November 27th, 2014

Last Day of school! And this will be the only thing that I do school related for my entire vacation! This was a really long trimester and I’m really tired. We will have one last GB meeting next Wednesday at CRIA to have a Skype conversation with Franlikn Chang, which is really cool, he is a national and international famous figure and he will talk to use about success and how to follow your dreams.

This month I didn’t attend many GB meeting because I had to study for SAT’s on week, the week after we didn’t have a session and there won’t be one tomorrow, but at least I went to a meeting. I felt like I hadn’t been with them for a while and it was nice to be with them. We are all now a group of friends a we a little bigger now as Toño and Nico join us at the end of October. I feel like we have this special cool kids club. I’m glad that we will have one last meeting where we will all have a mini celebration of our club.

Yearbook: Well Nadja will not continue any more well I don’t want to be mean but I’m glad she is not working anymore, this way I have more time to focus on Denis. He is really efficient and I give him to do list each week and he gets them done really quickly and then is looking for me to ask me questions and if there is anything else that he can work on. I’m glad to be giving yearbook to him because he is a passionate person and I’m sure that he will take care of yearbook really well and of course give it his touch. And I know that he will be more than capable to train someone else and leave yearbook to some else on this senior year. Then PN has helped me a lot regarding the business part of yearbook and to get strategies to pay back the school what we owe from last year’s books. My only concern is still my photographers because they are not taking pictures!!! They know what they need to take picture of and I keep reminding them so I don’t know what else I can do. I hope that next trimester they get all the picture on the first two months so on March we can all work on the elaboration of yearbook.

That is all for know.

November 1st, 2014

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Being in GB has been difficult, I really like being in the program but it’s on a Friday and I have more classes afterwards and some weekends I have to be in Heredia, but yesterday showed me the importance of this program.

Being a teenager is complicated, there are so many situations that we go through and many times we feel alone, we feel like nobody is going through the same thing that we are, but that is not true. Yesterday we talked about insecurities and this a very crucial topic because many teenagers suicide themselves or put their lives in danger due to insecurities, and this is something that happens all around the world. This session it was more about the students and David interacting with them and it was very powerful. I was glad to be present even though I didn’t contribute as much I was still a support and the girls at the group got to know that they could come and talk to me about anything if they really needed someone to talk.

I’m not going to mention names but a student shared with us how he left very insecure about his acne problems, he told us the things that he did to hide them and to get rid of them because having them many him feel really bad about himself. David gave him really good advice and was able to help him because he also help the same way some times. This was very powerful beucase the student is shy, but throughout  the weeks he has changed and now he even shared really personal feeling with us and he even said that since he has been coming to the program he has felt really confident about himselve and is glad to have this space to share with others.

This session made me realize how important is to have places like this for teenagers around the world because with this type of support we could stop suicides at a young age and also prevent teenagers from harming themselves, being a teenager who had health problems unintentionally I’m very grateful to help others and prevent this to happen to them. Even though it is hard to be in GB feel good with myself after each session.

GB Students: Left: Zelenia, Melanie, and Bernabe. Middle: Randy: Right: Marco (Toño), Jake and Nico.

On other terms yearbook. This year I don’t want to have a parent supervisor because this is a student project. Also, Alex the mother who was helping us can’t help us this year and the other mother who was interested in helping us never got back to me again so I feel like I can do it on my own specially this year that I’m supervising everything, plus nobody know how yearbook works as well as I do.

Yearbook has been going well, however there has been times where Yaritza wants to lead and change the idea because that is part of her personally and she likes to contradict people. This was a challenge for me at first but unlike last year where I didn’t know where to draw the lines of friend and leader, this year I am more confident and don’t let her change our plans only because she wants to. I know that she doesn’t like it but she also need to follow the group and I’m open to suggestion, I’m always asking for their opinion. This has been tricky but I try not to be to harsh while still showing that there is a time for suggestions. One thing that I really need to come up with a plan for next year is pictures because my photographers are not taking pictures even though I remind them every week and Nadja does to (well I hope she does because she is in charge of that). This is where I am delegating the most and I’m disappointed because the “photographers” asked to have this job and they are not doing it and I’m always reminding them about it, I hope that they really start working on the pictures in this last month.

October 11th, 2014

My goal is be more organized with yearbook and have a plan. I got used to the idea of delegating know! I’m really proud of myself! I now make list to Nadja of what she has to do and I have pretty much planned everything that has to be done for this trimester. Also I didn’t have a big turn out for yearbook, I was disappointed beucase I was hoping to have more new students, many of them looked interested.

