merrychristcas

[merrychristcas]

FINAL REFLECTION

The time has come.

For the past few years, the CAS programme was a central part of my life, whether I liked it or not. It has been of tremendous importance to me - at first, this was due to my will to finish, or at times, survive the IB programme. I was often terrified of failing CAS to the point of not actually being able to do anything for it - a cruel example of irony, certainly. But I’ve come a long way since, and I’ve learnt a lot.

I’ve learnt that all it takes to get to your destination is a first step.

For my Creativity, I’ve generally centered on developing my talents for music and graphic design. While starting the CAS programme, I knew immediately this was going to be my strength – I’ve made music and did design since I could remember, so I could focus on broadening my horizons in these fields. And so, through my Creativity activities, I’ve realised the first Learning Outcome - identifying my own strengths and developing areas for growth. I’ve learnt about the importance of communication in both of these fields, and thought a lot about how these could be used for charitable endeavours, considering the ethical implications of my decisions - per the seventh Learning Outcome. This was, in my experience, the most rewarding part of my CAS experience - finding a practical application for my talents. The intersection between practical things and creativity has, however, also presented a challenge frequently, as was the case when I initiated and organised concerts and parties.

Creativity is largely is about self-expression, and that’s a skill I’ve developed as well. I’ve come from just producing music to creating full-bodied pieces of art which included visual components and lyrics. Performing and recording these was my favorite part of doing CAS, and the most enjoyable - pouring my heart out in front of an audience had a great feeling of honesty to it, one I would describe as euphoric at times, even if it was a major form of risk-taking for me. While playing new songs, I never knew what reaction to expect. I often feared embarrassment, and sometimes, felt plenty of it if something didn’t quite go as I’d like. The pleasant experiences, however, outweighed these.

    Risk-taking was a major part of my Service work as well. Firstly, I tried to utilize my creative talents as much as possible - I organized and performed at charity events and created posters for these, did graphic design for the Katowice Model United Nations conference. These were rewarding experiences, in that they allowed me to communicate my principles and ethical stances, as well as presented me with an opportunity to work collaboratively. However, as I got used to risk-taking, I decided to take more direct steps - working at an animal shelter and eventually taking in a puppy named Telma to my house. My time with Telma helped me become more caring - I could look into the eyes of a living, breathing being, whose life was dependent on my actions. Caring for her required sacrifices, learning and patience. But by the time she arrived at my house, I felt I was already mature enough to take this weight on my shoulders. I knew challenges paid off, and I knew that from my CAS experience. How, one might ask?

    My most challenging work within the CAS programme was certainly Activity – in my case, swimming and cycling were my main forms of work within that component, both of which I’ve basically had to re-learn from scratch. And, as I’ve written in my reflections before, it has never come to me easily. I was petrified the first time I’ve heard about this part of the IB programme, and I’ve felt if anything was going to lead to my failure, it was going to be either this or the Maths curriculum (both came close). And now I feel honest, full-bodied pride. In taking the first step, in taking the second step, in taking the third… and so on. Until I’ve reached what I thought was unreachable for me - a regular physical exercise regimen. One that makes me feel eerily good, physically and mentally. I’ve realized an important thing, as much as it might be a cliche - my limitations, ones I thought were inherent, could be overcome. I could change. I could do anything. And so, I’ve become much more open-minded. After all, if I was wrong about the importance of physical activity, I might have been wrong about much other things I’ve never tried!

    And so, the paralysing fear of commitment and change disappeared without a trace. Day by day, I found myself having more energy, willing to leave my bed in the morning, willing to walk Telma, make music and live a fulfilling life. And this allowed me to commit to the things I’ve always believed were the most important in life, as well. Self-care was the first step on a path to empathy. And I was never this way.

Being completely honest - while starting my CAS experience, my main goal was to survive. I was absolutely unaware of what to expect, and everything seemed extremely complicated. As I continued partaking in my CAS activities, my main goals became developing my industriousness and overcoming the paralysing stress I’ve come to associate with new activities, especially - physical activities. I believe that not only have I achieved these goals, but I’ve completely changed the mindset which led to these things seeming challenging to me. And, to be absolutely and completely honest, this has come as a surprise to me. While starting CAS, all it seemed to me was a necessity, a mere academical requirement. I’ve come to see it as much more since, a useful tool in becoming a mature, responsible person. I now regard the presence and balance of its three components in life as a sort of key to success. And frankly, three years ago, I couldn’t imagine myself writing these words.

