By Ria Pillai, Grade 12 IB Diploma
What is the image that pops in our head when we hear the word ‘learning’? Mostly, it’s the image of a group of attentive students with notebooks and a teacher scribbling on the board.While the classroom prepares an individual to combat an exam, what prepares him or her for life? A lot of us often live in this bubble where we believe that academic excellence alone is the recipe to success. While mankind may have been labeled as civilised, society itself is no less than a jungle where individuals are constantly competing to survive just another day. CharlesDarwin had famously talked about the, “Survival of the fittest” while describing evolution and that phrase can be extrapolated to a human who is not only tested on the knowledge he or she has acquired from basic education, but also tested on skills such as socialising, strategising, empathising, and critical thinking.
As someone who is pursuing an IB Diploma at Trio World Academy, I’m glad that our teachers have made us aware that a global leader is someone who does not refrain from exposure and goes beyond what is their comfort zone. I imbibed these words of wisdom in all earnestness and put them into practice. Alongside managing my studies and academic submissions on time, I began involving myself in extracurriculars that I was sure would benefit me in the future. It all started by partaking in small but important skills such as cooking and giving tuitions and then moved onto bigger projects such as making movies on social issues like the use of marijuana and animal abandonment. You may wonder how is making a movie connected to harbouring life skills? Well, movie-making forces one to explore new areas that concern social issues and converse with people you aren’t familiar with for getting inputs on the subject and shooting the right footage.
Personally, while filming the movie on animal abandonment, I felt disheartened at the way things were turning out, such as not being able to collect the interviews I needed, or getting the right amount of clips, and even not having an adequate number of team members, however, now when I reflect upon this experience, it makes me understand what the work environment is going to be like in any field or career. There are going to be times when one would feel as if nothing is in control, however one cannot quit because of it and must strive to learn and move forward.
Another memorable experience that I find worth sharing in this blog is when I organised the Joy of Giving Week fundraiser along with my peers. It was my first attempt at organising a charity event and after having been used to the lethargy and experience of a pandemic, I kid you not when I say it was a tough chore to convince people to donate. We not only had to make posters and stick them in the corridors, but also go from class to class trying to convince people what a great cause they would be contributing to, and even hold Assemblies to do the same. The whole process was akin to the pressure and responsibility of leading a marketing team, because if people aren’t convinced by your argument, how can you rope them in?
In conclusion, I would like to say that though knowledge comes from a classroom, wisdom is allaround us in the world presenting itself as little opportunities to build upon every single day.
