Ryan's Well

Early in March, Margery told me about a bake sale idea that our fellow classmate, Jayna Sames, has originally concocted. The funds would go to a foundation called Ryan’s Well, which provides for wells in communities in Africa that lack these crucial water sources. Along with classmate Tracey Fu, Jayna, Margery and I, we brought in an assortment of baked goods. From Jayna’s oatmeal cookies, to Margery’s brownies, to my homemade Costco muffins, we delighted the school with our culinary talents and brought in about $380 dollars that will go to Ryan’s Well foundation.

I learned quite about teamwork and planning with the Ryan’s Well bake sale (it was actually my first one.) For one, it took good communication to organize and distribute the copious amounts of food that each of us brought in. With the overload of hungry students during the sale, we needed to make available all of our baked goods during the most hectic 15 minutes. We coordinated our effort to serve the most customers possible as we each took a certain side of the table. Without such organization, we would have made significantly less money.

I also considered the ethical implications of my actions and the global importance of “thinking globally, acting locally”. In the US and in our local community, water and food resources are accessible parts of our lives, we seldom appreciate that they are always available to us. However, to those who need Ryan’s Well’s help, water is part of their everyday struggle. By bringing this problem to the DCDS community’s attention, we are doing the best we can to address this international problem in our local community.

Helping Japan

In the last week, news coverage everywhere has been covering the Japanese earthquake and the devastation left by the following tsunami. As I witnessed the devastation occurring on the other side of the planet, I thought of the International Baccalaureate concept of “think globally, act locally”. With this notion in mind, I began to think of different ways to raise money to alleviate the pain many Japanese people feel at this moment. Already at DCDS, a group of students have planned a bake sale (I don’t think the administration would allow a second baking event). However, after considering this option, my mind wandered back to charity tennis tournament which I have at different points in the year been planning. The conflict in Japan has inspired me once again to redouble my efforts on the tournament in hopes of raising a substantial amount of money to send to Japan.

At the current moment, I am trying to overcome the obstacle that has held me back in the past: finding sponsors to facilitate an affordable t-shirt give away and supply food at the event. My mom has already volunteered her OBGYN firm as a potential sponsor, but I seek to get other organizations in the company involved. I know that that my hometown, West Bloomfield, has a substantial Japanese population that would appreciate the gesture and would be interested in participating in the event.

Of all the IB learning outcomes, the one which best applies to my reinspiriation is #7: the consideration of the ethical implications of my actions. Though clichéd, the motto “treat others as you want to be treated” has inspired this latest effort to run the charity tennis tournament. Though the multi-cultural understanding fostered in the IB curriculum, I feel a connection to those people suffering in other countries despite the cultural disconnect between us. The pain of the Japanese people is my pain, and I seek to do my part in the recovery by raising money though local activities.

Culture Day 2011: A Learning Experience (Written 2/27/11)

As I have mentioned in my previous post, the planning of culture day was a daunting task to say the least. If I had to cook one more latke, I think my kitchen would have self-destructed. However, despite the stress leading up to the event, I am happy to say that the Jewish table had a strong showing. Between Margaux Hyman, Joe Juszak, my brother Alex, and me, we were able to wine and dine the many students as they sampled our matzoth ball and potato knishes (among many other dishes). Along the way we were hoisting people up in chairs (a tradition and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs) and singing in Hebrew the few songs we knew.

I think our group achieved learning outcome #6 to its full extent. The crowd seemed to be never ending; though we had a never ending supply of food, it took great effort to properly plate each sample for the full hour lunch period. Overall, I learned that within me is the ability to lead people and organize them into a successful operation. My leadership as captain of the tennis team called upon these skills in dealing with day to day conflicts, but I have had to make such a flurry of decisions that determined the success or failure of an event.

Overall, the most important part of Culture Day was that we had fun with it. I only wish that I knew how great this event was when I was a freshman; four years of participation would have been lovely. I learned a lot of things from the Culture Day experience, but more importantly, I discovered a pride in my Jewish culture that I thought I had lost long ago.