    It was especially my Activity work that I believe changed my outlook the most. Realizing the importance of physicality on my general well-being was insanely, and I cannot stress this enough, important. I believe overcoming my fear of it will be the most important result of my CAS experience for my entire adult life. But I’ve gained more, much more through my CAS work. My commitment to making music has paid off, and leading cultural publications such as Dwutygodnik and Trzy szóstki have written about my album. I’m being invited to play shows all over the country. And recently, I’ve collaborated on a series of songs with my one-time idol, Miłosz Cirocki of the cult band Złota Jesień. I couldn’t be happier about the state of things in my lifelong journey to play music. My cuisine work has paid off as well, and I’m starting work as a sous chef in Klubojadalnia Młodsza Siostra, a favourite hangout spot of Warsaw’s art world. But what certainly had the largest impact on my future life was my caretaking of Telma the dog. What was supposed to be a couple of months spent on helping a good cause turned into a lifelong commitment - I fell in love and, after much thought, decided – yup – to adopt her.

    My CAS journey was a strange one, marked with stress, mental barriers, and I’ve frequently asked myself – why am I doing this? And now, nearly three years later, I couldn’t be happier.

Life really does work in mysterious ways.

[merrychristcas]

ACTIVITY

After several months spent getting my body on track, I’ve decided to take another step towards being a healthy human being – namely, I’ve started tracking my calories with an app. Ah, the Information Age - a time when truly anything is possible with the touch of your finger (unless ‘anything’ includes keeping your personal information private and not having one’s drive for self-improvement used for profit by tech corporations). I felt wary while choosing to make this step - I knew that calorie counting could lead to eating disorders and exercise addiction. Luckily, as soon as I’ve put information about my lifestyle, weight and age into the app, it became evident this was not going to be the case with me. After a couple of days it became evident I was not eating nearly enough, given the fact that I mostly travel on food and work physically. That made me think - what if I simply didn’t have enough energy to exercise before?

So, I decided to do an experiment, and I ate a 2000 cal breakfast before going to the pool today. And lo and behold - it worked. I could swim longer distances than ever before. My lousy breaststroke, while still lacking greatly in terms of technique, became easy enough for me to do that for 20 minutes straight. I couldn’t believe that.

In fact, I’ve noticed that the movements have become automatized for me, in a way - I could now get my mind off of swimming, and think of different things - such as the CAS post I was planning to write. I started to think about how useful the awarness of body, which I’ve talked about in my previous post and which I perfected by using a fitness app, could be. The percentage of the global population that uses such apps oscillates around 40% (https://www.statista.com/statistics/742448/global-fitness-tracking-and-technology-by-age/) - a number which, frankly, surprised me greatly when I found out about that, but the longer I thought about it, it made more and more sense.

Our body does have a sort of ‘built-in’ nutrition/energy tracking system, after all - but it doesn’t take a nutritionist to know that symptoms of undernourishment or too little activity can go unnoticed until it’s too late to counteract them. I think, if I had taken the step to organize this area of my life earlier on, I could’ve went back to my peak physical performance by now easily. And as far as I’m concerned, the majority of the people I interact with on regular basis do not use any sort of system to balance their nutrient intake, hydration, exercise, work and mindfulness. After all, this is not a skill that is commonly taught, and most people have a vague understanding of the science behind these things, or even of whether a potato contains carbohydrates, as I’ve learn working in the restaurant industry. Shouldn’t we, as society, put more emphasis on organizing what is literally the most vital aspect of our lives?

Yesterday, I went to sleep, eating 600 calories less than I should’ve, and I felt perfectly full. And today, as I’ve left the swimming pool and noted the swim times in the fitness app, it notified me I only had 511 calories left to eat for dinner today - whereas I felt as if I was going to need an equivalent of a full English to keep me on my legs through the day. Our bodies tend to lie to us, it seems. And it would be a waste not to counteract on this with technology. Transhumanism - here we come.

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges 

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

LO6 - Engaged with issues of global importance

[merrychristcas]

SERVICE + CREATIVITY

People are cruel, or so I’ve heard, and I’ve been getting evidence of this for a while now. How so? Well, as I’ve posted before, since March, the dog Telma (we dropped the th - languages are alive, so they say) has found a temporary home in my apartment. And, as we enter our third month with her, she still hasn’t been adopted. Nobody has shown any interest in doing that. The reason? Apparently, her black coat.

