Final Reflective Essay

Being involved in the various CAS/L activities has given me the confidence to try new things. The scope of what I have participated in just this school year amazes me. I have participated in building a bridge in rural Kenya. I have extended my comfort zone; I ran my very first competitive track meet and acted in my first play! A year ago, I never would have thought I had the courage or mental stamina to complete these things. I was filled with such euphoria during and after these two events that I plan to pursue both drama and track and field in college. My skill set continues to grow as I continue to cook, run, direct, and lead clubs. I’ve learned how to effectively manage a group. How to substitute eggs with flax seed. How to keep my knees up and my torso straight. I’ve learned that things do not always work out the first time, and that if you can handle the stress when something seems especially scary (“Oh my goodness, we have a week until this show opens and we still can’t get the cues right”), everything else will seem easy.

I also saw how working towards a seemingly impossible goal, like building a bridge across a river in two days, can be successfully completed with team work. In fact, so many of my activities this year could only have been accomplished through proper communication and appreciation of team members. The ISSEA tournament introduced me to the pressure of an international event, and we, as the staff, had to use each other’s strengths to create a working tournament. Students for the Environment only works as a club if we all share the work and participate in the rewards of our work. The times we are most successful are when we can come together and be active, like when we care for the trees in the nursery together. The projects we are undertaking, like the recycling and restructuring of the environmental policy, can make a difference in the ISK community as a whole and I am proud to be a part of such a benevolent change.

The last big lesson learned from my CAS/L activities is the power of tenacity. Even when copious corporate sponsors had refused to support the Friends of Marich initiative, we kept calling. And eventually, we found enough, and we made a difference. I watched the kids who trained the hardest in Track practice go on to succeed at meets and events. They never gave up. As William Bradley said, “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.”

I hope that the activities from this year will become greater parts of my life as I continue forward, past graduation, into the real world.

ICS Track Meet

Over Spring Break, I traveled with a small component of the ISK Track and Field team to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to compete in a meet at the International Community School (ICS). The odds were against us; it was a higher altitude, the air was dry, the sun was scorching, and we only had 6 athletes, where other teams had over 50.

It was a big moment for me. I have been training for months to lower my personal bests in the 1500- and 3000-meter races. You have never experienced true euphoria until you’ve run so hard and for so long that your lungs and your mind are on fire. Every breath burns through your esophagus in a mad rush to reach your lactate-infused muscles. And yet, as with all stark contrasts, the temporary pain you feel, no matter how extreme, just serves to highlight your success. It is the perennial victory of mind over matter. It is the reason that you can become so addicted to exercise. Your success is tangible; it sears the edges of your willpower. That’s why I never quit running, even when I’ve lost a race or I’ve had homework that keeps me awake until 2 am. It becomes a simple input-output function. The more you train, the better your results. I always wanted to push those results higher.

The Addis meet was the perfect opportunity to do just that. It was my first track meet. I was the only Varsity girl on the ISK traveling team, so I had to represent the entire category on my own.
My nervousness was an electric current coursing through my body. I thought I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t worth the stress. My subconscious began presenting excuses, ways to get out of the meet. Perhaps I felt a slight strain in my calf? I shouldn’t exacerbate it by racing. Was that the first sign of a cold in my lungs? It can’t be good to run while sick.

But when they called me for the race, I forced my resolve into an iron mold and held it steady. To my surprise, it went amazingly. I beat my best time by more than 15 seconds, and snagged a second place ribbon. This was replicated almost exactly in my next race. An unexpected victory came along with this: while collapsed, exhausted in the cool down tent, I met the girl who had beat me twice in a row. We uncovered a connection of sweat and hardwork and sportsmanship. This connection grew into a friendship that I value greatly.

Before the races, I had merely hoped I’d cross the finish line. When I was out there, with the track under my feet, I wanted to win. I discovered my full potential, physically and mentally, and an ambition that I hope I never lose.

Oh, and we traveled with a fantastic group! There is nothing like standing in late-night airport security lines and sharing meals of undercooked pasta to catalyze an undying bond between weary athletes. So, I came home with 2 second place honors and a group of fresh friends.

We sang this song every bus ride. I hope it gets stuck in your head. It’s been stuck in mine for days.

Here’s to many more meets and personal successes!

Students for the Environment!

