this house sport before and having reflected on it before, I am able to compare the experiences I had in the previous house frisbee with this year’s house frisbee, and I am able to see where there has been improvements and where can I continue to progress.

One issue that I said the last time we had house frisbee was that there were a lot of people who joined, and although this year it wasn’t as much as last year’s there were still a lot. Although it may not have felt blatantly obvious, I do believe that I have improved from last year as during our practice sessions which was held a week before house frisbee, I felt confident in my throwing and catching a disc, and I made sure to offer guidance whenever they asked for such.

Being a senior now, I find myself in a much more supportive position in which I found myself stepping out and playing on the field when no one else wanted to play, and I made sure to cheer a lot for my teammates. I also found myself leading as during the practice session I made sure that teams were organized in order for games to be held, and I helped encourage the Whistler girls to play to the best of their ability. I felt really happy with how I’ve been fulfilling my role as a Deputy House Captain so far and I hope that I am able to keep this supportive role up in the future.

[amalscas]

Creative - Activities in Day One

With the role of Deputy House Captain, the house council and I had to meet up multiple times before the start of school in order to organize the activities that will take place on the first day of school. This was a big deal to me as this was my first time being in a council which overlooks so many people, and I need to ensure that the people will be satisfied with what we offer for them on the first day.

On the first time we met together, so many ideas were thrown around by so many people. It was very hard to ground few ideas down as so many people had so many creative ideas that they expressed in the meeting. To overcome this problem, a next meeting was held with only the House captain and Deputies where we looked at all the ideas that were put forward, see which ones are more realistic to do and modified them to make them able to successfully run on the first day. We then made sure to organize the year 13′s into specific activities and filled them in on what they had to do and how they should lead the activities. From these meetings, I was able to fully understand my role in teams - I am someone who is not so outspoken, but I make sure to solidify and modify ideas brought forward to ensure that they will be executed as best as possible. With this knowledge now, I am able to realize that although I am striving to be more of a leader, sometimes a person who just makes sure the group is on track and ideas are grounded are more valuable than just a leader.

During the first day of school, I was a runner rather than situated in one activity. In the photo, you can see that I am checking my phone to ensure that each leaders in the activities are satisfied and do not run into any problems. By being a runner, I was able to overlook each and every activity, and made sure that the house members were well behaved in the activities. There were instances where I caught them cheating in the activities, to which I sprayed them with a water gun. Overall, I think that the execution of Day One went well as we planned it thoroughly and had runners to ensure that it was running smoothly. For this event to be the first one planned, I believe that the house council works well together and with this, this ensures that other events that we have to plan will also execute nicely.

[amalscas]

Service - Borneo Project Final Reflection (August 2019 - July 2020)

With the end of the school academic year for 2019-2020, also comes the end of Borneo Project. The events that I had to sell in for Borneo Project actually extended beyond just the WhisGus movie night, but due to the the repetitiveness of what I did in each event as well as how short it passed, I figured that it would be much more reasonable to combine it into one big final reflection.

This service really allowed me to understand the importance of good teamwork - I believe that my committee really did understand each other and played to each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to have the best execution of sales. We were given specific tasks that we did every time we had to sell, and this allowed no problems to come in between us. When problems did occur, and more people came to volunteer and help out our committee, that’s when the importance of teamwork really shined because it was obvious that these new people were not understandable of each and every one in the committee and rather wanted to do their own things instead of communicating with the team. When problems such as this occurred, my initial committee made sure that these new people who joined knew exactly what they had to do by informing them of what roles they had to help out in. Good communication is essential, and I am confident that I would be able to excel in that area when it comes to being in groups in the future.

As this is a service, the point of doing Borneo Project is that you get to travel to Sabah and start building infrastructure in rural villages with the materials from the money that we raised. I was looking forward to this trip as I would be able to see first-handedly the impact that I have caused in the community. Unfortunately, with the rise of COVID-19 the trip had to be cancelled, and this abrupt stop in Borneo Project has left me a desire to want to help others further. In conclusion, Borneo Project has not only allowed me to sharpen my skills of working in a team, but it has also made me more grateful of the environment that I am in, and hoping that I get more opportunities to help the wider community as much as I can.

