Hello all,
As you may know, it is the final day of the Immersion program. But I don't want to be done just yet: we still have a few things to talk about. As I see it, this is the second to last entry of this blog. I will publish the last one on Sunday or Monday and give you all the appropriate farewell, so watch out for that.
This week has been a bit sluggish, because things are winding down. Even though I am not required to, I am still coming to school, much to the disbelief of my friends. I'm doing this to get the gears turning: I'm simply not as productive if I stay home. I am supposed to be making presentations for the open house on February 11th, and I still have a lot of work to do. I want to use this entry to plan these presentations and get my thoughts out. I also want to provide you with a tentative forecast for the future of this project. I won't keep you too long.
I have spent most of the day visiting other Immersions and talking to people about our experiences.
So far, I have visited Security and Diplomacy, Criminal Justice, Peru, and Marine Ecology. We have all done things on entirely different planes of experience which neither of us can begin to fathom. It goes beyond the simple question of "How was your Immersion?" and the simple answer of "good". I know it's much more than that. What we have to do is forget to forget. We have to keep these experiences with us, otherwise, they don't mean anything.
The presentation I am making for open house includes the short film I wrote about in the previous entry. The film will ideally consist of two interviews I had at the school, and a slideshow of the pictures I took with some background information on the cause. Just incase you're not there at the open house, here's a little history:
To tell you the truth, it took a while to get this cause up and running. It took a while to give it direction beyond an idea, and instill the proper enthusiasm in myself and around the school for it to take off. The work for it dates back to November of 2012, when I had the idea. The original plan was to start a 501c3, however, that's like building a skyscraper without having any prior experience with construction work. So I prepared a Powerpoint presentation which vaguely stated the nature of my cause. On April 24, 2013, I showed this presentation to the school at announcements. Coincidentally, that was the same day a garment factory building collapsed in Dhaka, which killed over 1000 workers. There is a good chance that a parent of a child who attended the schools we helped was killed in that disaster. And 1000 is more than just a number.
If we want to be motivated to take heartfelt action, what we must see is not one statistic, but a thousand tragedies. Those people had their own beautiful stories on different planes of experience which none of us can begin to fathom. For the last month of that school year, the school collected two baskets of school supplies, which I sent to Bangladesh with my grandparents at the end of the year.
On May 2nd, 2014, I announced the cause again, however, it did not go so well. I believe that only one folder was contributed that final month. I'm being completely honest here: I was self-conscious about how successful this cause was going to be. On May 23rd, I submitted my independent Immersion proposal, and watched my advisor scrawl his signature on the paper. He said he would take it to the committee. I got approved a week and a half later.
Finally, on December 2nd, I announced the school supply collection again, and it went much better. My brother Sahir collected supplies in the middle school as well, which really helped. In fact, he might have collected more than me, if not just as much. Together, we collected 104 pounds of supplies, as written in the second entry of this blog. The high school unfortunately did not collect the three suitcases of supplies needed to fulfill the incentive, so I've decided I will probably not be performing a song and dance on February 2nd at announcements. However, I still commend everyone on the supplies they have contributed.
The reason I tell you all this is to show you where this is going. Hopefully, I will continue this initiative. The suitcase will stay outside in the hallway. I don't want to move on just yet. If you have any ideas, either for what you would like to see at the open house two weeks from now, or for the future of this cause in general, contact me at ahsem.kabir@mvschool.com. All your thoughts are greatly appreciated, and I highly recommend you do this if you have even the slightest thought.
It feels strange that Immersion is over, because it was all I was really concerned with when it was happening. And that's a good thing, because it means that I succeeded in immersing myself. I can't say I entirely decimated the boundary between myself and my surroundings, or that I went beyond the level of 'tourist'. After all, I was excited to go back home. However, this is not something to be bothered by, since we strived for the ideal, didn't we? I'll talk about that more next entry. But until then:
Peace, love, and happiness,
Ahsem Kabir
As you may know, it is the final day of the Immersion program. But I don't want to be done just yet: we still have a few things to talk about. As I see it, this is the second to last entry of this blog. I will publish the last one on Sunday or Monday and give you all the appropriate farewell, so watch out for that.
 |
| Saying Goodbye to STD-1 |
I have spent most of the day visiting other Immersions and talking to people about our experiences.
So far, I have visited Security and Diplomacy, Criminal Justice, Peru, and Marine Ecology. We have all done things on entirely different planes of experience which neither of us can begin to fathom. It goes beyond the simple question of "How was your Immersion?" and the simple answer of "good". I know it's much more than that. What we have to do is forget to forget. We have to keep these experiences with us, otherwise, they don't mean anything.
 |
| With Reception (Pre-School) |
To tell you the truth, it took a while to get this cause up and running. It took a while to give it direction beyond an idea, and instill the proper enthusiasm in myself and around the school for it to take off. The work for it dates back to November of 2012, when I had the idea. The original plan was to start a 501c3, however, that's like building a skyscraper without having any prior experience with construction work. So I prepared a Powerpoint presentation which vaguely stated the nature of my cause. On April 24, 2013, I showed this presentation to the school at announcements. Coincidentally, that was the same day a garment factory building collapsed in Dhaka, which killed over 1000 workers. There is a good chance that a parent of a child who attended the schools we helped was killed in that disaster. And 1000 is more than just a number.
If we want to be motivated to take heartfelt action, what we must see is not one statistic, but a thousand tragedies. Those people had their own beautiful stories on different planes of experience which none of us can begin to fathom. For the last month of that school year, the school collected two baskets of school supplies, which I sent to Bangladesh with my grandparents at the end of the year.
On May 2nd, 2014, I announced the cause again, however, it did not go so well. I believe that only one folder was contributed that final month. I'm being completely honest here: I was self-conscious about how successful this cause was going to be. On May 23rd, I submitted my independent Immersion proposal, and watched my advisor scrawl his signature on the paper. He said he would take it to the committee. I got approved a week and a half later.
Finally, on December 2nd, I announced the school supply collection again, and it went much better. My brother Sahir collected supplies in the middle school as well, which really helped. In fact, he might have collected more than me, if not just as much. Together, we collected 104 pounds of supplies, as written in the second entry of this blog. The high school unfortunately did not collect the three suitcases of supplies needed to fulfill the incentive, so I've decided I will probably not be performing a song and dance on February 2nd at announcements. However, I still commend everyone on the supplies they have contributed.
The reason I tell you all this is to show you where this is going. Hopefully, I will continue this initiative. The suitcase will stay outside in the hallway. I don't want to move on just yet. If you have any ideas, either for what you would like to see at the open house two weeks from now, or for the future of this cause in general, contact me at ahsem.kabir@mvschool.com. All your thoughts are greatly appreciated, and I highly recommend you do this if you have even the slightest thought.
It feels strange that Immersion is over, because it was all I was really concerned with when it was happening. And that's a good thing, because it means that I succeeded in immersing myself. I can't say I entirely decimated the boundary between myself and my surroundings, or that I went beyond the level of 'tourist'. After all, I was excited to go back home. However, this is not something to be bothered by, since we strived for the ideal, didn't we? I'll talk about that more next entry. But until then:
Peace, love, and happiness,
Ahsem Kabir
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