Representing My Culture (Written Feb. 20, 2011)

Since freshman year, I have always enjoyed Culture Day at DCDS. During one special lunch period every February, the many cultures represented within the DCDS community set up food tables during lunch to sample the edible parts of their cultural heritage. Although a relative minority at DCDS, the Jewish faith has always maintained a strong food table during culture day. Those who have participated in the past always had a smorgasbord of latkes, matzo ball soup, humantashins, and many other stables of the Jewish diet.

As a senior, I want to leave my stamp on the culture day activities. For this reason, I have decided to sign up as the head organizer for this year’s Jewish table. Though I am surely in over my head, I know this experience will help me learn organization skills which I have previously not developed. The success planning and implementation of this project will help me better my communication skills, especially with other Jewish students whom I haven’t previously met.

As I will need to have enough food for over 500- 600 students and faculty, the successful undertaking of this job will require that I would collaboratively with others. Already, I have discussed with other Jewish students the possibility of bringing in food. To make sure we do not forget any essential Jewish dishes, I have made a comprehensive list with each of the foods and the expected amount we will need. Even in the early stages of this project, I have surprised myself with the organizational skill I possess. As culture day approaches, I hope that this diligent planning will lead to a successful representation of the best parts of Jewish culture.

From Player to Coach

When tennis season ended, I needed to find a new place to take my tennis skills. Besides staying in shape, I figured that it was finally time to all my tennis wisdom to younger, less experienced players. For this reason I decided to embark on a new challenge: working as a tennis coach. I went into the experience expecting to take from it one thing: my first pay check. However, once I started feeding balls and noticed some of the faults in the kids’ swings, I naturally began to offer advice on the things they could do to improve. Every Saturday and Sunday for the past two months, I have become more and more engrossed in the two hour clinics. What started for me as a way to earn some quick cash has become skill which I try to improve each time I am on the court. I have also had to develop a new kind of relationship: the coworker relationship. In this vein, I have achieved learning outcome #4. My coworkers and I have collaborated together in order to figure out the best way to reach these young kids.

Besides teaching, I intend to reach out to the tennis community in order to start a charity tennis tournament. Along with fellow IBer and tennis teammate Visakan, I wanted to spread the news to other tennis teams around the area in hopes of drawing some interest for a mixed doubles tournament. For a small fee, players would be able compete against other high school kids they know from the high school season and test their skills. I think it could be a great way to have some fun, meet new kids, and contribute to a great cause!

Logan 2010

A few weeks ago, I went to Logan for the last time with my fellow IBers. As usual, it was a rewarding experience. I remembered once again how lucky I am to go to a school like DCDS, where academics rather than subsistence are the students only objective. I was reminded of my summer experience in Costa Rica, where students also came from poorer families. However, the most prominent parallel I drew from the two schools was the students’ ability to look past their struggles at home and enjoy their classmates and the learning experience. Knowing how much the kids enjoyed their time in school, I came prepared to Logan ready to make that school day even more special. I think this is my realization of learning outcome #7: recognizing the ethical implications of my actions. Volunteer time in Costa Rica and Logan has helped me understand that spending time with these kids is far more valuable than just buying them a gift or helping their financial situation. The experience is the most valuable thing I can offer them and that can only be done through volunteering.

We did some very cool activities with the kids this year. The IB group had to work together to assign ourselves to the large group of kids and efficiently (cleanly) get the projects done. The first two groups we worked with had young kids who needed a lot of direction to complete the project. However, the biggest challenge was the last group of kids, which consisted of second graders who spoke very little English. Before I knew it, I was busting out the Spanish I had practiced for four long weeks in Costa Rica!! I really achieved an understanding of learning outcome #8: developing new skills. I have just recently tried to improve my proficiency in speaking Spanish and I took advantage of this opportunity to do so.

I really enjoyed this Logan experience and am sad that this was my last time at the school. I hope that the younger grades understand the importance of volunteering their time with less fortunate kids and take full advantage of this rewarding experience.

