IB Orientation Trip

From august 28 to august 30th the class of 2014 took a trip to Kithulgala. This was the IB orientation trip. The purpose of the trip was for us to get to know each other more, take risks and most of all work together. During the course of the 3 days I learned a lot and overcame many challenges. On the first day the moment we arrived in kithulgala we were all geared up and put on a raft. We were going to raft our way to the camp. This it was a challenge. To be put into a situation like that so suddenly we had to transition quite quickly. We rafted to a small area where we played this game where we had to jump over the rafts. This was quite challenging to me especially. First of all I don’t like being put on the spot, second I had the feeling that I was going to slip and fall and I might get embarrassed. But I did it anyway.Rafting alongside 6 other people helped me work collaborativley with others The first day was nothing compared to the second day. We were faced with harsh rainfall, had to hike to a waterfall, climb down the waterfall and THEN hike in the cold to a cave in order to get to our TOK class. Starting with the hike, I have low stamina. I get tired really easily and one of my goals is to build up my stamina so I can play sports better. On the first day I undertook a new challenge The abseil down the waterfall was also challenging because I am deathly afraid of heights so I took a big risk there. I remember being halfway down the waterfall I started panicking as I looked down but then I realized that it was me who was going down the waterfall and no one else can do much for me, so with this new realization I managed to reach the bottom. Even though I loved the feeling of completing such a task I don’t think I’ll do that again. As I said before I have really low stamina and the hike back down and up again to the cave was long , hard and cold. I had just finished an exhilarating task of coming down a waterfall I pretty much used up all my energy there I didn’t think I’d be able to continue to the cave but working collaboratively by helping my peers out I managed to get to the cave.

Something that came out of the trip that stuck out to me the most was I became more aware of my surroundings. I am quite day dreamer but because of the setting and circumstances of the trip I had to be more aware of my surroundings. This could be a good skill for the IB because I tend to zone out during class so becoming more aware will be proved to my advantage.