Navratri (an Indian Hindu festival celebrated for nine nights, where friends and family gather in their traditional attires and indulge themselves in a folk dance called Garba in my state, Gujarat) has always been one of my favourite festivals. But I was disheartened for not being able to celebrate it since I was away from home for a year on my long term exchange in USA. So, I decided to organise an event and invite all my friends and host families there to come and indulge in a cultural experience as I thought that the purpose of my exchange included both learning their culture and teaching my culture to them.

L3- initiate and plan a CAS experience

I am usually an organised person and I like to initiate and plan activities. But this time, planning especially was very difficult since I was in a foreign and didn’t know how things worked there. Also, all my school friends were either busy with something else or were simply uninterested as they hadn’t known me for long. It demotivated me despite the fact that I had worked really hard in arranging this event and I feared that nobody would show up. However, it was a success since everyone who made it to the event thoroughly enjoyed it and it also got published in the newspaper. People appreciated me for sharing my culture to them which encouraged me a lot and gave me confidence to initiate plan such activities in the future.

L2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills

I think I overcame the challenges mentioned above by having confidence in myself. It also enabled me to acquire new skills like multitasking and event management. I had never done anything like this before and was proud of my new skills, which made me confident to organise any such event again in the future.

 L5- Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively

I have a mixed opinion of working collaboratively when it comes to event management. I like working with people and taking several opinions, but at the same time, I like things my way which often makes it challenging for me to collaborate. In this event, teamwork was very crucial since I had to collaborate with my parents in India to work out details of the event. It was very challenging because of the time zone but we managed to work effectively whenever we got time. I also collaborated with my host parents who helped me book the hall, order food, etc. since I was new to the area. This event could not have been successful without this important teamwork.

L1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

It also taught me a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. I had to take the lead in managing the event since I was the only one who knew the dance form. It was challenging, but management and communication came out as my strengths. I learned that my major weaknesses were self-doubt and lack of confidence. I’ll work on my weaknesses and develop a positive outlook whenever I plan an activity in the future. This project taught me to be confident, independent and creative, and developed my abilities to be a good communicator and risk taker.

Overall, it was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about myself and people. I hope I can do something like this again.