Hard Work Pays Off:Editorial on Declining School Spirit

(11/14/10) This issue of newspaper I am working collaboratively with fellow Senior Editor Nirali Shah to write an editorial about the declining school spirit at Country Day. I am looking forward to the planning and follow through of our writing plan because I feel like this is a highly relevant topic in the country day community and should be an interesting read for the Day Times audience. I think that this follows learning outcomes #3, 4, and 8 because I am working with others to come up with a project (in this case the editorial) that should continue to develop my journalistic perspective and writing abilities.

UPDATE (11/30/10) Nirali and I just finished writing the rough draft and it looks great. I think we used good teamwork to accomplish the task. During the interview portion of the writing process we split up the interviews evenly amongst ourselves (we had to get many different opinions) and made the process a rather quick one. We then combined our notes and had a second round of interviews (either important new people or follow up interviews) which we conducted together in order to form a similar perspective on the story. To make the writing process a speedy one, Nirali wrote the first part of the editorial then I added on and made edits to her work. She then followed up by doing the same things to my writing. I think that we chose an effective plan that allowed us to work collaboratively yet quickly at the same time. I am very excited to finish up the editorial as I think it represents some of my best newspaper work in my four years on the Day Times. Hopefully the school community will take the message of our writing to heart and start showing up to more non-academic school events!

The Day Times Year Begins!

As the Day Times starts to begin layout for our second issue of the year, I have started to become accustomed to my role as a Senior Editor. To be honest, there is more work than I anticipated; I expected more of an advisory role to young, inexperienced Day Timers, but have received actual assignments they need work and much thought. For instance, this issue my fellow Senior Editors and I are responsible for both the editorial on Plum Market and the design of the back page. In order to be successful, I needed to fully embody IB learning outcomes 4 and 5: working collaboratively with others and showing preservance in my activities. As a senior, a bit of “senioritis” has threatened to creep into my formerly diligent work habits. I know the effects will first be seen in an activity like newspaper, where perceived less responsibility would cause me to “slack off” and neglect my duties to the paper. I have to actively remind myself that I still have to serve out the last year of my time on the newspaper and do so with energy and enthusiasm for my love of journalism.

Nirali, Sunny, Nithya, Lulu, and I have put in hard work this issue that we maintain the quality of the editorial and back page to the high standard it has always been kept. Though we suffered some setbacks in regards to meeting deadlines, we got the work done and we did it well.

The Conclusion to My Tennis Career (Written 10/16/10)

I just came back from my final states, which was a bittersweet experience. It was the perfect culmination to a great season with a great group of guys, who I had the pleasure of leading as captain. Though we did not perform up to the high expectations we set for ourselves, the season was a success in my mind because we bonded as a social unit and made some new friends along the way. Winning the tennis matches is only part of the equation when it comes to being a captain; I also need to promote a good team environment (which for the most part I was able to do) where we get along and can count on each other for support about issues off the court.

States started well for us; every flight won a tough match on their way to the semifinals. However, we were not as lucky the next day, with half our flights (including me) losing in tough semi-final matches. To be honest, I saw that coming; our practice habits disappointed me throughout the year and the Cranbrook doubles teams which defeated us worked harder. For this laziness, much of the blame should be attributed to the captains, including myself, who all too often emphasized having fun over being serious (indeed it was a false predicaments we put ourselves in). With that said, I think that all of the members on the team appreciated the family-like atmosphere we instilled. I know that the young freshman on our team made some new, dependable friends which eased his transition into the high school. So while we may not have come in 1st place at states, I know that we had the closest, most friendly team around.

Heredia, Costa Rica - A Lasting Experience (Written 8/1/10)

As my Costa Rican experience comes to a close, I feel as though I have grown both as a person and as an IB student. Coming to Heredia, I was very worried about my ability to speak Spanish and adjust to a culture very different than the American culture. I think IB Learning Outcome #2 "Undertake new challenges" really applies to my trip. I had struggled to speak in Spanish class last year and I was really proud of my ability to put myself out there and feel comfortable making oral mistakes. In the end, I think my Spanish has improved, but more importantly I have a new found confidence in my ability to speak (which should have untold benefits come AP Spanish time).

