Doubt. That uncertainty feeling that makes us hesitate about our abilities, ideas, capacity, etc. We all live with certain uncertainties within ourselves, and encounter doubts along the way towards success. But what differentiates people who succeed and people who stay somewhere along the way towards success, is the way we choose to react to doubts.
This Monday I encountered a huge doubt. After separating from the “Cuéntame Perú” group, I found myself struggling to find a project. Arianna and I decided to stick together, while Emilio and Matthias drifted apart. It was Monday afternoon, and Arianna and I were planning to approach a project promoting autonomous learning in different schools around Lima. The idea sounds great when you hear it for the first time, but as soon as we started planning the project, a colossal feeling of doubt invaded my mind. I figured that I wasn’t passionate about this project, plus, I didn’t even think it would work. Regardless I decided to ignore the doubt and kept working, just hoping to finish with the project and get a good grade. Mr. Bon noticed this uncertainty and lack of motivation, and requested to have a chat with me. I told him about how I doubted so much in the project, but still preferred to live with those doubts than to drift apart from Arianna and start my own project. After some reflective conversations with Mr. Bon, I finally understood that what I was doing was something completely foolish; I was hanging on to a project I didn’t believe in just by the fear of getting out of my comfort zone and making my own project depending in no one else than myself. I took a leap of faith, and decided to create my own project based on my personal interests: children education, and writing. I finally decided to write a children’s book This experience provided me one of the most valuable lessons I have learnt in the IA.
Uncertainty isn’t what defines your project, but the way you react to it is.
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As a student I found myself reflecting upon what was the best way to train students correctly so they could be well prepared for the rest of their lives. I started thinking about what kind of content would work best, or maybe in what way would kids learn best; but after a long and deep reflective period, I came to the conclusion that the best way to prepare students for the future and the rest of their lives is to teach them how to be autonomous and think for themselves. I think that a lot of times the value of autonomy is underestimated, when actually autonomy is the most precious skill that you can teach a learner. Like the bible says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” It’s the same with students. You can teach a student any kind of content you like, but if he/she is used to only follow instructions and doesn’t know autonomy, then he/she will never have the power to drive his/her own life. Autonomy by dictionary means independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions; it is having the power to drive your own life and be able to push yourself hard using nothing more than your own desire to learn. Something amazing about autonomy is that it’s the fact that you are completely free, and don’t have to depend on anyone else for motivation or to be pushing you to accomplish something.
I look back a year ago, and notice how a year ago I would have never even thought about jogging at 5am; this is proof of how I’ve learned and continue to learn to push myself harder everyday and find motivation in my ambition.
Today we pitched our projects to our parents, they gave us a lot of useful and valid feedback, but the one thing that stood out over everything else was that we should focus in only one topic instead of five, so that we could go more in depth instead of leaving each topic halfway done. This was completely valid, in fact we decided to change our project to only one video; after all it made a lot more sense. But again, we ran into the same problem we’ve had since the first day. W E A R E T O O M A N Y P E O P L E F O R S U C H A S M A L L P R O J E C T. This problem has been torturing the members of Cuéntame Perú since the first day we created the project, but we just seemed to ignore it because it was easier than having to face the reality. We decided to create more useless roles, using them as excuses just to not to have to split the group in two.
I think this new arrangement will do very good to me and to the people in my group, due to that it will push us to get out of our comfort zones and give our best work. Also like this is a small group, I think it’s a great chance for me to work on my leadership skills, that haven’t been really active during the last semester, and start taking leadership roles within the group.
This week we started a new Project in the IA: the topic is freedom. We got together in interest-based groups and chose a subtopic within freedom; my group and I decided to focus our project on Peruvians in the lowest social class, who are held down by the barriers that the Peruvian society sets. As we continued discussing this topic, we touched a variety of points; one of them being that Peru is an extractive society. This point got me thinking about how unlike the US or Europe, which are places that have inclusive societies where the gap between the rich and the poor is not so great, and still live in similar social and economic conditions. Peru is a country where the highest-class people are supper rich, while the lower class lives in extreme poverty. We have a gigantic gap between the rich and the poor, and are lacking a strong middle class that can give unity to a country. We live in a country where if you are born rich you remain rich, and if you are born poor you remain poor; a country where the one who works the hardest isn’t the one that succeeds at the end. This happens because the poor are living in extreme conditions where they are not offered good education or health care, while the rich are receiving much more than that. This doesn’t only puts the lowest class in disadvantage, but makes them drown even deeper, not managing to get anywhere near success. With our project we are hoping to shine the light on those less fortunate who are being pulled down by the barriers of the Peruvian society. We are hoping to reach the hearts of all Peruvians, and make them conscious of the kind of society we all live in. We want to give a voice to those whose voice has been taken by out extractive culture.
While I laid in my bed at night, I looked around my room; it was an extremely dark night where you couldn’t see anything. A slight feeling of fright rushed through my mind, but I immediately cut it out as I thought about how darkness is just the absence of light. Meaning that everything stays exactly the same, except that we just can’t see it. So I thought, why do we fear darkness so much? Could it be that the fact that we don’t know what stands beyond it terrifies us? It is unknown. Us human beings are terrified to face the unknown, we like to be in control of everything that happens around us. We like to take the safe way out even if it’s not the best one. W e d o n ’t l i k e t o f a c e w h a t w e d o n 't k n o w For example, I am the type of person who likes to have everything planned, this is because I don’t like to live with the uncertainty of what may happen next. One of the greatest decisions of my life has been to join the IA. When people were starting to apply, I feared to send my application. I feared that I wouldn’t get in, but I feared even worse that I would. I mean, what would happen next? The IA is a new program with only two generations ahead of mine, I had no idea what would happen when I sent out my application, and that feeling terrified me. Of course it would have been much easier and safe to stay in the MYP, which is a program we’re familiarized with, joining the IA instead was a leap of faith, it was unknown. After all, we have absolutely no control of what will happen next, life is full of ups and downs, chances and opportunities, and as hard as we try, it is impossible to predict.
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June 2015
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