Hi! My name is Alicia, and I am 16 years old. I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, lived in Singapore until I was 12 years old, and now I live in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Growing up, I have always felt that I am quite a creative and curious person. I really enjoyed expressing my creativity through artworks, creating drawings, paintings, and sculptures. I also really enjoyed exploring the world around me, finding out more about different cultures, and traditions. Although I have many interests and hobbies, I felt that as I grew older, I start to lose motivation and interest to do certain activities that I used to enjoy doing, and mainly focused on studying and doing well in my academics. As CAS was introduced to me, I had realized that this would be a great opportunity for me to start doing the activities that I had enjoyed doing again, as well as discovering and expanding more of my interests. I would be able to work on developing my hobbies, finding out what I enjoy doing the most, and also being able to balance my academics and my hobbies.
The IB Learner profile traits that I strongly identify with currently is being open-minded and being an inquirer. When being open-minded, I often view different ideas in several different perspectives, opening up to new ideas, letting myself be more aware of my surroundings, and understanding other individuals more. While exposing myself to new ideas, different cultures, values, and perspectives, it allows me to gain knowledge, and grow from experience. As an inquirer, I often gain knowledge by being curious and interested in the subject area. While having curiosity, it allows me to want to learn more about the subject as I would enjoy learning about it.
The IB Learner profile trait that I currently do not identify with is being balanced. Although sometimes I am able to be balanced, by managing my time well for school work and having free time for myself, it is still a trait that I feel that could be improved if I work a little harder, and procrastinate less. Procrastinating works for me, as I would still be able to complete my work on time; however, it creates more stress for me, and it makes me more worried about whether or not I have completed all my work.
From the CAS program, I hope to be able to destress from the workload given to me throughout the school year, by doing activities that I enjoy, participating in service programs to feel rewarded, and to gain more interests and hobbies. This would help me enjoy my diploma program more, as I would be able to bring myself to try new activities, and to continue doing activities that I am interested in. A personal challenge that I would like to set for myself is to not be afraid to try new things, no matter how difficult it is. If I ever have the chance to participate in an activity that I have never tried before, I should go ahead and do it, instead of thinking about it and regretting about not doing it.