I have also successful immersed myself in learning outcome #3: “Plan and initiate projects". At many times during the community service portion of my trip, I found myself leading the group and planning how we would accomplish each goal. Though we had a plan the whole time for what we were going to accomplish at Calle Hernandez, I thought I did well to lead us through the road bumps in achieving our ultimate goals.
Learning Outcomes #5 and #8 go hand in hand. I would not have learned all my new sanding and painting skills as well as my teaching skills if I had not stuck with the program and fell back into my comfort zone. I pushed myself into unsure places and came out stronger because of it.

Beside all of the IB learning outcomes, I enjoyed meeting people from all over the US and all over South America. I enjoyed spending nights talking to my host family just as much as playing soccer with the kids. One of the most important lessons learned is that there is more than one way to live your life. Though the lifestyle in Costa Rica was much different than in the US, the people there enjoy a unique living experience which is just as beautiful and loving as that in the US. More than anything, a respect for differences in culture springboards intercultural understanding and bridges the gap between Latin American culture and United States culture.

Heredia, Costa Rica - Jugando con los ninos (Written 7/24/10)

Today we began the day with a 6:20 wake up and the usual breakfast of eggs and fruit. After a 30 minute bus ride to la escuela, we began our work on the bars (again). I never knew de-rusting iron could be so difficult! As a group, we split up the work and got it done by 2 PM (after 3 and 1/2 exhausting hours of sanding). The work was more enjoyable after we began to converse in Spanish with LPI member and the students. We told funny stories about the Manuel Antonio weekend and continued work under the hot Costa Rican sun. After another lunch of turkey sandwiches, (on a side note, the cooking from Mama Tica has been consistently phenomenal) we spent an hour playing silly games in the storage room doubling as a gym. I was pleasantly surprised with my ability to communicate and understand the students and teachers (though I would like to string more than 10 word sentences together in future). I am surprised at how much I enjoy the children’s' company; I am very receptive to their smiles and attempts to speak with me.

As an IB student, I have begun to recognize the global implications of my work here in Costa Rica. Leaving North America for the first time in my life, I see now how less fortunate people then I need help from those that can offer it. It should be an obligation of those who have had academic and health education to help people in any way possible. Like I have mentioned in previous posts, the most insignificant knowledge that sees obvious to us needs to be imparted on to these people, information that could change their lives for the better

Heredia, Costa Rica - Day 2 of Community Service (Written 7/20/10)

Another great day of community service! While we spent our first day starting the arduous task of sanding the desks and rusty bars on the classroom, today was spent finishing off the bars, a precursor to the painting we will do tomorrow. It took me a while to understand the significance of this painstaking work. I realized that even the slightest aesthetic alteration to the school (whether that be freshly painted desks, non-rusty school bars, or a clean white board) betters the learning environment for these kids. I can tell from my interaction with them during the game and learning time how important school time is to them. Coming from impoverished or violent homes, these young children (aged 5-15) appear so happy despite their tumultuous home life. I realize now how lucky I am to attend a fantastic school like DCDS. I take for granted the clean bathrooms, freshly painted walls, and manicured athletic fields that DCDS has provided for me since Junior Kindergarten. The school has placed me in a safe, sanitary learning environment, which allows me to focus on my school work, not where I am going to take my next bathroom break. This is why every scrap of rust off the bars or every marking of graffiti off the beaten up desks means one little step closer to making their impoverished "Calle Hernandez" school closer to becoming the premium school I have attended all my academic life.

The children themselves are so delightful and eager to meet the mysterious foreigners who get to do the cool yard work. I only hope that a intelligent, polite young girl like Pricilla can beat the unfair odds stacked against her and have success with her academics. The highlight of my day was seeing her smiling face after a funny moment during a game of "Telefono". After giving her candy when we finished the game, she kindly thanked me in English, her second language and pranced off to do more school work. She may learn at a poor school in Heredia, but I know a potential DCDS star when I see one.