Not that I’m complaining, though. Spending time with Telma has turned into an actually rewarding experience - nearly a 180 degree turn from what it was at the beginning. About April 20, she received her final vaccination and can now go out on walks!

And boy, oh, boy - she’s a well-behaved dog now! I couldn’t believe it after the first few walks - she doesn’t bite her leash, she plays with other dogs in a considerate manner, and while at home, she’s not half as hyperactive as she’s been before. Recently, I started taking her to a dog park as well.

It was there that I started to wonder about the intricacies of dog ownership and societal norms regarding that. I’ve never had a dog of my own before, much less in a big city like Warsaw, so I was completely unaware of these norms and I became a keen observer of dog-owner life - whether dog owners struck up conversations with each other and what these were about. And it turned out that this in fact was the case - and not only did they talk about dogs, they discussed a variety of topics - sports, city life, park infrastructure, the weather, and even politics. This came as a surprise to me - without a dog present, it’s against social convention to strike up smalltalk with other parkgoers, much less a full-fledged discussion. I thought about how these rules were enforced, and imagined the park as a sort of overaching presence that made it that way, almost like an invisible police officer. That thought amused me greatly, and I decided to write a poem in the vein of Polish gangsta rap classic 997 by Peja, only that directed at the dog park social convention rather than police:

997 nie chcę znowu wracać do domu przez komendę

nawet jeśli będzie ciepło jeszcze

niebo mundur wciąż u straży prawa

niebo mundur każe mi wyjść z psem

żebym mógł rozmawiać

w środku wiosny wskocz i wiedz

nienawiść i wolność to nieprawda

997 idzie wiosna jestem zniewolony

dłońmi uśmiechu

ale na prawie budujemy świat

na prawo park

psi park

I liked a lot how a new challenge I undertook, in the form of dog-walking, inspired me! And to write a poem, at that - I've been writing lyrics for my music for a long time already, but I've never been completely satisfied with them. I found them to be frequently lacking in substance and having an overabundance of style - an opinion that was echoed by my album's descriptions by critics as naïve art, which didn't bother me, but it did push me towards trying to broaden my lyrical horizons. '997' was the first poem I wrote, and I like it a lot.

SERVICE:

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges

LO5 - Shown preservance and commitment in their activities

CREATIVITY

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges

LO8 - Developed new skills (well, opinions may vary)

[merrychristcas]

ACTIVITY

So, spring’s in full force by now. And along with spring, another beautiful phenomenon came back to my city - public bikesharing.

For as long as I can remember, cycling has been the only form of physical activity I’ve enjoyed a great deal. That changed after my injury, which I’ve spoken about in my last post - as it was my knee that was more or less destroyed, cycling was heavily discouraged by my doctor. Still, I recall having a cast on my left leg and cycling, pedaling using my right leg only, for the sheer enjoyment of it. However, as years passed, my bike was ruined - it no longer has wheels, for one - and I could no longer cycle as much as I’d like. After a while, I forgot all about the pleasure I had from riding a bike.

But lately, that has been changing. As I’ve started to adapt myself to physical activity by swimming, I started being, so to say, aware of my body. I felt my lungs, my limbs, and more energy than ever before. And so came the idea to start cycling regularly.

my bike rental history from the last month, compiled

I don’t cycle much at a time - five to ten minutes, usually, getting from home to work or the other way - but I’m proud of doing it regularly! The first short rides were quite tiring, too. I had this feeling of walking automatically, in a way, after getting of a bike, followed by the aforementioned awareness of them and an influx of tiredness. I knew this had to change, and considered my options. I realized, suddenly, that for the first time in years, regularity was a strength of mine - and it was my only option for making me withstand cycling. Surprise, surprise - it worked. I feel significantly less tired after short rides now. I do, however, realize, that I need to push my limits, and I plan on making my rides way longer, consequently making myself... stronger? I guess that would be the right word, although I don’t mean it in a purely physical sense.

Now, on another, greatly important note: not only did I feel great because of doing physical activity, but I was also struck by how much of an efficient transportation method cycling is. It allowed me to get home quickly even after working night shifts until 2 AM, and I was completely independent of taxis or public transport.