For know we have PN, Yaritza, Denis, Nadja and Camille is the only one from last year… Also most people are from IB….I was hoping to get people from 8-10^th grade so I would leave a team of people prepared not work with a group of students that are super busy and are almost out of high school but like PN said it is better than nothing. I have all my planning in the wiki of the school so I will include the link, I have what we will talk about each week and I also left small homeworks for everyone. I feel really good because I can plan and think of ideas for yearbook and let everyone else do the work, I like to call myself operations manager J

Yearbook got here finally! Everyone loved them and Denis and PN did all the work of distributing the books, they are helping me a lot and I’m glad to have them both in my team, I’m even thinking to tell Denis join the training with Nadja, I think that they will both do a really good job together, Denis will do all the administrative parts and Nadja the artsy and photography parts, that would b a good idea and that way there isn’t a lot of work and pressure only on one person.

Working with others has been hard but I feel that I’m a better leader when I have people helping me. I like to be operation manager because this way I can do a lot more at the same time because I am supervising all the work that everyone is doing and collaborating as well because the “command or idea” come from me and each member than works more on it. I’m happy about this, I just hoped that I had more photographers so I didn’t have to worry as much about the making sure that all of the pictures are being taken. But I will see how that goes.

Yesterday was the first day of GB and it was fun, working with David is not bad he is a funny guy, but he gets on my nerves every once in a while so it will be challenging here and there to share leadership with him. We didn’t have many scholarship students as me wanted but at least we have a few and they said we will have more next week which is really good.  I liked the way it went, we got to introduce each other and also introduce the idea of the program, all the students like it and I like the idea that it is a small group because that way I get to know them better. I know Bernabe and Melanie since they are in 2^nd grade so I feel like they big buddy and then Zelenia and Randy I don’t really know them but I want to be able to get to know them in the future.

At the end Rocio wasn’t able to form two groups, the only student that got in the program by paying was Jake, he is 8^th grade in our school. I like the was that he integrated himself really well with the other students, I don’t like to call them scholarships student because I don’t want to discriminate them. They  are all very talented and nice student who will become great leaders after the program.

What I like the most about this is the way that Rocio along with David and I and volunteering our time for them because the program is free and it’s toward the education of the students. Another aspect is that yesterday we created rules one that stayed with me way “what goes on in GB stays in GB” this was the students are able to feel free to express themselves and be able to share or ask for help. This is something that I have learn to appreciate in the past year, asking for help and sharing my situations with others. Yesterday we talked about the importance of managing stress which will be one of the first topics that we will talk in GB and I shared with them that I wished that someone had taught me how to handle stress when I was in 8^th or 10^th grade because I neglected my health due to stress when I was in 10^th grade and I had to take time off from school and start a healthy lifestyle. They were surprised in the way that I was really comfortable talking about it so they started sharing how they deal with stress and it was a good mini session for the next time.

I’m glad that Rocio started this group because it’s a place where teenagers are not judge, but they get helped during this rough time and our community really needed a place like this one, again I wished more people wanted to join.

September 24, 2014

Yes my weakness is getting involved in to many activities but I need too. It’s my weakness but it is also my strength, I love helping and getting involved, it’s my passion after all.

I started running with Miss Amy so that is a afterschool activity that I will be doing, I really enjoyed having this time with her because she is such a good person to talk to and get my mind of off everything that is going on.

Months like this one I just want to drop everything related to yearbook…We need to pay $2000 something dollars for yearbook which there is none and due to all the shippings that had to done to get there here I wasn’t able to pay the yearbook company and now the school has to pay for it and I’m now in depth with the school which I do not like at all! The yearbooks will be here at the end of the month so that is good and Nadja a new student in 11^th grade is showing interest in yearbook and I met with her last Wednesday to tell her what it will be like, the only thing is that she looks too shy, but I will see how that goes. Yearbook club will start next week and I hope there are people, Denis already said that he would be helping and I’m super glad, I kind of even want him to be the yearbook Director instead of Nadja.

Anyways passing yearbook on to someone else has been a lot harder than I thought… this project is so personal that it is really hard to let go…and need to know the person, this person needs to show committement and want to work their but out on this project like I did! Anyways going back to me getting involved, one of my mom’s friend has been helping us a lot latly now that my mom has been sick and traveling a lot to Grandparents. On day that she was over she mentioned that she wanted to start a youth growth to empower young teenagers in the areas and local schools, she asked me if I would be interested in working with her beucase I was an example in the teenage community. When I said I was going to help I didn’t actually think that she was going to start it, I thought it was just an idea and I though I would be something like a monhly helper not a weekly thing.