A New Year at the Day Times

Last week, the Day Times (our school newspaper) named the new positions for the next school year. I was happy to hear that I will be a senior editor for the 2010-2011 school year. The senior editor position in past years has been known as a “joke position” for seniors who were not named editor-in-chief, however I intent on taking full advantage of my opportunity to help the next generation of Day Timers and imparting the knowledge I have collected over my three years.

The sports section has been my passion for the last three years and I will need to be especially helpful next year because our sports editors have very little of sports in general. I feel an obligation to “give back” to my section, and have already in this last issue begun the process of guiding the way for the new sports editors. I am excited to see the new editors show much passion and efforts towards creating the best sports section possible. Being a year older and wiser, I have found it important to help the new editors become acclimated with sports like last year’s senior editors helped me. This helps me achieve the fourth IB learning outcome: Working collaboratively with others.

Another exciting aspect of my senior editor job is the honor given to us of creating the back page of the newspaper. I have always thought of the back page as the second most important page in the entire Day Times (behind the front page) and it is important to make the best page possible to attract other students to the paper. This less rule bound page has gotten my creative juices flowing, an opportunity I have seldom been given. For this next issue, the other senior editors and I have come up with a great idea which I’m sure the DCDS community will enjoy.

Summer in Costa Rica

As the summer approaches, I am getting excited about my upcoming trip to Costa Rica. During my four weeks in Heredia, Costa Rica, I will be staying with a local family, immersing myself in the Spanish language. After two weeks of study at the local college, I will be doing community service at the local school and environmental center. Of the many activities I will be participating in during my stay in Costa Rica, I am most excited to be helping the underprivileged children at the schools. I have been blessed to have an education which has put me in a prostitution to succeed in the future. I hope to give back when I go to Costa Rica, passing on the love of learning which has been instilled in me during my time at DCDS. This experience will help me achieve most of the 8 IB learning outcomes. I will definitely gain awareness of my strengths and weakness in the realm of leadership. I have never previously worked with younger children for an extended period of time and the time I spend at the school will help me learn communication skills which I can bring back to my local community when I return in August.

Along with working at the schools, I will be helping maintain the environment in Heredia by planting trees and taking weeds out of the soil. Not only will I gain an appreciation of the environment, but I will also learn the value of tough manual labor. This will help me understand learning outcome #5: Showing commitment and perseverance in my activities.

Another important aspect of my trip will be immersion in the Spanish language. I have always thought that in order to show proper respect in a conversation with a person of a different culture, I should be able to communicate with them in their first language. Seeing as Spanish is become of a prominent part of North American culture, I think it is best that I improve my Spanish speaking skills. This is definitely an issue of global political importance because communication cross culturally are severely limited. I hope that putting myself in a different situation and taking myself out of my comfort zone will help me gain self-confidence in unusual situations. Another skill I can use when I return to Country Day next fall.

Gleaners Food Bank

In January I made a trip with a local Jewish youth group to the Gleaners food bank in downtown Detroit. Not only was this my first time interacting with a youth group, but the first time I had been to a food bank in nearly 2 years. The youth group, consisting of 10-15 high school children from around the area, had been working with different organizations (food groups, retirement homes, charities for disaster relief) since their conception 3 years ago; needless to say I was greatly impressed.
Though as a Country Day student we are required to do 10 hours of community service, I feel like I am often too consumed by school work to organize my time doing charity work. When I saw these excited kids very similar to me helping the local community, I asked myself, “What can I do to contribute to the community as much as my fellow high school students?” Here are some solutions I can think of:

1. Waste less time in order to finish school things earlier
2. Put myself out there with youth groups like these to see if they need assistance
3. Find a cause that I am passionate about and work for that cause!

