Over time, once I got used to the loneliness at school and the culture-shock that I was experiencing, I think CAS became the light I was seeing in a tunnel that seemed to be never-ending. Although I saw physical changes happening to me from culture-shock, loneliness and stress of DP like losing weight, having much darker under eye circles, looking more pale and losing appetite on most days, I could not lose myself. I refused to lose myself and refused to leave Taiwan feeling completely empty inside. CAS was the answer.

I feel that this was an ongoing learning outcome that has accompanied all of my CAS experiences. Therefore, I believe that this was achieved to a great extent, given the fact that in the process of starting my blog, I had to identify key lessons from experiences that have been impactful in my life. By doing that, I was able to reflect on my growth while telling a story about what I learnt from this experience. Some experiences mentioned in the blog were happening in Taiwan while some still retained their application to any current problems or difficulties I faced. In a way, the blog was a self-evaluation and a chance to make peace with some experiences as not all were positive.

The motive of the blog itself was both for me to reflect on my growth but also to impact potential readers who perhaps relate to any experiences or are looking for some advice. Of course, as a young adult, I still do not have enough life experience to preach about but this only leaves room for more growth. I feel that my approach to these experiences so far was healthy minded and helpful. Growth is an ongoing process and has many forms so I think it was a good idea to capture it in the form of a blog as a way to track and remember what I learnt from experiences.

I feel that the more an experience teaches you and the more you help yourself heal from it, the better you will deal with other situations and you will be more likely to have a more positive outlook on that experience. I have discovered how to strengthen my mentality through the blog and I think this has really contributed to personal growth as I used to struggle a lot with looking at the negative side of things. Learning, growing and nourishing my mind and reversing the negativity in life experiences has become the key to my personal growth.

Because of this experience, I am more aware of my strengths and weaknesses, meaning I can identify where else I could grow and what growth has improved throughout my life so far. By having this mindset and approaching experiences in such a way, I am more eager to experience new challenges and new types of growth that is yet unknown. With regards to self-evaluation, I feel that I am less critical of myself. What I mean by that is that I have become mature enough to forgive myself for not taking care of myself the way I should be mentally or by thinking of negative experiences as some forms of punishment. I realise that I am still in the process of learning and if I can find it in myself to turn failures and negativity upside down to be good, I feel that I cannot lose and that I am more able than I think. The blog was really like a diary for me that engraved my thought process and my improving approach to certain life experiences I would never think of calling 'positive' before.

This learning outcome has also been achieved to a great extent. Cycling, being a brand new skill that I undertook as a challenge, has required possibly the most of my physical strength. I approached the activity with uncertainty, given that I have never cycled more than 10km before and have never tried to cycle faster than at a jogging pace. Being a new experience in a new environment, I tried my best to see how I can make this more interesting for myself. To do this, I found the app ’Strava’ to be very good. I was able to track my speed, kilometres and calories through the app as well as outline and try different cycling routes near me. When I cycled, I could save the route and see where I have gone. I have developed new skills by increasing my speed using different techniques to not get that tired when I cycle. With regards to challenges, I have challenged myself by cycling to unknown places or places that I have not had the opportunity to fully see or explore. Usually, I just followed my gut and kept going in different directions even when I was not sure what there will be.

This was achieved to a large extent since with the sign language experience, it was a task that required some kind of effective plan in which I can both teach myself and show what I am up to. To do that, I came up with the idea of recording myself do different words I have learnt during the week or even some basic sentences I have learnt. Since I could not find a sign language tutor to see in person and since I also wanted to challenge myself to do something like this independently, I decided it was best to watch sign language videos in my spare time. This helped me to note down the basic hand movements and facial expressions so that I can remember how to say a given word. I decided to choose ASL (American Sign Language) since I found that it was different from what I was used to as someone who grew up in the UK. Out of curiosity, I also watched and researched the differences between British and American Sign Language as I always had the assumption that they are identical. I planned how to complete my CAS experience by seeing what sign language teachers teach first on their channels and take inspiration from that to learn that myself and go from there.

To further push myself to remember ASL, I came up with the idea of practicing while doing daily tasks. For instance, when brushing my teeth I would practice in the mirror how to introduce myself and I pretended I am actually having a conversation with someone in ASL. This added to the efficiency of my plan since I started my morning by practicing and the little ideas I had to help myself even more helped me to initiate and plan along this CAS experience successfully.

This was achieved to a large extent, given the fact that I have successfully managed to create a bond between myself and the Grade 3 students I was teaching. Regularly, or each week, I would come to their classroom and students would volunteer to come and read to me. Initially, I wanted to try different methods with the students and teach them how I was taught English. I foresaw potential challenges during the first lesson I had with the students since not all of them liked reading and not all felt comfortable enough to tell me what they do not understand. This was understandable upon the first meeting and it is what I expected. Therefore, I adapted my methods and approached the students individually. The goal was to show the students that they are more than capable of understanding ‘big words’ and are more than capable of reading fluently. I found that using one universal method, like reading, was not going to motivate or inspire all students to read.

