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Quick CAS reflection

Identifying own strengths and develop areas for the growth

I learned a lot about architecture and drawing in general. I was able to learn a great deal about anatomy and structures of buildings as well as the structure of drawings of buildings. What’s more, I acquired knowledge about how to plan out drawings and art forms, in the sense of time management and organization. 

Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Many, upon many challenges have been undertaken in the process of this year’s CAS. The greatest and most notable one was the lack of time. I would constantly struggle with that, seeing as I set myself up for tough spots with my choice of activities. The school events like mocks or just projects in general, would greatly disturb my schedules and this proved to be especially, intensively destructive with Service. I would often face battles and struggles of choosing between doing school work, meeting with friends I do not see often, taking a well deserved rest, or simply going about CAS. These problems helped me significantly improve my time scheduling and time management, as well as aided me with newly found abilities of manipulating my discipline, energy and time. 

Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

I was lucky to have thought about this very early on. I had already had mapped out how CAS would work for me, in terms of timing and planning, before I even had a chance to make the first post. I worked on the basis of Gym - Activity being always on Tuesdays and Fridays, later changed to Saturdays and then to thursdays. Service would always be done on Saturdays and be about either cleaning the forest, town I live in, or helping the town’s community in a way. At times I had to change that appointment to Sunday, but usually this was a change I had no power over. In the beginning of the school year I would clearly have all of the drawing lessons - Creativity, be set on Saturdays at 10 am until 2 pm, however, later I was forced to change that to Fridays 4-8 pm. 

Show commitment to, and perseverance in, CAS experiences.

I always described my Services as most committed, on my side. I would often find myself in a situation where the actual service took about 3 hours of cleansing the forest out of garbage. This would unfortunately, however, lead to me having to traverse long distances with the trash bags, spending 2-3 hours, at times, of pure walking through, almost always,  a pitch black forest with the bags. This was certainly the biggest showcase of my perseverance to this project. My discipline with the drawing lessons should also be noted, nonetheless. I very often was not feeling like attending them, especially since they take 4 hours every time, with me being fatigued to the extremes, seeing how it was always at the end of a week of IB. 

Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Though I preferred to only make a few notes about this, the biggest showcase of working collaboratively, for me, in CAS was Service. Whether it was helping with the Piknik preparation or just general physics projects, or cleaning the forest with my friend; teamwork might not have been an essential, but certainly an important part of this journey. The benefits are outlined by themselves, with teamwork, much more work can be done. 

Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

With me helping to clean the forest of trash or fixing my village with my help, I managed to make some clear engagement with issues of global significance. There has always been a struggle of no responsibility for trash or general neglect of my village and its forest. By working on this problem, not only did I manage to just a little bit myself, but I also turned many people to a similar path. After many noticed me cleaning the forest, several other people would often join in. Many would bring their own bags and try with the helping, even just slightly. 

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

The only real ethical concern I ever faced, with my CAS, was related to my service. A few times, I was set to clean the public library in the village. In the process, I would very frequently find myself looking at very old and absolutely historical texts. I was forced to throw many of them away, nevertheless, because they were often completely unusable. This would always put an ache in my heart, as I knew that many of them had certainly been valuable to some people, some time ago. Being forced to throw them out felt like burning away ancient scrolls. I must have done that however, seeing as, otherwise, nobody would take them and they would just unnecessarily take up space. 

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CAS Interim

This year’s worth of CAS was, in my eyes, very fruitful. I actually managed to make a great connection between my personal interests, learning, as well as enjoying the processes of this project.

What I found to be most fond of, in terms of CAS, was the fulfillment. Despite having, at many instances, troubles in finding motivation or energy, I always ended up winning over those terrific absurdities to do my creativity, activity or service. After that, despite, at times, seriously having negative thoughts about this project, I usually always felt a sort of pardoned relief and fulfillment. As if having the action done was one thing, finishing it was another. On one hand, I did care about it, from the perspective of an IB student, but on the other I really felt satisfaction after doing something for myself, or others. 

The most grave obstacle in the whole process of CAS, was having to cancel meetings or other events, because of having to work on service. I often had to bring myself to ignore the fun activities, for the sake of having the work done. That part of the project was the most intimidating. But if not for my discipline, built by the struggles of IB, I would possibly have to rely on luck in some cases; seeing how I was not about a service. I overcame this problem with a simple mind trick I invented. I would simply imagine myself after the service, happy and jolly, until I was feeling so much envy to that imaginary person, I was willing to do the work on the spot. Surprisingly, it worked, helping me have most services done well before the deadline. I also realised that the process of service and CAS altogether is just, not the friends I lost, but the friends I made along the way. Friends could include knowledge types. 