That got me wondering - cycling is obviously a great alternative to driving in terms of pollution or efficiency in cities - but what if it was also a public health issue in another way? If even 5 minutes per day helped keep me aware of my body, could it be key to keeping physical activity in city-dwellers at a reasonable level? After all, it has a great advantage over other kinds of activity, in that it also serves a practical purpose - transportation - and is incomparably great at serving that purpose. I came to the conclusion that availability of bikesharing systems is incredibly important, too - after all, my own bike, as I’ve mentioned, has no wheels.

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

LO6 - Engaged with issues of global importance

[merrychristcas]

ACTIVITY

Physical activity hasn’t been a strong side of mine for a few years now. Back in middle school, I had suffered a serious injury while playing football - namely, I shattered my knee, rendering me unable to walk for some time and to do any sort of sports for way longer. The effect of this injury on me was not only physical, but also - primarily - mental. I started to associate sports with trauma. So, as I was thinking of ways to reintroduce physical activity into my life, I thought of sports that I wouldn’t consider “dangerous”. And so, swimming came to my mind.

I’ve been attending a nearby pool since 2019 started regularly. Now, swimming was not a strong side of mine either - I remember being 13 at a sailing camp and passing a mandatory swimming test by walking on the lakebed and doing swimming movements with my hands. This is more or less how my pool activities this year started too.

Luckily, that’s no longer the case - I’ve even mastered some swimming styles on my own, namely a perfect breatstroke and a more-or-less alrighty butterfly. As usual, persistance turned out to be key. It took time for this progress to occur.

Another thing I’ve noticed overtime was that I slowly stopped to associate physical activity with injury. As spring started, I found myself in situations such as regularly riding a bike to and from work and even jogging. I think, although I might be wrong, that starting slowly was key to reintroducing activity into my life.

I’ve noticed a theme in my recent CAS reflections, too, as I was writing this post - persistance and regularity often turn out to be solutions to my problems, and these are skills which largely came to me through the CAS programme, although only recently. As such, I feel I’ve gained an important piece of insight into how my mind works, and what I should do to become more productive in the future. This will definitely be of use to me.

me at the swimming pool in a swimcap and a wonderful new kids on the block towel (my most prized possesion).

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities 

LO8 - Developed new skills

Note: Over the following two weeks or so, I will be posting reflections without photos - my phone broke and is in service, undergoing some repairs. I’ll update them and add evidence as soon as I’ll be able to.

[merrychristcas]

SERVICE

So, Thelma’s still with us, and she’s growing bigger and bigger. What’s also growing is my affection for the little troublemaker, despite how problematic she is. What’s been the biggest problem so far is her biting. After my hands started looking like this:

I decided it was time to do something about that. So, I’ve started training her not to bite, basing what I do on some YouTube videos on how to stop puppy biting.

One thing these videos always mentioned is how a regular basis of training is key to success, and regularity has, to put it mildly, not been my strongest feature before. But the human brain adapts to necessity, and I am human (Thelma thinks I’m just a big dog, but I’m certainly human). As her training was just beggining, I did not notice much improvement in the biting area - just some signs that dog trainers say to be good, like starting to lick instead of biting, which Thelma has. That was another demotivating factor. For a while, I considered quitting. I did, however, notice a lot of progress in another area - my devotion to a cause on a regular basis. I was a little bit shocked.

And, needless to say, it paid off. My hands are starting to heal now. Given how much trouble I’ve had with other tasks which required regular action and concentration in the past, I’ve started to wonder what factors might’ve influenced the change. In my previous post, I’ve mentioned how emotional pay-off wasn’t a factor in providing Thelma with a temporary home, but I think that started to change, and I think that’s largely why I started devoting more time to her. I’ve learnt an important lesson about how to motivate myself - emotional engagement turned out to be the key. As I’ve examined past mistakes, I’ve noticed that many of the times I failed to do something on a regular basis it was my cynical attitude towards the task in question that led to my downfall, and that observation proved my reflections. From now on, it’s time to get rid of that attitude altogether - for my own sake.

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

LO8 - Developed new skills

[merrychristcas]

SERVICE

In a few posts on this blog, I’ve mentioned my belief that people in comfortable, privileged positions in life have the duty to help the less fortunate. This has been an important element of my moral code for some time already - that’s largely why I chose to do charity events and all that in the first place. I felt that I was comfortable enough to challenge myself.

