I am Vedamsh Vanipanta and the personal project I choose was to make a cooking blog/website which will help me and my audience understand the numerous cultures, customs and flavors in this world through cooking. I am a self-termed foodie, and the personal project provided the perfect platform to deepen my love for food and cooking. To me, cooking is a fun way to relieve stress after a hard day at school. For my personal project, I presented myself with one distinctive goal, which is to make practical connections between what I am learning during my MYP Years and the real world. I believe my personal project experience will aid me to consolidate my learning, thus improving my essential skills such as creative thinking, critical thinking, time management, research skills and analysis and communication.

The goal/outcome of the project was to come up with a cook blog/website (http://www.thefoodaficionado.info/) and present it in an innovative and creative format. I wanted to choose an area where I have minimal knowledge and next to no foundational understanding so that I can expand on this knowledge and develop my understanding through research.

Cooking offered me numerous challenges and helped to learn important life lessons. Things can go wrong in the kitchen, inevitably no matter how prepared you are. But it also taught me there is a reason for everything. We just have to learn to be willing to accept the challenge and be open to the lesson. Life is not perfect. Learn from your mistakes and failures. Food and cooking are tightly woven with culture and the wider world.