The abilities and skills that I developed the most during CAS were certainly related to what I did. I grew the most in terms of drawing, as well as having strong muscles. I managed to make some unforeseen progress in drawing characters or architecture, since the beginning of the year. I am now able to draw what I was able to, a few months ago, just much faster and with better texture and style. I am also much more creative with original characters, although, because of the storm of work, I have not been able to think of many. I also did grow a lot in terms of physical fitness. I might have muscles, not significantly larger than before, however, my strength is much greater. That is while I have been off- creative for over 2 months and actually trained very few times, over the last few months too. 

The overall CAS experience left me with sincerely stronger ties with my internal abilities. My open mindness, risk-taking, thinking and caring have certainly been blown out. I am now seeing myself view reality in different ways. I do not look at challenges with fear, but with pending entertainment. I managed to endure a school-year’s worth of creative, active and service-targeted processes, which; altogether, are massive milestones. A few weeks ago, inspired by CAS goal-making, I started noting down a list of interesting new acquiries I could try to overtake. I recently learned 101 digits of Pi in a combined time of less than an hour, because I had no fear of it, while I was guided by the ancestral and everliving, ferocious spirit of CAS. For it is not just creativity or service, but also Action.   

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CAS project - part 3- Execution

The last, final stage of the CAS project was making it happen. We all met up at 8.00 am on the set date, before the WBS primary school building. The tournament was set to start at 10 am, so we showed up with much time, but much time was needed. We started setting up the boards and the stations for the participants, after the school coordinator let us in. The contestants started showing up before the set hour but stopped after. We made sure to have a list of all of them, pre-set. Turned out that a few were not able to come. 

After having explained the rules of the game, the event started. There were 5 total rounds, arranged with a software that worked based on the points each contestant had. There were a few smaller and one greater break in between the games. During them, every member of our group was tasked with walking around the stations, looking for possible cheating or breaking the rules. We were also, each game a different person, tasked with inputting the data into the software, as well as monitoring whether some children or their parents are breaching the set outline, meant not to be crossed during the event. 

The chess laws we followed were given by FIDE. 

After the 5th round ended and the winners were found, my team and I delivered the victorious goods, in a moment of anticipation. 

After all, we helped clean up the area. 

This part of the CAS project was very fruitful in ATL skills. I was able to experience even more teamwork, this time in an even different setting. I often consider myself a socially anxious person, despite my extroverted personality. This was one of the few events I could participate in, in the last few months, or even years, that actually helped me with dealing with that trait of myself. 

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CAS project - part 2 - Preparation

As a first step to actual preparation for the project, after having the technical theories planned out, was setting it up. We first contacted the WBS primary school, about the dates, and whether they were fitting. 

Later, we focused on getting the prizes. The agreed ones for the podium, were ones that required purchasing. We took care of that, after which I stepped in with my primary role. I was tasked with making the diplomas for the contestants. I took a lot of time making different versions, which eventually got accepted by the team, after many changes. 

We conducted a survey to see how many contestants there would be and got a number of 23. 

Lastly, we got in touch with the organizers from the school, who would help us with this task. They required us to send them a certificate of no criminal record. They also agreed to take up the role of those responsible for the boards and the pieces of chess. 

This stage of the project certainly boosted my group-working skills. The previous segment was about contacting the individual group members about agreeing on dates or prizes. This part required real work with other people. The process of acquiring the certificate was also a part that enriched me with more knowledge about governmental processes and experiences. Overall, this part of this journey was bountiful for ATL skills improvement. 

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CAS project- part 1- Planning

For the planning stage of the project, my group (Jaromir Gontar, Maksymilian Skowron-Moszkowicz, Filip Warda and I) decided to hold a chess competition. We thought of doing it in some kind of a school. The choice ended up being a primary school, WBS primary school. The choice was made because two of our group members used to attend this institution. We planned on purchasing the sets of the chess boards and the pieces. 

My group decided to have the event take place on the 18th of April. It took us more time than expected to set this date, for how complicated it was to see whether it fit everybody. 

We held many meetings before we eventually agreed upon the chosen narratives. Those included: the place of the tournament, the prizes, the time and preparation. 

My main role in this phase was not specified. We all worked all on the same things at the same time. I did, however, greatly contribute to setting the date, choosing the rewards and sharing ideas for the billing.

Overall, the experience of planning out the CAS project was successful in strengthening my teamwork skills and, along with that, communication. It was difficult, trying to arrange every part of the project in a way that suited everybody. It took much will and emotional, contextual understanding not to take a step in the wrong direction, as a team member. 