Well, lately, I’ve been doing incredibly well. Spring’s just around the corner, I feel new life being breathed into me and the world constantly, my health’s better than ever and I’m financially stable. At some point, I laid back and thought to myself: what more could I want? And then I remembered. It was now time to help.

As if by destiny, a friend of my girlfriend made an announcement on social media that a charity she works at (Fundacja Zwierzochron) was looking for a temporary home for an abandoned puppy. This was my chance. After a talk with my girlfriend and flatmates, a decision was made.

Thelma (that’s her name) arrived at our apartment a week ago, at barely 8 weeks old. And boy, she’s one energetic puppy. Like, extremely energetic.

Since she’s been with us, I’m not getting as much sleep as I used to. Some daily tasks take a while longer since she’s constantly running around and biting me and everything around her (including her water bowl and her dog pad). God, the biting’s the worst. For the first couple of days I was feeling drained. I clearly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Trips to the vet’s office, cleaning up after her and the bites were too much for me.

But then, I thought to myself about where she was before she arrived at our place. Thelma was born in a barn. She and her sister were the only two puppies that survived past a month of life. She showed so many signs of neglect. I realized I can’t disappoint her, even if she didn’t exactly know what was going on.

For the past few days, we’ve been getting along great. She nearly sleeps through the night, doesn’t bite the water bowl (I’m still under attack, though) and lately she’s been having dreams too! They’re about biting, I presume.

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges

I’ve never had a dog in my apartment. When I was a child, the dog that belonged to my family wasn’t allowed in the house. Full-time care for a living being in an enclosed space that she’s not allowed to leave (she’s not vaccinated yet) is something I’ve never done before. After a while, it’s not as hard as it seems. I imagine that’s what having a child is like.

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

24 hours, 7 days a week.

LO6 - Engaged with issues of global importance

Abandoned and neglected pets are not individual cases, but a systemic problem. 2,800 cases of animal neglect have been investigated by Polish courts in 2017 only. By helping a foundation that takes the time to change this, I feel I’ve contributed to the cause.

LO7 - Considered the ethical implications of their actions

Life’s harder now, that I can’t deny. But I feel like I’ve done the right thing. And the thing is, this doesn’t even feel satisfying in an emotional sense - this was a decision based on a logical and consistent employment of my moral code, and I feel proud of that.

LO8 - Developed new skills

I’ve gained some interest in dog training - and it’s working! And I’ve got to say a dog has never listened to me before. While Thelma’s quite insubordinate herself, “sit” has started working two days ago.

I’m going to update on Thelma quite regularly now, since there’s a lot going on with that dog.

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY

Most people find some degree of pleasure in a tasty meal. While this might be a truism, it’s also a fact that has powerful implications for the planet Earth - mostly because over 90% of the world population consumes animal products, the production of which has been proven by numerous studies to be a leading cause of pollution and land degradation and is known to consume as much as a 100 times more resources (land, water and energy) than the production of plant-based foods with a similar nutritional profile. Not to mention the inhumane nature of the process itself.

Knowing that, and having been vegetarian for four years, I’ve decided to cut all animal products out of my diet (with the exception of honey, the production of which can actually be beneficial to the environment and bee population). This decision presented a challenge. I, as most people, also enjoyed a tasty meal. I enjoyed a pancake, a quality cheese, a nice poached egg with my breakfast. Hell, before I went vegetarian, even a rolada śląska or a chicken noodle soup. Unfortunately, I also enjoyed integrity.

Necessity truly is the mother of invention, and as time passed, that became more evident. Rice and beans weren’t doing it for me anymore. Neither was hummus. I craved the flavours of my Silesia childhood, and drooled at the sight of non-vegan meals prepared by Michelin-starred chefs in YouTube videos. I had a dream, and that dream was vegan Polish fine dining.

A quick search proved I needed to learn how to make quality food myself. Luckily, around the time I made the decision to go vegan, I started working as a waiter at a vegan sushi bar, and started researching Japanese cuisine. My first idea for a meal was a variation of the Polish chicken noodle soup, and I’ve learned that in Japanese cuisine, a vegan stock prepared by infusing water with kelp called kombu dashi is used to flavour soups, as well as shiitake  dashi, prepared with shiitake mushrooms. That was my starting point. I picked up some dried kelp at my local Asian market, and used dried Polish wild mushrooms instead of shiitakes to put a local spin on the idea. The outcome was wonderful - my vegan broth gained the same umami flavour I remembered from a chicken stock.