Students for the Environment (SFE) has had a great semester so far! We have begun several conservation-oriented projects that we hope will help incorporate a general sense of environmental activism in the ISK community.

Since the beginning of the year, we have collected paper weekly from all high school classrooms and administrative buildings to be recycled by the local corporation Chandaria. Every week, kilograms of paper are weighed and deposited in the recycling bins in the high school parking lot. The next step is to create a partnership with the elementary and middle school environmental clubs so that all discarded paper on the ISK campus can be properly collected and recycled.

A small committee of SFE members is also working to create a new, comprehensive environmental policy that will be proposed to the Board and hopefully instated as early as next school year. The policy draft focuses specifically on methodology to cut down school water usage, protect important tree species on campus, reform bus routes, and create a carpool network for students living in the same area. We are optimistic that the fruits of this project will endure for many years if the policy is adopted by the administration.

We are also excited to announce the opening of the school’s first tree nursery, which is located near the high school parking lot, behind the library. With amazing guidance from Ms. Scilla Davey, we chose ten tree species that are indigenous to Kenya, easy to grow, and quite beautiful. These are the Podo, Nandi Flame, Terminalia brownii,
Newtonia,
Neem,
Elgon Olive, Caster Oil Tree,
Potato Tree,
Bamba Coffee, and Olea Africana.
Throughout the year, SFE members will maintain the nursery, which opened on Friday, March 9th with 20 Podo and Nandi Flame seedlings. Soon, we will be able to start showing off our nursery to potential buyers. Trees from the nursery will be used to supplement our own future large-scale tree planting projects as well as planted in gardens by independent customers.

It’s going to be a productive, eco-friendly semester!

ISSEA Championship

From Wednesday afternoon to late Saturday night, I have been trapped in Mr. Quinet’s office working on the website uploads for the ISSEA tournament pictures, scores, and standings. Basketball has always been a favorite sport of mine to watch, so I was thrilled to be able to help out with the biggest high school tournament in Africa, even if it meant hours of tedious work. Over the past four days, I have watched more basketball than I ever had in all my previous years combined. I’ve been caught in the tumultuous river of emotions accompanying such an event; swept up in the cheering, the crying, the celebrating, the eating, and the screaming.

The ISSEA staff had to work together closely so that all the operations would run smoothly. The other schools were counting on us to provide a well-run tournament. Communication was key. We set up a system of shifts of different Photography Club members assigned to different games, and once they got six perfect shots, they would report to me. All the pictures went onto this website after being modified and resized:

http://www.isk.ac.ke/page.cfm?p=421

It was a difficult job for all of us. Through the hours of tireless working, we would bring each other snacks, words of encouragement, instructions, and results from various games. We depended on each other.

I had never worked with HTML coding before. I appreciated the introduction to how websites worked. I hope I can develop it further, as website creation is an important facet of most modern-day business structures.

I also learned about the inner-workings of basketball. I had had vague ideas before about the rules (mostly me asking things like “Wait, you can’t run with the ball, right?”), but never before had I witnessed the depth of the spirit, hard work, and dedication that each player contributes to make a team work as a whole. It’s a delicate formula. The fans have to be cheering just right, the coaches have to be advising perfectly, every player has to communicate with every other player. And at the end of the game, both sides have to reconcile their victory or loss and practice good sportsmanship. I think we all have a lot to learn from basketball.

Baking Adventures!

Throughout the year, I have been learning to cook and bake. I want to work in the food science industry when I grow up, so this is merely an extension of my academic passions. About twice a month, I bake a large batch of some confection or savory good and share it with my classmates to receive feedback and further hone my capacity for baking.

Two weeks ago, I made these marvelous pancake cupcakes! A friend and I were joking around about how bakers become too creative and begin to combine recipes that should not be combined. I have seen multiple infractions of what I call “confection-ception”, or confections within confections. Brownies within cookies, cookies within cupcakes, brownies within cookies within cupcakes. As the joke evolved, we began wondering why no one had mixed pancakes and cupcakes before. But, with some simple googling, I found that it had been done:

Through thorough experimentation in the kitchen, I made a perfect batch.