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Creativity 2 May

In terms of the second half of May, the situation was even worse than in the first half. I had barely any time at all. I made very few personal drawings and had to skip all of the architecture classes I was to have this half of the month. There was one saving grace though. One last rite before the impending doom of having nothing to put on my Creativity part in the CAS blog. That was my painting. Even though I managed to make exactly 0.5 actual drawings during this half of the month, because of the sheer pain and chaos caused by the Mocks and other paranormally insane happenings of the recent weeks. 

Throughout this half of the month I have actually been working on an artistic piece this whole time. That was: my painting for Visual Arts. The piece was not finished in May, however I made significant progress with it and I am hoping I will be able to finish it beautifully in June. I spent many hours on this piece, even if it is not finished. 

What it is, is supposed to be a corridor with a monster at the back. It has a very deep meaning, related to my understanding of the profound matrix of human psychology, built by philosophy and vice versa. I will not share how it references that, yet. 

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Creativity 1 May

For the first half of May, I managed to make a few drawings, whilst being stormed by the busy-ness of the Mocks and other school events. 

I was forced to skip a few of the classes, but managed to draw a little on my own, based on video materials provided by the drawing school. 

I managed to make a lot of individual drawings on my own too. Mainly, I just made ones practising drawing figures, especially with ink or markers. 

Overall, the first half of May was not as successful as some prime months, like November. I did, however, manage to show perseverance and discipline, creating a few drawings, still, in spite of the terrible situation. 

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Service 2 May

In the second half of May, I have actually been forced to clean the library again. Turns out that not long after I cleaned it, a few months ago, somebody threw out a lot of the material in it. On top of that, they put up quite a ton of random old books about engineering and education in those fields. Those were very interesting, but unfortunately, practically unusable for their age and the fact that they had been growing multiple colonies of mold.

Overall, this seemed to be easy and quick work, but turned out to be the worst one of this sort I have done so far. Most of the paper I threw out, I usually just put on the ground or in a bag before taking it out. This time was no different, however, the pages of the books were so old they flew out into the air and it took me a lot of time to get it all back. This service definitely proved my self discipline and motivation or perseverance. 

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Service 1 May

In the first half of May, I had very little time to do anything. I have been able to only go to the forest and clean it up a little bit, one time. It did prove perseverance like in the previous cases, however not as much as I would have hoped. I only spent about 2 hours on this service. In the second week of the month, though, I have also participated in a lot of the physics extracurriculars on the school trip. I often stayed after the lessons ended to help with either the group projects or with the preparation for the “Piknik”. 

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Activity 2 May

In the second half of May; I stayed with the same: time management and the split. I would work out chest, triceps and deltoids on Tuesdays, while back, biceps and forearms on Thursdays. The time management focusing on time between sets, for sets and cardio has remained unchanged, since the last month. In the first half of the month, I have not been able to work on this strand as much, seeing how little time I had for these tasks. In the second half of the month, the case got even worse. The chance of working out was drained, by the mocks, similarly to how the Nile had been drained over 25 thousand years ago. I have only been able to go to the gym a handful times.

The personal records, achieved in May, in comparison to the overall weightlifting highschool goals:

-Being able to do ~10 out of 20 consecutive pull-ups

-Deadlifting 65+ out of 120 kg

-Not being able to do a muscle-up yet

-lat-pulldown 120+ out of 200 kg 

-bench pressing 60+ out of 100 kg

-lateral raising- almost 15 out of 20 kg 

-tricep pulldown 70+ out of 100 kg  

Very minor changes have been seen this month. Obviously that is because of the rather lack of training. I have, however, been able to finally come ever so close to lateral raising 15 kilograms, actually. One of the times I went to the gym, when the time came to push myself to compete as a follower of this prestigious form of body work, an unexpected event came to be. The dumbbells were occupied. I had been forced to approach the 15 kilogram weights, with intention to lift them. I was held back by resentment, fearing I might just have to let it go. I eventually decided to attempt. And It turned out to be ridiculously easy. Only compared to my previous, infernal visuals of how this gamble would play out, though. It was very tough, but I managed to do 3 sets of 12 repetitions with these dumbbells. I was so close to perfection but the form actually was not very good. I still need to do that a few times to adapt at a flawless level. I am, however, happy with the progress, even if it is a very little one. I have actually been off-creatine for a few weeks, meaning with regular training and the help of this supplement, I would be probably strong enough to lateral raise my deadlift, in a few weeks. 