[amalscas]

Creative - Miniature Paintings

To pass time during this holiday, I had purchased some miniature canvases in hopes to paint something on them. Looking at these paintings, they don’t look very Picasso if I say so myself, but I am still proud of them nonetheless. Patience is still an issue that I am attempting to improve on, and you can see where I did not have much patience in the second painting where the background has different shades even though the sky was supposed to just be blue. I really did want them to come out looking professionally made, but now looking at them I do think that these sketchy painting style that I created in these three paintings are nice and just show that I put the effort into making them look nice, and this resulted in them looking nice.

[amalscas]

Activity - Running at Tasek Lama

Finally, after quite some time, I was brought out to do some running. Looking back, it was super refreshing to be able to go out and see nature. Not only that, but I believe that because of this refresh, I actually ran really great compared for someone who hasn’t ran in a long time. I felt as though I was always running constantly, and I was super stoked to be able to go out once more and run again. Not only that, but I also completed a small hike at this beautiful place, and I cannot wait to be able to partake in more physical activity.

[amalscas]

Creative - Jellyfish chalk painting

After quite a while, I finally found the time to get painting. This whole COVID situation has made it really difficult for me to take some time off for myself and really work on creative activities. However, once I did find the time I decided to go beyond just painting, and even add chalk art on top of it. By doing so, I get to practice my patience as I had to wait for the paint to dry before applying any of the chalk art on top of it. Despite the difficulty of being patient, I do believe that I have improved from last time, and although it may not really look like an improvement, by using more tools in the painting I felt more confident in doing more paintings in the future.

[amalscas]

Activity - Just Dance workout

As things were difficult with virtual learning as well as spending hours at school to complete the EE, finding time to exercise became extremely difficult. Not only that, but my motivation to do so was also extremely low. As an attempt to overcome this problem, I decided to gamify my exercise, and I achieved this by playing Just Dance with my little sister who was also experiencing the same thing due to virtual school. Just Dance, although considered quit an easy exercise, was difficult to do because of my lack of physical activity. Despite this, I tried my hardest to do the dances as best as possible in order to exercise. Although my moves were sloppy at times, I really did feel energized to continue doing more exercise during this rough time

[amalscas]

Activity - Running at Armada

After not having a lot of sunlight due to staying indoors and staying safe, I decided to run around at my sister’s complex at Armada. It was such a good fresh of air after a long time of having any, and I played with her parrot which is biting into my shoe in the picture.

After not running in a long time, this felt like my best run yet. For once, I ran around the whole complex without stopping which I felt super accomplished about. Not only that, but I also went for another round because I was super hyped up for being able to run a lap without stopping. Everything in the run felt perfect, from the music to my motivation to run, and I felt super good after the run.

For being indoors for a long period of time, I was really happy with how this run turned out and I hope that I am able to get more opportunities to run outdoors and continue to push my ability of being able to run faster and for longer periods of time.

[amalscas]

Creative - Painted clay bowl

Through my journey of painting, I’ve painted on paper and a canvas. However, this time around I wanted to switch up what I paint on and instead paint on a clay bowl that I would create.

Creating the shape of the bowl was very challenging for me. I wanted to create a bowl that was used to hold rings and I did not know how high I needed the bowl. I did not want it to look too high as if it was a noodle bowl, and it did not want it to look too low to make it look like a plate. Not only that, but the design I was trying to paint as well posed as a challenge for me too. I watched a video on how someone created the design and it looked so simple to make the stars. However, I kept messing up and I had to keep on painting the blue paint over the stars because they were turning out very ugly. As you can also see, I wanted to paint the rim of the bowl with a solid silver layer, but instead it looks very messy and not solid at all. Lastly, I did not have a sealer to cover the paint. This meant that water touching it will not only remove the paint, but also modify the shape of the clay as the clay will break up or possibly even crack when water comes to contact with it. Using clay was my first time and it was very challenging to model it and paint on it.

After the results were created, I was not very impressed by it but I was happy that there was at least a functional bowl at the end of the process. For now, I not only have a bowl to store my rings but I also made the bowl and I know for sure where the bowl came from.