A carrot-bay bolete soup with homemade noodles, wilted spinach and roasted celeriac with a bilberry-miso glaze

A vegetable-kelp soup with abura-age (fried tofu), blanched bok choy, sesame and nori seaweed

After that breakthrough, I’ve started learning about traditional Asian meat substitutes and playing with various types of them. Vital wheat gluten (seitan), soya mince, yuba (tofu skin) and mushrooms (mostly oysters and portobellos) became necessities in my pantry. I’ve also researched varous kinds of tofu, plant milks and egg substitutes (such as flaxseed or, unexpectedly, oatmeal). To top that up, I’ve learned quite a bit about fermented foods and using them to “crank up” the flavour of vegan dishes. My first foray into that was a jar of soured honey!

Vegan flax pancakes with caramelized pears in soured honey and a lemon-soymilk sauce

Quinoa with seitan strips, guacamole, habanero salsa and corn

Grilled portobello mushrooms with a redcurrant liqueur-balsamic vinegar glaze, corn cob, pomegranate-orange-rocket salad

Soon enough, it became evident to me that I had some culinary talent in me! One thing I didn’t feel completely confident with was desserts. The first dessert I made since going vegan was a jasmine tea and persimmon jelly, and it was absolutely disgusting. I mostly stuck to fruit afterwards. However, after a while, I decided it was time to keep trying. And so, I tried to bake some cookies and banana bread.

The cookies were hard as rocks, but the banana bread actually turned out alright! I started researching egg substitutes again, and it turned out bananas actually work in a similar manner as eggs. During the process, I’ve come across a recipe for a silken tofu cheesecake. I knew I had to try that. For the first time, I succeeded completely!

Me, making that cheesecake

The same cheesecake, partly devoured. I couldn’t stop myself from eating it before I took a picture, sorry

Seitan nuggets with broccoli, curry rice and vegan tartare sauce

Grilled yuba with simmered white radish, deep-fried leek threads, and julienned carrot with perilla

Overall, veganism so far has not only been a right ethical decision, but also, unexpectedly, a great adventure and an outlet for my creativity. I felt I’ve overcome some obstacles along the way - finding some ingredients required quite a bit of dedication and searching, not to mention the availability of information I wanted. For example, one thing I wanted to research was shojin ryori, a Buddhist Japanese plant-based traditional cuisine, but most of the resources were in Japanese or broken English. However, after a lot of snooping, I’ve found an electronic copy of the cookbook Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions on Amazon, and found a lot of inspiration there (for example, the recipe for simmered white radish). When tasting that radish and feeling it basically melt in my mouth I thought to myself that dedication pays off. And it really did.

Right now, I can’t wait for spring. I’ve been reading up on edible flowers, traditional Silesian food, a variety of Polish vegan foods (mostly pickles), and as soon as fresh vegetables and flowers start hitting the markets, I’m hoping to harvest my crop, so to say. I’ll be following up with an update then.

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

I’m a pastry chef now.

LO2 - Undertaken new challenges

LO7 - Considered the ethical implications of their actions

LO8 - Developed new skills

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY + SERVICE

me (right) and my best friend, as I took the stage.

Last Saturday, something very important to me had happened. I played a concert an a charity event called ONKOŚWIR (loose translation: onco-wacko), organized by the Warsaw indie music community to help fund the treatment of Michał, a teenager inflicted with an agressive form of leukemia. The concert was also the premiere of my debut album, called TYCHY after my hometown.

This was a sacrifice to me. Not only in that I volunteered to play the album without compensation (this was a very small part of what I felt was important). The album I made deals with themes of childhood innocence, family and dreams, things which were extremely private for me. Writing the album, which took me over a year, was a very private, emotional and introspective process - I managed to finish it only after 3 days in seclusion, in an empty apartment with only my laptop, headphones, microphone and a sleeping bag. The thought of playing it live was scary to me, to say the least. I was never going to do that, or so I thought.

My friend Kuba, who also runs my record label, met me for dinner one of these days and told me about his plans for ONKOŚWIR. I immediately thought about my previous experience with a charity show and the satisfaction it gave me, and on the spot I decided to offer my services, so to say.