Now that the project will be happening I will be working with David he is new in our class and I don’t really know him, but according to Rocio (she will be incharge) this will be a good opportunity for me. Rocio started Guanacaste Bienestar,  a place where people can go and have workshops of all types and it is located at the village. She is a Psicologist and a friend of hers another psicologist that was working with Peace corps will be doing the workshops for teenagers. The project has two parts, the one for scholarships students, where I will be woking with the scholarship students from our school and the other one will be for students that their parents will pay for the workshop beucase they need to work on their confidence or have trouble in school. The idea to reunited both groups on Saturdays and help CEPIA with their annual Christmas food drive. I will see how this goes because I starts at 3:30pm and ends at 5:30 pm on Fridays. After that I have my religion class from 6pm-7:30pm, which means that I will barley have time to change and grab a quick snack in between. This year will be crazy, but I will make it through. I’m not so worried  because GB will start October and will end  on December and I will end my confirmation mid November so my busiest month will be October. But I’m not worries I’m Camila, I’m unstoppable.

September 3rd, 2014

After today’s meeting with Miss Amy I have told myself that I will take things more slowly this year. It’s my senior year and my main focus is myself. But at the same time I’m not going to stop doing things. My main CAS goal this year is finding someone that will take my place as a Yearbook Director. Miss Amy will ask the new CAS generations if someone is interested and I will announce it during community meeting once I settle and I start planning. But first I need to arrange the last details so last year’s book get here, get people excited about yearbook and then recruit people.

To be honest I didn’t want to continue with yearbook because of what happened last year because I worked really hard on the books and the end I left like I was left alone to deal with the shipping by my “team” and Mr. Abel was blaming it on me when it was a situation that was out of my control.  I don’t really want to go more in depth because I don’t want to unmotivated myself again.

Yearbook is my project and it has been since 10^th grade, which is a long time and this is perfect example about my perseverance and commitment because besides all the negative things that happened there is a part of that doesn’t let me give up on this project, because it’s my project, it’s like my baby! In the past 2 years yearbook has been my most stable project, during my pre-CAS years when I had no idea what I was doing, I was stable doing yearbook. Last school year when I wasn’t working on Creek Camp I was working on yearbook, it’s my little pride. I like to see yearbook as a little business that I started and this is my last year at school and I want to make sure that it is the best yearbook so far even if I need to do it on my own (but I really hope I have people helping me). This is an emotional year because it is our last and I’ve always felt like a big part of the school participating in different activities and yearbook is my “gift” to the school, what I leave behind. When the school has 20 years of working I want students to look back at the first yearbooks that I made and acknowledge what I left them.

Anyways going back to my plan. One of my weakness is that I like to get involved in many things, which I need to work on and which why I’m only focusing on yearbook because beside that I have other activities outside of school such as dance, religion class for confirmation and college research.

That is it for now, I really hope that the yearbooks get here in the next week or two! I was so proud of the outcome and I only hearing complains about the yearbook not being here yet is not helping, but they will all see how they were worth a wait.

Back to posting!

Sunday March 15^th, 2015

I haven’t written anything on the blog in the past school year, but I have been reflecting on the different activities that I have been doing I just write about them as email draft or documents on my computer that I would write up on car rides. The next couple of journal entries will be in chronological order and will have the date on the top of each entry.

In this past year I have realized how hard is to keep a blog going! I got used to writing what is on my mind, on my personal journal or as draft towards Miss Amy about my different CAS activities. So here is a little summary of my senior year. 

Summer 11th-12th grade: I really tired to take time for myself I only took a week on study math and finish the first draft on my extended essay. I felt like I needed the summer to myself in order to start with energy and finish my last high school year strong.

Trimester 1: I felt like this trimester I was able to have a balance life regarding all the ups and downs that I was having in my personal life. I managed to get myself involved in several activities like usually , yes I can’t help it… it’s part of who I am. I felt there was a balance between my social and academic life. Staying strong in my academic life was the hardest due to personal reasons but I learned to value my friends and teachers and asking them for help.

December Break: After an intense first trimester I felt like again I had to stay way from working in CAS and everything. I needed time to focus on myself, college, where I wanted to go and most importantly what I want to study (it’s crazy how 17 year old make decisions that will change their entire lives during this time!). Even though I should have worked on yearbook I recognize that I need to have free time as well.

Trimester 2: This trimester felt rewarding, all my hard work in my academic years has pay off, all my knowledge gain from CAS and being a leader has gotten my accepted into colleges and received scholarships. Also I maintained the balance in my life and got ahead in academic matters.

Spring Break: Is so close! Just less than two weeks away. This will be a very important time, I will be working a lot on yearbook, I will be working as a chaperon, while studying for final IB exams and deciding where I’m going to go for college. Some intense 3 weeks right there…

The last round: By this time we should be done with CAS already but after exams and in between my summer job I will be training Denis and giving him the final details about being a yearbook director and once the yearbooks arrive I will be officially passing the title of Yearbook Director to him. So excited!