The first cause that comes to mind is tennis; I have a vast knowledge of the sport which should be shared with those who are less fortunate and have not been able to take as my lessons as I have. In future I plan to either do a charity tennis tournament (an idea which I have had yet failed to act upon numerous times) or give free lessons to those in the community who cannot afford them. I think this has important ethical implications; those who are privileged must help those who are not. I have been given many opportunities to learn the sport of tennis and I intend to pass this knowledge on to future generations of tennis players.
Back to the experience at the food bank. The lady who runs this chapter of the food bank told us that there are a growing number of people who cannot afford to buy their own food and need assistance. This troubles me greatly and goes back my previous statement that the privileged must help the lesser privileged.
Our group made bags of food that children would get at school and take home for their family to eat at dinner (there was not that much food in the bags). It looked like donations were running low (perhaps DCDS needs another food drive) and they needed money to purchase fresh meats (a rarity which food banks often struggle to provide). With that said, it was great to see high school kids making a difference. It showed me that regardless of age, people can always make a difference if they put their minds to it.

“It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover”
– Henri Poincaré.

The Logan Experience

The first blog of 2010 is dedicated to a community service venture from 2009: The yearly trip to Logan Elementary School in Detroit. I had heard many positive things about the trip, which I have never been on, and decided that this year I would experience this adventure with the IB group.
We decided that our method of celebrating the holiday season would be to make snowmen and showgirls with the little 4th and 5th graders. I have to admit that I was a little nervous about working with little children. For one, I don’t consider myself to be extraordinarily patient with the little whippersnappers and feared that I would make a little kid cry with a sudden outburst of frustration. I was taken on a new challenge (IB Learning Outcome #2!!) and was ready to test my patience with the children.

As our IB group approached the first class room and I saw the 20-some number of children, my fellow IBers and I realized that we needed to group up to handle the tenacity and energy of the young scholars. Margery Gang and I partnered up and led the children through the activities. We were able to instruct the children with their projects along with entertaining them with fun math games and questions about their favorite hobbies. I thought we worked well together (IB Learning Outcome #4!!) and helped the students have a successful holiday experience.
To my worries of terrorizing the youngsters with my impatience- no such outburst occurred. While there were moments where my head began to ache with all the loud noises in the class room, I was able to maintain my composure and successfully lead the group activity. In this sense I showed commitment and perseverance in my activity (IB Learning Outcome #5!!) by maintain a cool head and overcoming my initial worries.
Overall the Logan experience was altogether enjoyable as I had a fun time with not only my classmates, but the little children who enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs. I am looking forward to another adventure next year!

Another Interesting quote which reminds me of some recent TOK discussions: “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” – Albert Einstein

Getting into College Activity #2: Newspaper

Every 2 months or so, The Day Times (the school newspaper) releases a new issue which is heavily followed by the student body (I wish). While our readership is not at the levels of The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, I feel as though we work twice as hard. This last issue was particularly stress-inducing, as my co-editor Andrew Smith and I struggled to make our initial deadlines and were left catching up to make the final cut. While I could discuss my poor time-management skills for blog post upon blog post, I would rather delve into the trials and tribulations of a sports editor.

The release of each new issue means a lot to me as a writer, editor, and leader. The work needed to produce interesting, innovative sports pages has resulted in many long nights at layout and overall stressful moments. On a daily basis, Andrew and I have a plethora of responsibilities to our section, whether it be enhancing the journalism skills of our writers or communicating with other sections to create a unified paper. Now that the Halloween Issue has been released, I will reader The Day Times from cover to cover, enjoying the “fruits” of the staff’s collective labor. I believe that it is important enjoy and celebrate the results of hard work. All too often (and especially at DCDS), students are constantly slaving away with school work, sports, or other extracurricular activities and fail to grasp the level of their achievements. We need to give ourselves a pat on the back every once in a while to survive the gauntlet known as Detroit Country Day. Take this newspaper issue for example, sports started of slow, but rallied our way back to produce what the newspaper club sponsor called “one of the best sports sections in a long time”; I think that is something to celebrate!