As I took the stage, under immense stress, I thought again about the value that art creates. The sight of a packed room before me was a testament to that. I felt that overcoming this stress would not only help me progress as an artist and a human being, but also be a treat to people who chose to help Michał’s cause. I closed my eyes and started singing, and everything fell into place.

I felt like a gained a new skill that day, and that was dedication. As I was writing this post, my computer suddenly turned off, and I lost all of my work. Before this Saturday, that would’ve made me not want to continue, but today, I resumed my work instantly.

Another skill I felt I’ve developed was something that was very important for my creative endeavours - and that skill was opening myself up in front of people. My thoughts and emotions were my artistic strength. I showed my soul in front of a crowd of people I barely knew, and that was cathartic, to say the least. And I can say, gladly, that it was the feeling of empathy within me that helped me do that. I felt I could be understood, and I felt I could do something worthwhile.

Both of these skills helped me make another unrelated step in life - I started swimming! I will be following up on that this week.

fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/550536302093813/

“TYCHY”: https://enjoylife.bandcamp.com/album/tychy

LO1 - Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

LO5 - Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

LO7 - Considered the ethical implications of their actions

LO8 - Developed new skills

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY + SERVICE

Last Saturday, me and me friends organised a cat-themed fundraiser party for JOKOT, a Warsaw-based non-profit that runs a cat shelter. In addition to organising the event, I played some of my music as Mlody kotek (Polish for young kitten) there. Overall, we’ve raised over half a thousand zlotys, all of which was spent on medicine and food for the shelter cats.

I was thrilled to have an opportunity to both pursue my dreams in music and help a cause which I care for deeply, and the event left me with a sense of great fulfillment. During the party, I had a conversation with a DJ who also played some music that night about how often artists fail to consider the importance of a certain “giving back” to community and sharing, given that many of them are preoccupied with securing a comfortable existance for themselves. This reminded me of CAS learning outcome 7 - the considering of ethical implications of our actions - and I felt as if a piece of the puzzle which my CAS reflections were to me has somehow natually fallen into place.

Are we, as members of society, obliged to give back even if not doing so might help us live more comfortably? Or maybe should we think of ourselves first, and only after achieving personal comfort can we put our energy in helping? I believe the first statement to be truer to the spirit of empathetic living. On top of this, I felt that the satisfaction of sacrificing some cash and time for the greater good was much larger than that of spending that cash on expensive imported Japanese candy at my local grocery store. Cats are sweeter anyway!

facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/308938733288019/

LO3 - planned and initiated activities

In this case, mostly the “planned” part - I’ve helped set up some technical stuff for the event and the timetable.

LO7 - considered the ethical implications of their actions

As stated before.

[merrychristcas]

ACTIVITY

Regular physical activity has never been a strong side of mine and, as such, it was also what I worried the most about when starting my CAS adventure. Yet, over the past few months, I’ve managed to overcome my inability to maintain an exercise plan and have started exercising regularly at home. I’ve started with push-ups and sit-ups - these were the only exercises I’ve heard of at that point. As of now, I’ve switched to mostly doing bicep curls (since these can be combined with other activities such as learning) and using an exercise bike.

Overall, I’ve found that while there’s no noticeable effect on my physical health, the systematic nature of my exercise does make me feel better - it’s most certainly a new skill I’ve developed, and I’m fairly proud of that. My tendency to overlook this form of self-improvement has been something natural for me before - as of now, regular exercise has become a norm, and I plan to pick up running and cycling again when spring comes.

[merrychristcas]

SERVICE

Remember the KatMUN logo? Well, this is it now:

After working with my class last year on the graphic design of well, everything for the 2017 Katowice Model United Nations conference, I’m returning this year! Everything is new, the Secretariat is new, the venues might be new: This is reflected in the logo change. 

Since the conference just starts in January, not much has been done yet, graphics-wise; however, I’ve already had the pleasure of collaborating with the organisers on aesthetic decision, and I can clearly see the progress I’ve made in cooperative work since the last KatMUN. This time, I’m getting along better and making choices together is easier. One example of that is the typeface I used: while I opted for a similar one as last year, the Secretariat demanded a breath of fresh air. Together, we’ve worked out a solution: the same typeface as before for the logo, but a different one for announcements. 

Working with the same initiative for another year feels great due to another thing: a sense of community and devotion. I’ve volunteered to work for KatMUN this time unprompted due to that exactly - I just felt it would be nice to have a part in the organisation of a great event like that. That’s also the reason I chose to work for free - while I have been doing projects of a similar scale commercially, there’s sometimes situations where the compensation is satisfaction. KatMUN is, and will forever remain for me, one of them.

