SGA SPIRIT:)

I'm leaving on SAISA Basketball tomorrow so for SGA we made the decision to try and raise spirit during this week before the SAISA athletes left. On Monday we had a day of small games including Ring Toss, Can Knock Out, Ping Pong Ball Toss, Goals and Free Throw. Everyone who participated earned a point for their particular house and if they did well in the game they won a piece of candy. We used the candy that we bought from Halloween as we've already spent the money on it and must use it up before 2012 as many of the bags expire in early 2012. These games were a planned and initiated activity, it took a lot of work to collaborate with the whole SGA to ensure that we were prepared for this day. We faced a few challenges along the way, like the fact that all the balloons I'd bought for the Water Balloon Toss were stolen and we were unable to do this game. On the whole it was a very successful event and I'm quite pleased with it. We undertook a new challenge in doing these games and I'm so glad we did because not only did the younger kids get into it but many of the older kids came out and participated which was great. This type of thing has never really been done at OSC before and I think it should be done more often, if I was here next semester I'd definitely do it again and I'm sure Sorrel, Roger, Nadeera and Keisha will do it again.

Today we undertook another new challenge by holding a Pep Rally during lunch. It did not go very well. We were incredibly disorganized in the beginning, nobody knew who was speaking. It was slow and nobody was cheering, it was not how a Pep Rally is supposed to be like. The Pep Rallies in my old school were much more effective, people had more SPIRIT there in general. It was embarrassing how badly it went. In the end we played four way tug of war, the boys split up into two teams, the girls played on one side and the coaches played on another. That was fun and would have been better had people been cheering and egging us on. I think two of the major problems were that not enough people showed up, in my old school it was mandatory to attend, and we weren't organized enough. I think that if we want to do a Pep Rally in the future we need the school to collaborate with us. If they are, in any way, interested in raising the spirit at this school, which truly lacks any sense of spirit then they will choose to work with us. It's too difficult for the SGA, a group of 22 people, to instill spirit into a school of over 400 people without the backing of the teachers.

Although the Pep Rally was not effective I think that I've shown perseverance and commitment to raising spirit at this school. We've had 4 spirit days now, Hippy Day, Nerd Day, Halloween, and Gangsta Day. We created a Spirit Banner in the beginning of the year when we did the Welcome Back Disco. Now we've also done a Pep Rally and some lunch time games in which spirit points were earned.

Poem

At the beginning of this school year I established the goal to publish one of my poems by entering some sort of competition. I took a step in this direction by entering the poem below in a competition through the school in October before the break.

Fairytale

Put on a show.

The public they will see

Your cuts are now scabs

Your burns first degree.

Scream out inside

But tread carefully.

The pain you feel within

Is not reality.

Prove to the world,

You’re not broken.

Put on a smile,

A happy token.

Your face is what they see.

Your words are what they hear.

So continue to laugh.

Hold back the tears.

Wounds close up

Scars begin to fade

You’re perfect on the outside

In the fairytale you made.

Basketball

I tried out for Basketball and made the team a couple weeks ago. I said earlier that I wanted to do Basketball for two reasons, first of all I want to fit in as many SAISAs as I possibly can before I move, which is two SAISAs. Secondly, I did Basketball last year and I want to persevere in this sport. We will be traveling to Mumbai for the competition on the 30th of November and we have lost two significant players, Ayla and Alice. Last year we came in 3rd place but this year AES is out of the running and they won first place. Their withdrawal from SAISA gives us more of a chance to win. Our toughest competition last year was ASB and AISD, ASB won second place and AISD was fourth.

In order to get prepared for the SAISA tournament we've entered a tournament hosted by BSC here in Sri Lanka. We played our first game on Tuesday and lost to AIS but we played another game last night against Elizabeth Moir and won! If we won the upcoming game this Monday versus Lyceum (which I won't play in because of rehearsal) we will go to the Semi Finals! Being able to compete in a tournament before SAISA allows us to work collaboratively with each other, which is incredibly important as I've seen in previous SAISAs. The most improvement occurs during the tournament as we become used to a game situation and understand how we may work effectively as a team.

At the moment I'm having trouble with my lay ups, I can make the ball into the basket but I'm unable to jump up with the ball. The combination of jumping and making a basket feels unnatural to me and this defeats the purpose of a lay up. I hope to develop this skill over the course of this season.