On a completely different note, I have and will continue to experience a tremendous amount of personal growth (that’s an IB learning outcome  ) as a result of newspaper. I am under pressure to meet deadlines and continue the legacy of a top notch sports section, responsibilities which emphasize both my strengths and my weaknesses. Through newspaper, I have come to understand my greatest weakness: TIME MANAGEMENT. As I have already evidenced in this post, time management is a central issue which I am constantly trying to combat. Although I understand that it is my single greatest roadblock from achieving higher levels of success, I have yet to alter or lessen this frustrating habit. I assume that poor self- discipline is the cause to this tragic flaw. As my AP World Lit teacher would say, I have experienced hamartia, but have yet to have an epiphany. I know that if I can correct this flaw over time, it would not only lead to much less stress, but an overall boost in performance.

I will keep my many blog followers (just one at the moment: props to Margery Gang) updated on my progress.

Blog #2: The Power of Friendship

On Saturday, the tennis team concluded the season with our annual banquet at Maggianos. Not only did we experience good appetizers, dinner, and desert, but the best company one could ever hope for. This love fest, filled with complementary speeches, season-long inside jokes, and cheesy laughs was the perfect end to a state championship season.

As an IB student I take many valuable lessons out of the team dynamic, especially the power of friendship. During tennis season I experience happiness unparallel to other times in my life. Internally, I ask the question “What about tennis season makes me so happy?” I do love playing tennis, but that has never brought about any newfound happiness. It must be the team, which in my three years have grown to love. One of the IB learning outcomes is “increasing an awareness of one’s own strengths and areas for growth”; the tennis team has taught me that friendship is not to be undervalued. After my high school experience is over, I think the positive emotional responses, not any test score or goal grade, will be what leaves a lasting impression on me. The stupid, funny moments, the relationships I formed with other student, will be the roots of my character growth which will help me achieve great things in post- high school life.

An interesting quote from a history article: “By the fruit the tree is to be known” – Abraham Lincoln

Intro Blog

UPDATE: This post was written 10/6/09


At the outset of my IB experience, my out of school time has been primarily devoted to the tennis team. I have been committed to the sport of tennis since my eighth birthday and have worked to become a successful tournament and school tennis player. When I earned my spot on the team in ninth grade team, I had very little experience with a team. I played baseball for a brief period during my lower school years, but had placed most of my athletic effort in the individual-sport of tennis. As I have matured into a two-year varsity player, I learned that being a member of a sports team involves more that simply participating in the athletic activity. On a daily basis, I interact with a variety of personality, each of which has helped me grow as a person. Now in my junior year, I have become a team leader whose responsibility is to watch out for my teammates and make sure that there experience as underclassmen is as enjoyable and filled with growth as my freshmen and sophomore year.

I also fill the role of disciplinarian, an unattractive position that has brought out my greatest weaknesses. I have a naturally calm disposition, which has frustrated my ability to “rip” into someone when they are goofing off in practice or being mean to another teammate. I feel uncomfortable balancing being a friend and a leader; I want to have fun just like everyone else, but I know that in the long run the team must be disciplined and work hard. In future, I cannot hesitate to be “mean” which often ends up just “being honest”. Everyone needs criticism to remain humble and stay focused on winning a state championship. As a senior next year, I need to make sure the team doesn’t get sidetracked and lose sight of the ultimate goal.

Our most recent tennis venture was a trip to Midland, Michigan (the “#1 tennis town in America”). I think bout personally and as a team, we were excited for the upcoming task of knocking of the top-ranked team in Division I (Ann Arbor Huron) and Division II (Midland Dow). Being the number one team in division three, we knew that this was our chance to earn the title of number one team in the entire state. With such tough competition, I was worried that our team would not bring the right intensity to match the completion. Often, our arrogance causes us to tank, leading to underachieving results.

I was pleasantly surprised with our team effort and we came out with the win. It is amazing what we can accomplish with a little effort and discipline. On another note, being the number one team in the state means so much, yet so little. While it is nice to get recognition in some local newspapers, our ultimate goal of a state championship has yet to be accomplished.