Service (May, 2012) - Library Service - *The End*

Library Service has been a fun and rigorous service activity for me this year. Many feel that stacking books and arranging them properly is an easy task. However, my feeling is that such thoughts cannot be changed unless the people experience the activity themselves, i.e. you don't know until you do it yourself. It should be known to all that correctly organizing and arranging all the books in the Secondary Learning Resource Center (SLRC) is a team task requiring both focus as well as physical stamina.

This service program has been a fun and useful period during which me and my peers have contributed to the school community. This is a matter of global importance with positive ethical implications as a Library plays a key role in providing knowledge from all spheres to students as well as non-students in the community. Thus, the maintainance of a library, i.e. the role of a 'Guardian of the Library', is taken very seriously by me.

I have attended all activity sessions punctually and am very happy with the progress that our group made. As a co-leader this month, I have been able to take responsibility for completing specific tasks planned by me and my partner Humza, and thus, guide the group towards helping each other after completing their individual tasks. I also happily maintained the new school Library Service blog that I had created with the first OSC library gmail account. Thus, by undertaking new challenges and taking responsibility, I have planned and initiated the service sessions and have collaborated with my team. Also, with perseverance and commitment, I have developed new leadership skills such as rewarding hardwork, motivating team-spirit and most importantly, leading by example. I am also happy with the whole team as most students were present in the sessions and prepared to work.

I thank my team, Humza, and Mrs. Lockwood for wonderful service sessions this semester.

I hope to take all these useful skills and nice memories of 'Library Service' as I step into a new service activity next year.

Action continues actively - Badminton (April, 2012)

April has been an action packed month for me. I have been able to continue my swimming practice along with Badminton during weekends.

Badminton continued as usual. However, the speciality was that this month was an even blend of singles competitions and doubles matches. I played in collaboration and with persistence and commitment with the other players. As my brother was the only person of my age group playing, while the remaining were experienced adults, I got many opportunities to implement my playing strategies, while also to learn new techniques by becoming aware of some of my weaknesses. For example, I tend to hit drop shots repeatedly even if the opponent is standing near the net, thus, making it easy for my opponent to 'read my game plan'. Thus, I developed the skill of using this understanding of my opponent to my own use by surprising them with corner to corner overhead shots and occasional body smashes. I would say that this month has motivated me to become more spontaneous and less planned in game play, while also smart and clever by understanding my opponents' mindset. I will continue my badminton sessions next month in the same consistent manner as in the past year while balancing my study time for the approaching exams.

Below are a few photographs and a video taken at a session that was shifted to the Royal College badminton courts.

Me at the end of a sweaty session.

"We will learn of books and men, and learn to play the game" - Outside the Royal College badminton complex.

Me successfully reaching for a backhand shot.

Good communication led to no accidents and a successful game.

Hitting a overhead clear.

Being a part of a long rally.

Hitting a smash against my brother.

Playing a backhand shot in a singles match against my brother.

A video of the instance where I learnt that being predictable can be used to one's advantage with a surprise shot.

Swimming was a special delight in the hot weather of this month. I visited the Thurstan College swimming pool for two single-hour sessions. I noted that my breath holding duration had decreased since I had not visited the pool for a few months. Thus, I started by doing some breath holding practice and underwater swimming. Later, I followed this with continuous swimming laps. I alternately did freestyle and breaststroke while also adding the backstroke at intervals. My speed was not that impressive as I lacked consistency, however, I was happy to be able to do 10 continuous laps without any breaks in the first go. These swimming sessions were really useful as they taught me about the importance of consistency and the consequences of a 'long gap' in practice. 

Below are a few photographs of mine from these sessions.

Me (in the center), doing freestyle swimming.

Underwater swimming practice.

Me (at the back in the picture), starting a new lap.

Completing lap with breastroke.