Preparing for the Bake Sale:)

SAISA Basketball

I went on my last SAISA during the first weekend of December, fulfilling one of my goals made in the beginning of this year. It was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I went! I was able to play a great deal more than I played in 10th grade and even made more baskets than I made that year. I was able to show perseverance and commitment to an activity in continuing with basketball and was FINALLY able to be part of the championship team of SAISA. It was an incredible feeling to have won the whole tournament after coming so close each SAISA and local tournament. I definitely increased my awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses as I saw both my improvements and what I still have trouble with. I think that I've improved my lay up over the course of this season however I think I could have been a better defender and I should have been more confident when going for the fast break. Overall it was wonderful, an excellent end to my SAISAs at OSC.

SGA Halloween Bake Sale

We had planned to hold a movie night and haunted house along with trick or treating on the 28th but this was postponed due to the tragic passing of Mr. Kolitha. We recently decided as a collective group to cancel the event overall, it is too far from Halloween now, we’d be unlikely to get a large turn out and the motivation to attend and hold the event is gone. I put a lot of time and effort into the planning of this event; I worked throughout my holidays thinking of new ideas to add to our haunted house, bought decorations, candy etc. I spent an hour on Skype with Keisha, working collaboratively with her in order to be prepared for when we returned. I think that much of the executive showed great dedication and commitment to the SGA, as all of us were thinking of the event during our break. Keisha made bat, ghost and pumpkin stamps and made popcorn bags to use at the event. Roger created a poster to advertise our event. I asked Upandha and Daisy to create a poster to advertise our bake sale as well. I’ve put them in charge of Spirit Days and Points which was incredibly helpful, as it takes a lot of stress of the executive and allows me to actually use the SGA rather than doing everything myself. I think I’ve had some trouble letting go and depending on others to get things done and just taking this step was significant in allowing others to do things.
We did, however, have a Halloween Bake Sale at the beginning of this week, October 31st. This bake sale, as the last one, was quite successful. We ended up earning over 15,000 rupees, which was going to be used to fund our Halloween Event but is now just extra cash. We do need to compensate for a Rs. 8000 loss as the surplus of drinks we’d ordered for the disco expired last week and we will not be able to sell them. This bake sale, as the last one, allowed the SGA to plan and initiate an activity as well as work collaboratively with one another.

SAISA Volleyball Tournament

I participated in the SAISA Volleyball tournament during the weekend of October 7-9. It was a difficult tournament and we ended up getting second place, losing to Dhaka by only a few points. We played seven games, winning against our toughest competition on the first day, Lincoln and Dhaka, teams who got third and second respectively last year. This was OSC's first year playing Volleyball in a number of years and we were absolutely shocked that we won both of these games. On the second day of the tournament we played against Chennai, Bombay, and Lahore, winning two out of three games. We expected to win against Lahore and it was a struggle against Chennai but, unfortunately, we lost against Bombay. We were really bummed about this because it was the first match we'd lost and we had done so well until this game. It didn't really affect us in the tournament though as we ended up coming 1st seed, which meant we'd only have to play two games on the third day. Those two games would be decided on the games played prior to ours. We played against Bombay for our first game and won. We were wary of playing this game, as Bombay was the only team we'd lost against and losing again would be a major factor affecting our standing in the tournament.

There was a lot riding on our last game, we made it to the finals and we were facing Dhaka, a team we’d previously beat but who had played really well that day. The people I was hosting were also on this team. A large portion of our school showed up to watch that game, there was a lot of pressure and I still think we could have won. As a team, we’re less experienced than the other teams and hence we’ve had less game time. I think the stress affected how we played, not in just this game but throughout the tournament, at points we got stuck in a rut and we could not get out of it. It was a tight match and losing was incredibly disappointing. Dhaka was a good sport about it though, as we walked into the Award Banquet the whole team stood up and began applauding for us. I thought that was great of them, they acknowledged that we were tough competition and that it could have gone either way.

My biggest frustration throughout this tournament was not having enough playing time. I did not get put in very often and this really surprised me because I truly thought I’d get quite a bit of playing time in however I spent a majority of the tournament on the bench. I believe I showed perseverance and commitment for Volleyball at this point as I was so ready to give up after not being able to play time after time. The worst part about this was not only that it crushed my confidence when I did get subbed in but it also made me feel as if I hadn’t earned my spot on the team. I was really disappointed because I’d invested so much time into practice and I know I’ve improved in this sport but I did not get to prove myself. I felt like I deserved to be playing and this really frustrated me.

This tournament helped me see my own strengths and areas for growth as I was told multiple times by Mr. Shipley, to calm down and not get so frustrated on court when I made a mistake. He said he'd seen this in me with soccer as well as he was my coach for soccer and when I really think about it, it is a recurring issue with me. If I make a mistake I get angry at myself and this causes me to play worse afterwards. What made this even more difficult was that I only played for a very short period of time and was not able to redeem myself when I made a mistake.