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Activity 1 May

In the first half of May; I went on with the same split as before. I would work out chest, triceps and deltoids on Tuesdays, while back, biceps and forearms on Thursdays. The time management focusing on time between sets, for sets and cardio has remained unchanged, since the last month. In the first half of this month, I have not, unfortunately, been able to exercise at least twice every week. There was a school trip occupying my entire first week and so I was unable to spend as much time training as I had wished, before. 

The personal records, achieved in the first half of May, in comparison to the overall weightlifting highschool goals:

-Being able to do 10 out of 20 consecutive pull-ups

-Deadlifting 65 out of 120 kg

-Not being able to do a muscle-up

-lat-pulldown 120 out of 200 kg 

-bench pressing 60+ out of 100 kg

-lateral raising 12.5+ out of 20 kg 

-tricep pulldown 70+ out of 100 kg  

No changes have occurred, seeing how few times I went to the gym during these few weeks and how few times I did last month. No remarkable feedback I have held to myself here. There is nothing needed to be mentioned, beyond the ever so slightly marinated overview of how little I had done, for reasons beyond my influence.

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Creativity April 2

In the second half of April, much to my dismay, I was not able to draw as much as I would have liked to. That is mostly due to skipping both lessons of architecture, because of holidays and school work. I have, however, been able to work a little bit on my personal drawings. 

The drawings I did make, I am proud of and satisfied with. I keep working on my pen and marker ones. Ones I made were, of course, of original characters.

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Service April 2

For the second service of April, I was tasked with cleaning the public library again. Apparently a lot was stored in it and it was overflowing, because people kept putting new materials in it. It appears many individuals do not yet understand how it truly works, because they keep throwing old magazine stashes into the fridge, which is terrible. 

I dealt with the problem and now the citizens of my town can rest freely, knowing that their public library is not over brimming with paper.

The service took me around 2-3 hours. 

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Activity April 2

In the second half of April; I stayed with the same: time management and the split. I would work out chest, triceps and deltoids on Tuesdays, while back, biceps and forearms on Thursdays. The time management focusing on time between sets, for sets and cardio has remained unchanged, since the last month. The shrugs exercise remained removed from the training, clearly for the better. I also replaced seated rows with standing rows because the machine for the seated ones broke and because I preferred the standing ones more anyways.

The personal records, achieved in April, in comparison to the overall weightlifting highschool goals:

-Being able to do ~10 out of 20 consecutive pull-ups

-Deadlifting 65+ out of 120 kg

-Not being able to do a muscle-up yet

-lat-pulldown 120+ out of 200 kg 

-bench pressing 60+ out of 100 kg

-lateral raising 12.5+ out of 20 kg 

-tricep pulldown 70+ out of 100 kg  

Not that much changed this month, however, I have written “+” or “~” next to some of the records. That is because I have come to a conclusion that many of the exercises I do, usually, when I am tired or fatigued. A good chunk of them, such as bench press or tri pulldown, I do at the end  of my training sessions, which leads me to being much weaker in my results than how I would be if they were my first exercises to do. I also am not entirely sure how much I could actually bench press for a single repetition, because I do not currently do PR-s. I have also declined in my results for pull-ups, however I believe that that is caused by me having less energy nowadays and the bars in my gym being extremely thick and slippery. An Ideal pull up bar would be thin and have high friction. 

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Creativity April 1

For the first half of April, I have been very busy, therefore, I have not been able to keep up with my architectural and personal drawing goals, however I have been able to make a few drawings. 

In the architecture lessons, we discussed topics mainly surrounding urban architecture. We drew monuments or structures that could be put in public parks. There were a few main prototypes of what we were to draw and I have not been able to depict them all. They mostly included thinking outside the box with creativity. They were usually made with some sort of a skeleton that would be covered with glass or wooden panels. 

The other topics discussed on the arch. lessons were about drawing sight-views of whole cities or generally wide areas. 

In terms of my own drawings, I also managed to make a few, naturally they were depictions of my original characters. I still practiced the pen drawing, since it is so captivating.

Overall, the first half of April, in terms of creativity, was pretty successful, despite having to face many problems related to time and school work

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Service April 1 CAS project

For the first service of the month, I, along with a few of my friends, held a chess tournament. The tournament took place at the Bilingual Warsaw School, which is the primary school two of them attended. This was actually my CAS project and the people, whom I prepared the event with, were my group for the project.

The whole process took a few hours of happening and a lot more in preparation, so it was good to see it finally unfold. The event went very well and I am glad that we were able to create many positive memories for the children who took part in it. 

Overall, I count the experience as a very successful service, as not only did we; the ib students, learn a lot from it, the event also had many positive impacts on the participants.