SAISA Girl's Football.

Goals before the Tournament:
- To get fit.
- To improve my skills - control of the ball, shooting, distance of throw.
- To make the Varsity Team and compete in the SAISA Tournament in Chennai.

Practices
In the lead-up to the SAISA Tournament, we spent 7 hours a week practicing football, raising our fitness levels and our skills. Last year was the first year that I had even played football, and I found that I had a love for it. This year in practices I really pushed myself so that I would have a chance of being chosen for the travelling 16. Throughout the season, we played multiple games, mostly with the Middle School boys, as they were the only team that was readily accessable to us, as there are few girl's football teams in the country. After the travelling team had been chosen, the intensity of the practices increased; everyone could feel it.
However, by the end of the season: I had achieved all of my goals: I got fit, I improved my footballing skills, and I managed to make the Varsity team.

SAISA Tournament - Chennai, India.
This SAISA Tournament was the first athletic tournament that I have ever been in - being a naturally very unathletic person, I was pleased with my achievement that I managed to make the team, yet the emotions of being there and playing in a competition was far from what I had initially expected it to be. I never expected to feel so nervous about a game before. I think that because I was so determined to do well, the emotions that I had of pure nervousness got the better of me. However, we managed to get third place in the tournament, defeating teams that in the past OSC has lost dramatically to, which is an achievement on our part, and shows all our hard work and our team work paid off.

IB ORIENTATION - MAMA AND PAPA HOME.

As our first introduction into Service, we visited the Mama and Papa home in Kalutara, near to where we were having our IB Orientation. We spent a couple of hours playing with the children at the Mama and Papa home - a home for children whose parents could not cope with the responsibility of raising a child, also, many of these kids are differently abled, further adding to the responsibilty that many of these parents would not be able to support. We took art supplies for the home, and so we spent a couple of hours drawing and painting with the children. Seeing that look of happiness on their faces as they are determined to make their paintings a masterpiece. Every stroke of the brush and every line with the pencil, reveals a look of gentle satisfaction on their faces. That we were able to supply them with this and be able to give them the supplies to give them some amusement, even if it would only be for a few hours.
After we finished with the children and the art supplies, we went to the grounds of the other orphanage, where we played with the children. Some of the students in our grade played cricket and basketball with some of the boys. However, I played along with some other of the girls in our grade with some of the younger girls, they wanted to play tag and catch. Although there were a few injuries, I think that we all had a good time playing and running around. It was a lot of fun, and I am glad that we had the chance to do this on our trip.

SGA.

As our first duty as the SGA Executive Committee, Sajiv, Dylan, Ichiro and I decided that we would use the DJ kit that we bought this year for the SGA and learn how to DJ ourselves.

Goals:
Learn how to DJ
"Turn the tables" at the OSC Back to School Mingler, the first OSC event of the year.

There is a parent at the school, Janie Chalmers who was a professional DJ in Thailand, and we asked her if she would help us with this task. When we first came up with the idea, we thought that it would be easy, just put some songs together and play them. However, we quickly learnt that it was much the opposite. As a DJ, you have to know the beats, you have to know the moods of the song that you are playing so that you can decide what to play next; for example, you cannot play Hip Hop and move straight into House, as they are of two very different genres. Also, you have to know which points in the song that you are able to change songs at, whether you slowly go into the next song, or if you have to do a quick changeover.
We spent hours over two weeks practicing for the event, getting our playlist together, making sure that we got our cues right, and that we knew all the songs that we were playing. We each had a set, and we each had a specific genre that we would have to play - Sajiv played the "radio" stuff, the slower music to get the party started, Dylan would play hip-hop, I would play the House/Electronic, and Ichiro would come in whenever we would need him, as he is very good at knowing when he needs to changeover etc, just by looking at the beats, not even really knowing the music.
At the Mingler, we found that our "surprise" to the school was not as well-received as we had hoped. Many people began complaining very quickly about the music, and even more thought that because they knew us they were able to control the music and tell us what to do. Because of all of the complaints, and people demanding that we play the house music, I had to play for much of the night, and much of what we had rehearsed was thrown completely out of the window, and I had to improvise. Another factor that really through us all off was the quality of the sound in the auditorium, and obviously the quality of our music.
Overall, I found something that I loved doing; during the practices, and by the end of the night, I found myself unable to let the headphones go, or remove my fingers from the mixer. I achieved the goals that I set for myself, and I have learnt from this experience.

What I learnt:
That people are never satisfied.
Students at our school like Bob Sinclair.
You need to have more back-up music.
I need more practice at this, and not to panic so much when I am put on the spot.
I love DJing.

School Year 2009 - 2010, Goals.

CREATIVITY
The main source of my creativity hours will be from my two main extra-curricular activities: SGA and MUN.
For SGA, I am part of the executive committee: I am the secretary. Over the next year, our main goal is to make the school a better place for the students. Some of the things that we came up with for this year was to have inter-mural competitions between the different coloured houses, so that the people in the houses would be able to know each other, and this is especially useful for the newer children, so that they get a chance to get to know the people in their school. Also, as we bought a DJ kit for the SGA, we are planning to learn how to use it and so we would be able to DJ at our own OSC events, thereby saving money and making a larger profit on behalf of the students in the long term. SGA will require quite a bit of time, as a lot is expected of us this year to truly make a change in the school; and also to hold the events that we need to to the standard that is expected of us: to make this year's SGA better than ever.
As being part of the Model United Nations organizing committee, it is our job to organize the MUN conference in February for 600 people. We have to get sponsorships so that we would be able to afford the many expenditures that the conference entails. Also, we have to organize everything so everything goes smoothly. As being part of the second committee, we have to come up with the debate topics for both the practice debates and the actual conference.

Other activities that will contribute to Creativity: I am a photographer for Yearbook, and also I after the MUN conference in March during the elective period I will spend this time in yearbook. I have also signed up for both the the Production Team for the Grade 10/11 play in April: "The Crucible", where I will be designing costumes and make-up; and the SAISA Girl's Basketball Event Crew, which we would need to design a logo for and just overall organize the event. We are planning to have a Junior/Senior Prom sometime at the end of the year, and so for this we have come up with an organizing committee, with Grace as the President and me as Vice.


ACTION
My main goal for Action is to try out for both SAISA girl's football and basketball, to improve my skills, and to make the team and compete in the SAISA competition in at least one of these activities. Also, even after the seasons are over, I have to find a way to stay fit, and to have some sort of routine that I would have to stick to.


SERVICE
Thursday's CAS activities. I signed up for the same one that I spent the second semester of last year doing: Hope for Kids Cancer Hospital Service. I enjoy this activity because I find these kids amazing: they are so ill, yet, although they are shy, they are full of smiles. I am determined to give my all to this: to play with the kids whenever we go to the hospital, encourage the children more to come and play. We also have to raise the funds to be able to support the hospital, so we need to find a way to do this.