With that, I also had to adapt to times when students finally felt comfortable enough to read fluently or found it enjoyable to read. Furthermore, I had to somehow adapt to the children having a different book to read each week, meaning that I was not fully able to see how well they would read the rest of the book. It also meant that the words I wrote down for them to practice, could be forgotten more quickly as the children would have probably forgotten the context of the word and I would have to make example sentences to make it as easy for them to understand as possible. It was a good idea to teach Grade 3 students as in the future, I plan to tutor English as a hobby on the side so it is great to get some kind of experience with children and be able to get feedback from them how comfortable they are with different tasks etc. I felt very committed to the experience as I felt real responsibility and I could empathise with the children as I also did not speak English at all at one point and I know how important it is to approach the student in an efficient and flexible way to adapt to their comfort, skill and effort.

This was achieved to a large extent as in order to host any school event successfully, as a club, we had to work collaboratively. This meant that any feedback, criticism or compliments from the club leader had to be taken seriously. In the process of planning any school event, I was willing to take on different roles within the team. This ranged from making posters for the event to making QR codes for the event to marketing our club at the event, encouraging people to come and donate for a good cause while also buying something for themselves. As a collaborative group with different ideas and skills, it was of uttermost importance for us all to respect each others ideas and compromise when possible. To make everyone feel heard and respected, we would either vote as a team for the best idea or we would simply integrate both ideas from both students somehow to make it work. I found that having different ideas to each other actually benefitted our collaborative work a lot as it triggered more ideas on how to improve the event. The fact that we were able to assist each other and be each other’s helping hand at all times in each event we hosted was quite extraordinary.

At times, communication gets hindered while working collaboratively and since there was a language barrier between myself and some of the club members, it was hard for communication to be always 100% at its best. However, the benefits of working collaboratively certainly outweigh the disadvantages as the club began to feel more like a circle of friends working for a cause we are all passionate about. It was remarkable to see so many of us engage in such amazing projects and celebrate our successes as a club together.

This was achieved to a large extent due to our consideration and debates, as a club, about the local and global issues with which we could all engage in. Our awareness of global issues and national issues as well as local issues has been shown in the previous events hosted by the club which target different issues such as lack of education worldwide or global hunger, as addressed in the Hunger 12 event. As a club, it was a brilliant idea to get the whole school, as well as teachers involved in our Hunger 12 event. This helped us, as a club, to spread awareness of the issue and educate younger students about the importance of sharing resources, donation and inspiring them to have empathy for those children around the world who are not as lucky as us to have access to food.

The experience taught me how easy it is to get involved with such global issues and how easy it is to help. As a club, we took concrete and appropriate actions to address the global issue by donating to a cause or keeping track of strangers we have chosen to help together. If this was the case, we always protected the identity of the person in need and wanted to encourage others to see that it does not have to take millions of dollars to fix a global issue. By involving parents and children and any other visitors who were interested in our events, we were able to receive donations while giving back to the people who donate. Our awareness of global issues is usually seen by the way our help targets young children since this is an issue we feel strongly about as young adults. Our message as a club was to see the way that help can reach people worldwide and that children need our help the most with regards to how they develop. We wanted, as a club, to see that every child deserves what we have and deserves to be helped. Our work and the school’s involvement with our events showed true humanity and God’s work.

This was achieved to a moderate extent. I believe so due to the knowledge needed in order to safely dispose of chemicals and protect the laboratory in the process of an experiment and take care of the chemicals afterwards. To make ethical and moral decisions in this experience, I had to be educated by my supervisor about how to identify where to dispose of a chemical so that it does not harm the environment or make the learning environment potentially harmful. As a lab technician, I was accountable for the correct disposal and storage of chemicals in the laboratory. This meant checking the contents of containers, checking their pH in order to know how to dispose of the chemical and making sure the laboratory tables are safe for usage for the next class.

To make sure no dangerous chemicals are within the reach of students, it was my job to handle the chemicals that belong under the fume hood with care. Furthermore, it was my responsibility to remind my peers of the ethical issues that concern each experiment, encouraging them to be more careful with the glass or chemicals which are flammable or chemicals that give out a toxic gas. In these instances, I was had to make sure the fans are always on so that no student, including myself, will breathe anything toxic in and take immediate and appropriate action if any accidents occurred. In instances where accidents occured, it was important to consider my choice of actions. For instance, if an accident were to happen, I had to make the choice of taking care of the student myself or terminating the experiment first, potentially risking the student more if not helped immediately. Culturally, since Taiwan is a more collectivist country, I found that helping others in situations where danger occurs was much more valuable than helping myself and thinking about the risk only I faced in an experiment. Since we worked in groups, it was important to make sure all of us are safe and that we all know what to do to help each other in these situations. Taking care of the environment and avoiding toxicity in the environment was a crucial ethical choice that had to be made. Though it took much more thought and checking, it was worth much more than dumping things into the sink carelessly in the long run.