I have to admit in the beginning I wasn't too enthusiastic about the CAS I will have to complete. I was planning on doing sports and playing violin anyway, but the idea of 'having to' to graduate... did not sound appealing to me.
That is why I was surprised few weeks in, when I found that I actually enjoy it. With the amount of work I have to do in the IB Diploma Programme I realised I would have put off some of non-productive in a strict sense activities, as I simply would not find time for them. But CAS made me make time for them and every week, despite essays I had to write, I took out my violin and played. I would be in a different place, emotionally and physically, if I haven't done that on weekly basis.
Another thing, which maybe I haven't enjoyed as much, but still greatly is what wouldn't even cross my mind if it weren't for CAS obligations - tutoring younger students. I have started doing this as a result of my voluntary work in Centrum Kultury Wilanów and it came with many challenges. First was that I had to keep organised and in touch with children younger than me, who would not always remember about our meetings. Secondly, I had to find a way to present and share the knowledge I have in an easy and understandable way and, moreover, do so over the internet. Keeping motivated and teaching a younger kid was by no doubt the greatest CAS challenge I had to overcome as it hasn't come near anything else I have done before - learning a sport or music, I am good at that, I've done it. But this was completely different.
As I was writing the summarizing post I realised how much I learned through various CAS experiences:
I have started two completely new sports (tennis, beginning in PreIB and windsurfing, entirely during the Diploma Programme), played violin, cooked, did various voluntary work... In all these areas I greatly improved since the beginning of IB1 and those skills, whether they are physical or intellectual, will stay with me forever.
