IB CAS Final Reflection

Two years of IB CAS has finally come to an end. When I looked back, I just remembered how diffident I was at the beginning. However, confidence has built up through many activities I was involved and also by becoming a leader of activities, as well as Community Service leader. Being a leader was not always an easy option, because I had to plan beforehand what we had to do for today and for the next day. For the first time I became the leader of the elective of Beads and Papers, I was always clumsy, nervous and did have troubles planning ahead of the time. However, I talked with my partner and the teachers about what we should do for the next time, which was very helpful. Gradually I started getting ideas about how to deal with problems and how to avoid having problems. This was due to the experience and by getting used to it, by making mistakes to learn. When I realized, I was able to plan and initiate activities, and was working collaboratively with others, in the library service, for example. As there were numbers of earthquakes stroked in Japan, I organized a fund raiser to donate to the Japanese Red Cross with one of my Japanese friends. This was an important issue of global importance, which I later realized by doing it. As I am Japanese and my country was affected, I wanted to do something that I can help them, even though I'm living far away from my home country, at least I wanted my message to be sent, by doing a fund raiser. The number of deaths has increased to 10,000, and still more than 6,000 are missing. Natural disaster is something human cannot prevent from, however we can at least take action to allow fast recoveries of the damages.

In most of the activities I have been involved, I was able to show my perseverance and commitments, except for sports, I did miss some of the practice and sessions. Apart from those, I did attend to all the activities. I tried to be on time, as soon as my classes were finished, I tried to be there as soon as possible, without delay. However there were times when I was late, but before that happened, I've always sent e-mails to the supervisors about it.

Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth. My consideration to the ethical implications of my actions were not shown very often in my CAS blog as evidence. However, I do have the record of what I have done on each day. Although I attended to most of the activities, I failed to update my blog all the time. Therefore during the SAISA Girl's Football, I wasn't able to update my blog on it. So I believe, that updating on my blog, or doing so as a daily routine is what I lack and something that I personally need to improve. Through the two years of IB CAS, I'm quite sure that I developed many new skills, by getting involved with numbers of activities. Planning ahead is my new skill, because I used to go according to the time flows, but now I'm seeking and planning ahead. Co-operating with others is also a new skill. I used to work alone, and I was comfortable working by myself, because that way I can do thing on my own. However, now that idea has changed. I feel better and things are done faster when I'm working with others. I believe there were many improvements I have made in these two years. I realized my weakness and strengths, something I needed to develop and continue, etc. In the beginning I was spending my time on CAS for my own record, but from the second year, I realized that CAS is something that is worth doing for my own good, not just for the IB requirement. I also realized that it would be meaningless, if I do it for the IB's sake, because if I do that, I wouldn't understand how valuable this CAS is all about. Doing CAS increased awareness in me, and I strongly believe it had a good affection to me.