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY

Ah, the holidays - the time of leisure, laziness and freedom! Or, in my case, working shifts at a coffee shop as I struggled to make a living away from home and saving for my goal: co-organizing an one-of-a-kind music event. Finally, after struggles with money, venues and permissions of all kinds, together with two of my lovely friends we organized HUCPA in Dom Slowa Polskiego in Warsaw, an usually-vacant gallery space. I also had the pleasure of performing at the event with a group of wonderfully talented people (representing the record labels MAGIA and enjoy life). 

(this is me on the right, singing about sadness, trains and kittens, wearing all white, like an angel or an altar boy)

Money was definitely a struggle - we lost some, we earned some (mostly lost though). It was, however, worth investing in our creative endeavours, and seeing people have fun at the event was priceless. The limited amount of time we had didn’t help either - I hadn’t finished writing the music for my live set until a couple hours before, being busy with work earlier on. This taught me a valuable lesson: Passion and responsibilities can go hand in hand, even if it seems impossible. Sometimes they’re even complimentary - for example, the money earned at work allows you to rent equipment for a musical event, or the experience gained at school allows you to find your path in life. :)

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY + SERVICE

My wonderful classmates are planning a charity event - an auction/concert - with the proceeds going to a young boy with leukemia. I’ve had the pleasure of designing posters and a visual key for the event:

It’s a great opportunity to help not only my great friends but also a person in need, in this especially tragic case - a child in need. I can now only hope that the posters (soon to be hung around our school) will be eye-catching enough to convince some of the kids to help in some way, and make our impact as big as possible. This was my first opportunity to work in my favourite field - graphic design - for charity, and I must say it gave me not only an opportunity to think, but also to reevaluate the goals most IB students have in life. Wasting money on foreign universities and exams is not anything we’re in a position to do - as people priviledged enough to go to an IB school, our main goal should be to help. 

That’s why I chose to put my time and resources into establishing Przestrzeń Ludzka (Human Space), a community-oriented graphic/urban design studio aiming at creating a more inclusive cityscape in Katowice, Poland for low-income and disabled people. I’m currently working on legalising the organisation, recruiting members and hoping to start its first official action in the next few months, namely offering the creation of visual identities, logos and store layouts to small, family-owned businesses with minimal charges. Putting pressure on governmental organisations to reconsider the way in which public spaces will be planned is another aim. If everything goes right - I’ll be providing regular updates on the initiative here. Wish me luck!

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY

https://enjoylife.bandcamp.com/album/nie-lubi-my-le-o-niemi-ych-sprawach-gdy-nie-jestem-w-stanie

An update on the music-making stuff - a friend of mine put out an album recently, for which I provided one of the tracks. It was a fun exercise, since I’m not really used to collaborative working in music - while I have been doing quite a few things for CAS working with other people, my creative endeavors were usually conducted on my own. Anyway, I’m really glad to have my music put out by an actual label. Makes me think a lot about how hard work pays off.

[merrychristcas]

SERVICE

Since 2017 started, I’ve been giving a homeschooled acquaintance some English lessons. Currently, we’re doing the curriculum for 1st class of high school - something that I know, after my 1st year in Mickiewicz, better than I ever knew any part of the Polish schooling system. Since my student, so to say, is homeschooled, it’s hard to assess progress - however, I’m quite sure there had been some. Grammar mistakes are getting less common, for one. And I’ve noticed I, myself, am learning something as well - my skills in communicating knowledge had always been rather low and I’m seeing proper improvement in that area.

[merrychristcas]

CREATIVITY

I pretended I can cook last week.

For me, preparing food more sophisticated than a sandwich has always been one of those things which I was somehow fascinated by and wanted to do properly, but never had the drive to do that. Usually, my culinary ambitions were satisfied by watching YouTube videos of other people cooking beautiful food. However, as I’m on a never-ending path to self-improvement, I realised something needed to be changed. I felt an inspiration to make theory work in practice. That practice was some sort of a pancake-filled-with-spinach-and-other-stuff-traditionally-considered-healthy-and-tasty dish. While it didn’t turn out particularly good (or good at all), I did learn how to make pancakes (as in ‘bake’, or whatever the proper term is). There is progress. There is hope.