Journal 16.5: The grand event!

The conference

Representing India’s culture, we commenced with a classical dance performed by a group of The IPS officer’s speech enlightened the opening ceremony, after which, in a new fashion, the entire secretariat declared the committee sessions open together. Additionally, we had the director of Notthingam universtity come over to give a talk about their university which helped a lot of high school students who are looking forward to go abroad for further education. Generally, the Secretary general does this honor in every MUN conference. This is one way SIMUN stands different! Soon, the delegates were assembled in their committee rooms to begin their first session. There were no major issues in the agenda of the committee sessions. They went steady and smooth till the end. However, on the first day we figured that some students were given two allotments and few country allotments were assigned to two delegates. At the spot, another director and I decided give those delegates extra time to prepare and a silent role in the first session to just observe the way the committee proceeds. My major role during the conference was to monitor all the committees consistently to ensure there are no issues during the sessions, being the director of committees. The volunteers from DP year 1 in the organizing committee helped me monitor the delegates and stood through every single session to help out in passing chits from delegates to the chair person. In brief, they helped me do my job much more efficiently. 

Socials

DJ Prince – An excellent DJ who ensured to include almost all the trending songs in his playlist with breathtaking additions.

Beatboxer: Arjun – His sensational talent was so inspiring to watch on stage! He seemed like he has so many instruments in his mouth!

Playback singer: Abhay Jothputkar – One of his famous super hits ‘Halena’ from the Tamil film : 'Irumugan' gave a unique essence to the event and all of us went on stage to dance while he sang!

Deeksha Rajesh: Senior DP student – who is a student at A.R Rahman’s school of music gave a stunning performance, accompanied by Manov, one of our advisers in SIMUN who played the guitar.

Journal 5.12: Handing over the eco club

      Now that our juniors have entered IB DP, we thought of handing over our eco club to our juniors. So, we had a meeting with them and asked the interested students to give their names for this participation. We then allotted each of them one plant to take care of. Also, we briefed them on how to take care of them and how to place them outside before every weekend so that they don't dry out in the cabins without enough sunlight and water.
       The DP faculty helped us arrange a ceremony to hand over this club. One of the juniors hosted the ceremony and our CAS coordinator Rolf sir gave a short speech about the work that had been done in order to bring light to this activity. He also talked about how important growing plants in your vicinity is.
        Then, the Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Sonali Geed gave all the members of the eco club certificates and appreciated us for having brought up a good tradition in our school!
        After the certificates were given, the ceremony was closed and all our juniors took incharge of their respective plants and carried them to the cabins. It was pretty hard to give away what we took care of for almost a year. But to know that a tradition that we began, is going to continue forever is makes us feel proud!

Journal 16.4: Creating sensation

We even had to skip a few classes to get time to sit together as a team and sort out those traditional issues that always pop up when all 7 minds think differently.  Of course, we always had the wise mind – our president who cleared the strains constantly. For instance, one of the major issues was that 2 people started making the country allotments for the delegates and we finally ended up in a mess and had to do it all over again. Skipping lunch and sleep became part of a daily routine under this pressure. However, one of the fun things that happened this month was ‘Drenched in Red’. It was an open challenge initiated by the SIMUN team for people to send pictures of anything in red that implied meaning. The sole purpose of this challenge was to bring people together. It’s seemed like an opportunity to bring everybody in unity, despite their differences. This in turn created a hype for SIMUN itself. Also, we had a skype call with the TIPS Karur campus students to clear their doubts regarding the committee sessions and conference details.

Journal 16.3: Only more work, yet more fun

 Making the ID cards for all delegates and inviting schools over the phone took a tremendous amount of time each day. We had to decide the colour of the ties and design the format of the tags.

Today was a big day for the SIMUN team since we went to the police department to invite the IPS officer to be our chief guest of the opening ceremony.

One of my favourite segments of this journey was meeting the Erode TIPS campus students in their school to give them an introductory session of MUNing. Teaching them the basics of an MUN taught me how much I know. Furthermore, the questions they asked helped us share our knowledge that we’ve gained from our previous MUNs. Beyond the crux of the session, what mattered was how we bonded instantly with all students from 6^th grade to 11^th grade.

Reflection: Controlling the mind body and soul

I’m glad I chose to learn yoga as one of my long term activities for CAS. This definitely is not the end of this experience since I’ve learned how Yoga can keep me calm throughout the day regardless of the stress and frustration that hits me. The explanation behind each and every posture that I have learned from my teacher has made me a reflective person.

Understanding the benefits of the posture has helped me work towards self-development. Usually, most of us work out or exercise without knowing the reasons behind them. But a sophisticated understanding of them has created a passion in me for Yoga. Practice sessions everyday first thing in the morning have helped me take control over myself mentally and physically.  I strongly believe that such control is essential in life for well-being, especially during stressful times including IB deadlines.

Of course, a lot of postures were difficult to perform in the beginning since I had not stretched and flexed those muscles before. However, with a little bit of practice, I could feel the soothing pain! As I became more flexible, I was able to feel a new energy within. That’s what helped me gain complete control.

 I have always been confused when people asked me to listen to my heart or my mind during critical situations. I only understood the nuance of those statements after learning yoga. This may not be crystal clear in words, as “actions always speak more than words”. But I will still try my best to put forward what I feel! Simply taking everything off your mind helps you remain calm. This is exactly what Yoga helps you do!