Now, my aim is to be more consistent with swimming. However, due to the exams coming up next week, I feel that missing it can be excused. Thus, my sports practice will increase over the summer break. I also intend to start regular jogging and exercises in the morning at the beautiful independence square avenue park during the summer.

I am looking forward to the next few highly 'Action' packed months.

Library Service - April, 2012

Library Service at OSC now has two new leaders, i.e. me and Humza. We have begun leading the group and will be in this position till the summer break (and hopefully next year). In the first session, we had a small introduction session which was followed by implementation of a new plan. It was decided that from now onwards, the newly returned books will be shelved by all collectively, and later, everyone will return to work on and maintain their assigned shelves (including us leaders). Thus, by leading by example, me and Humza explained this to everyone and started work.

Till now, the group has been working diligently, sometimes taking long breaks in between though, and has been maintaining the book shelves properly. We all have worked as a team and collaborated well. However, both me and Humza, were at times challenged to keep the group at work, and therefore we developed new skills of diplomatically handling such situations by planning the activities in a creative manner in order to keep everyone at task and hence managing to get the work done with a few breaks.

I have also created a new blog for the service with its own g-mail id, as the previous blog was controlled by the previous leaders' personal mail. Thus, http://libraryserviceatosc.blogspot.com/, i.e. the new blog, will be updated at regular intervals to keep the world updated about our accomplishments as guardians of the library.

Hope everything continues fine next month, i.e. the final month for this school year, as well. :)

Creativity - Guitar (April, 2012)

Guitar was quite special this month. The classes this month were both 2 hour sessions in the first two weekends due to the important Vesak break in the country. I have been consistent in practicing my guitar skills and also punctual at attending all classes. In the recent classes, I have been learning and practicing a new blues tune. Its notation is given below.

I have succeeded in being able to read, understand and play the music fluently now. However, after listening to the original song, and as advised by my teacher, I need to improve in learning the various unique aspects of playing blues using classical notation. These include stretching notes at the end, improvising, and the use of tremolo. I have yet to learn all three of these and thus, I will be starting these next month. However, I have started to practice and learn these on my own using online tutorials, and have succeeded to an extent. I have to still gain speed in it though. Hence, I have been able to challenge myself by identifying areas of growth and working on them.

I am looking forward to continuing guitar practice in a similar fashion with new things to learn next month.

Action - Badminton (March, 2012)

March has been action packed for me. I played lots of Badminton matches, both singles and doubles, out of which most were against experienced players and some against players at the same level as me. The matches were all of a wide variety as I won some comfortably and also lost some with a tough fight till the end. I enjoyed all these matches as they helped me to challenge myself both physically as well as mentally. It has been an overall successful month for me in terms of action. Most of my badminton skills have improved in this month, however, as there are two sides of a coin, I have been facing a difficulty of calming myself after consecutive losses. After observing my weaknesses and analyzing them, I have realised that after loosing more than 5 points consecutively in both formats of the sport, I tend to hit shots much harder. This results in less accuracy, less variation and less focus from me. Thus, the opponents are able to overpower my team later. Now, my aim is to be more calm, cool and composed while playing as it is the best way to learn from mistakes and proceed without distraction or frustration.

Other than that, I attended all my sessions punctually and consistently and played all matches with complete dedication and active participation till the end.

Below are photographs that were taken on 25th March (I am on the near side of the court - wearing a black t-shirt). The session was moved to the Royal College Badminton Court on that day as D.S. Senanayake College was closed for public.
 

My 'rotating' shot!

An overhead clear.

Reaching for a overhead clear.

Me hitting a diagonal drop shot. I have almost perfected this shot.

Covering for my partner while playing in a rotational formation.

Reaching for a dropshot.

Smash!

Service position.

Playing a short shot by reaching for it is a nice variation.

A successfully saved drop shot in a corner by the net.

 I will continue my practice of badminton in a similar fashion next month as well. I hope to improve in all aspects, especially reducing my anxiety by being more calm and composed. :)