I played badminton with my friends in my society’s play area regularly for the recorded duration of 2 weeks; I continued the same for longer as a means of physical activity and spending time with my friends. My goals included: spreading time with my friends, getting regular physical activity done, and CAS experience. Also, I love playing badminton and I am quite good at it. I had also received professional badminton coaching for quite some months 1-2 years ago.
LO 1 – I already knew of my strengths and weaknesses before doing this activity, in the sense of playing badminton along with my friends. I play badminton well and I am aware of all the strokes that I do best and which ones lack practice or efficiency. Although the purpose of all of us playing wasn’t to have any kind of tournament, still it does turn into a bit of a competition about who is better at what and who wins the round. Thus knowing my strengths and weaknesses helped me work with what I do best all the while developing what needs practice through a healthy competition. I discovered a few newer capabilities of mine and also that some of my tricks and strokes efficiency had declined. Naturally, playing badminton after a huge time gap made me fumble a bit in the beginning but I quickly picked up my pace. The interactions between us made me very happy and content to be playing again with my friends (after a long gap due to social distancing during COVID-19) and we had a good time catching up from where we left off. All of us have been playing various games together since we were kids and know each other well enough to also know each other’s good and weak points and that definitely helped me in picking a good team which could complement my set of skills and aid us in winning as many rounds/sets as possible. Thus knowing our strengths and weaknesses as well as of others help a lot in various manners.
LO 4 – Since the duration of this activity was while my school was ongoing with Extended Essay’s first draft and final submission coming within a few weeks, it required my commitment for me to continue going with my friends to play. But since it was also an activity I dearly enjoyed along with it being a CAS experience, I was able to stay committed to going everyday and showed perseverance towards the activity I took up. It refreshed my mind after a stressful and work-filled day of school and after-school work. I believe I am a highly reflective person, and it’s almost regular that I analyse and evaluate my actions, thought processes, etc. I am usually committed to things I volunteer to do, something which I myself have picked up may that be because of interest, self-development in any area or for any other reason, I have found myself fairly committed towards persistently doing and completing it. Perseverance and commitment holds the steering wheel of the car on its journey to reaching the destination safe and sound going through a road filled with obstacles. To put it simply, perseverance and commitment for anything is what will drive your way to the ultimate goal even if there are uncountable obstacles on the way; it will keep you going. Thus, one of the most important tools one must equip themselves with is commitment and what they must develop is perseverance.
To sum it up, I enjoyed taking up this activity to the fullest and I felt very happy and content with its outcomes as it helped me stay physically active through a sport I love while giving me the opportunity to take the time out to play with my friends after a huge time gap. The highlight of this activity would definitely be the loads of fun we had playing together and the long conversations afterwards on family-sized swing in our society’s garden. I developed and displayed these Learner Profile attributes: Balanced, Reflective and Communicators. Also, since I loved playing with my friends I continued my regular routine whenever I could find some time all the while learning new skills, strokes and winning more matches.
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