Later, came chocolate cheesecake cupcakes:

Vanilla bean cupcakes:

And this raw vegan chocolate mousse:

And then, to try my hand at savory dishes, I made this gluten-free vegan pizza:

I have been veering towards veganism for a while. I do see a fundamental problem in relying on animals for so much of our daily consumption. The toll that large-scale animal production has on our planet is undeniable. Producing meat, milk, and eggs, requires more space, food, and water than any other industry. Cows produce a significant portion of the greenhouse gas methane. I feel that it is our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet to cut down on our personal consumption habits when it comes to animal products.

And, as I learned while making that heavenly vegan pizza, you sacrifice essentially nothing in the taste department :) 

Fringe Fest

This semester, I have gone extremely far out of my comfort zone with one project, the Fringe Fest. I have always been interested in the production of theater, but I solely studied it from afar or organized it backstage. I decided I wanted to try acting.

The weeks of rehearsal and stress have taught me exactly how taxing acting can be. I have never tried to mold myself into a character. I have never tried to learn lines. I have never forced myself to dance jerkily on stage in front of peers and teachers. These things terrified me.

During our first performance in front of Ms. Hargreaves, I was shaking uncontrollably. I blushed, stuttered, and staggered around the stage. However, we performed the entire thing. I didn’t die of embarrassment. No one threw fruits at us. In fact, all of the other actors and directors were incredibly supportive, giving me tips on how to calm my nerves. We practiced yoga together to get into the “flow”. I was so grateful to have found the theater niche.

With each performance, we got better. By the time we performed for the general public, we shone. I no longer shook, and my lines were forever ingrained in my memory. Our cast worked together like a well-oiled machine, and the chemistry between us all was palpable. The hours of practicing and complaining and telling dumb jokes and laughing until our stomachs hurt had brought into existence an incredible play.

Beatrice, one of my fellow cast members, and I actually wrote one of the plays we performed! It was called "Victory For All", and it consisted of wickedly witty humor and exaggerated movements. I had never written a play before. And even if I had, I never would have performed it if not for the courage I gained from the weeks of practice and encouragement.

No matter how scared you are of something, it will always be worth it in the end. 

Marich IC Trip

This year, I chose to forgo the ritual of the Senior Trip, a week at the coast, and return to Marich, in Northern Kenya. I have gone on the Marich IC trip for three years in a row now. I am very active in the Friends of Marich club, which raises money to implement small-scale sustainable community projects in the area. Last year, we built a bridge. This year, we built a second one. This one was incredibly special because it was built in memory of Sharon and Margaux Brown, a former teacher/librarian from ISK and her daughter. She was the founder of the Students for the Environment club, setting me on a path towards eco-consciousness. We used to argue about the TV show Lost and the book the Phantom Tollbooth. She recommended books that changed my life. ISK has never been the same after her passing. This bridge is an amazing way to honor her memory.

Marich holds my heart in a way that no other place can. I chose it as my 10th grade intercultural trip for the clear skies and filled schedules, but I was unprepared. Everything is dichotomous. Sweat during the day; shivers at night. Blatant poverty; the carefree attitudes of the people subjected to it. I remember the cry of a child who lost his mother to the unforgiving rapids. And the singular smile of a boy whose whole community is welcoming him into adolescence. After the trip, some friends and I founded Friends of Marich, implementing community-based projects in this beautiful, harsh place. Last year, we built a bridge to connect the community to markets, healthcare and schools beyond the treacherous river. This January, we will build another. The work required to achieve this presents another contrast. Despite all the painful persistence, the sound of another potential corporate sponsor hanging up, all I remember is the reward, the joyous singing of the community as we cut the ribbon.

The community welcomed us, as always, as if we were honored guests. We weren’t outsiders. We belonged, in the playful jangle of beads, in the rhythmic stomping of feet, in the cool air and the smell of neem and smoke. The people of Marich smile with more than their teeth, they see with more than their eyes. They live through so much pain and hardship. The fact that we could alleviate any part of that, through this bridge, made all the hard work worth it. Working on the bridge, too, was an amazing experience. Harmon Parker, CNN Hero and founder of Bridging the Gap, taught me the fascinating physics of bridge building. He showed me how to measure wire angles and place a foundation. I learned the invaluable skills of hammering nails (I can still barely do it. It takes me 60 quick hits to sink the nail. The experts do it in 3, tops), laying boards, and setting wire along the bridge boundaries. The physical labor was exhausting.

I wouldn’t trade this trip for any other.