Surgeon Survival Guide

This is the last Action Project of my last Senior humanities class "Endurance." In the third unit, Apotheosis, we mostly focused on this action project. We didn't have a lot of time and some of the activities we had planned we couldn't do. We refreshed our memories on Malala and re-read her story. We focused on what we can learn from survivors like Malala. We planned on doing taste tests and participate in a physical endurance field experience but we couldn't. For this action project, we had to create a survival manual for our careers. I want to be a surgeon so I created a survival manual that I can look back on to motivate myself when times get tough. I have always known I wanted to be a surgeon so this project was easy to start for me. This wasn't my favorite class I've ever taken, but I still enjoyed learning about other people's survival stories and thinking about my future as a surgeon. I hope you like my survival manual!

In conclusion, This wasn't my favorite project or class. I enjoyed the process though! I liked thinking about my future and planning for the next part of my life. I struggled with motivation for this project because it is one of my last APs and I was really not feeling up to still working this late in the year. In the end, I am happy with how this project came out. 

12 Hour Challenge: Building Stamina

This is the second unit of my Senior Humanities course Endurance. In this unit, Katabasis, we learned how to dive into our missions and plan them out. The word Katabasis means diving into the underworld. You have to learn how to persevere and adapt to a new and strange place. This is one of the fundamentals of Endurance. We did various activities and watched the documentary Maiden Trip. This documentary was about a 13-year-old Dutch girl who wanted to become the youngest person to sail around the world. The documentary follows her journey across the ocean in a series of video journals. Much like we had to do for this project. This second action project we had to devote 12 hours to something. I had a few ideas, but since we are all in quarantine and I can't skate and get my usual exercise, I decided to devote my time to fitness and more specifically, walking. I like walking and I do it with my parents a lot especially lately. I also wanted to connect it with my future in surgery where I will need to be able to stand and focus for long periods of time. I wanted to increase my walking stamina and I think I was successful! I totaled 8 entries with a total of 12 hours. I spent this entire time walking. Some days were better than others.  The weather cooperated for the most part except for one day when it was too warm for me. Other than that, I was able to avoid rain the entire time and didn't have to do any indoor exercising which was my back up plan. I still do exercise indoors, but not as a part of this project. For this project, I made vlogs before and after my walks talking about them and some connections. I also included my digital log where I kept track of my hours. Enjoy!

In conclusion, I think this was an interesting project. I would say that during this time of quarantine and COVID-19, I think we could have approached this project in a much different way. Instead of having students come up with their own 12-hour challenges, I think it would have been better for students to record and write about how they are enduring life right now. This whole situation is one big test of endurance for everyone. I think there was a missed opportunity during this time. I am happy with how my project came out. It was pretty straight forward and I enjoyed the process.

Enduring The Journey

It's officially the last term of my Senior year. In this final Humanities class called "Endurance," we've learned about examples of endurance and self-reflection. We explored the difference between physical and mental endurance. We also looked at different survival situations like Ernest Shackelton's journey to the Antarctic. We've also reflected on ourselves as individuals. We described ourselves and interviewed other people about us. The final part of our internal investigation was setting goals and aspirations for ourselves. This is what the action project was based on. For this action project, we had to imagine ourselves after we've achieved our goals and write the first chapter of our autobiography. For me, this was easier to imagine my goals because I know exactly what I want to do. It was harder to describe my start and what inspired me to want to be a surgeon. I made up some of the parts from the past because I genuinely never had a defining moment where I knew what I wanted to do. I just always knew. I also had to imagine what I thought my life would look like. This was kind of hard for me to describe. I have always known what I wanted but I had never actually played it out like this. I hope you enjoy my project.

In conclusion, I am happy with how this project turned out. It was hard to make the connections between the beginning and the end of my career. I had to take some creative liberties in describing those connections. It was especially hard making up my moment of inspiration or my call to adventure. I've known all my life what I want to do and I don't know why exactly. I am proud of my writing and I think I made good connections.