My writing for "Sparnai" publication

As I did last year, this year I also sent my creation works for "Sparnai" publication editors. It's still not clear whether any of my works will be published; however, my job here is done.

This time I had built more confident opinion about my written works and so I decided to be more courageous and send more works of mine; in total ten pieces of writing were sent.

This activity was mainly based on my creativity skills and allowed me to further develop my talents: as they say, practice makes perfect! In addition, I hope that some (at least one) of my works will be published and my creations could reach other people and maybe they'd find it relatable... Then, there would be some benefit for the school's community and I'd have contributed to history of Lyceum.

Below, you can read some works of mine.

P.S. 6 CAS hours


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Finite infinity of moments

 A finite number of moments is slowly dripping
And, you know it or not,
Every day your time is getting more and more short.
Sometimes we all feel like this is never gonna end
But we all pretend to be indifferent
Open your eyes, you’ll be surprised
How much you’ve missed in apathy and misery

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A self-centered poem

Sometimes I feel as if I were the only person here

You know that feeling

Everyone just keeps on living

But you feel being stoned in the middle of universe

All alone, with decorations spinning

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?

Ar galit kas nors atsakymą pateikt?

Ką man veikt, kur man eit?

Juk taip sunku, savo likimo našta ant pečių.

Bet gauti patarimai neteikia vilčių.

Atsakymas atėjo pats iš vidinių gelmių:

Tiesiog žinau, kad gyvenu. Pasitikiu Dievu.

Volunteering in "Kaziukas" fair

On March 7th, me and my four classmates volunteered in the "Kaziukas" fair, or "Kaziuko mugė". This is a traditional Lithuanian fair lasting three days and taking place in the beginning of spring in Vilnius centre. I love this fair myself as it is very colourful, vibrant, and always full of action.  Therefore, this year I decided to join the action myself and see the event from the inside.

We volunteered on Saturday (7 March) from 11:00 to 15:00. Our responsibilities were to ensure order  in a large tent that stood in town hall square, also to help prepare the place (carrying stools, tables, stands etc.), take the rubbish, also provide people with information about the fair.

The activity required adaptive skills as we needed to adapt in a new situation quickly and give information about the fair (for example, I helped a lady find out about parking around the fair) also it was unexpected since at first we thought we would help in tastings of traditional food but it turned out that this activity was not going to happen so our expectations, responsibilities and plans changesd immediately and we did totally different things. In addition, there was a physical difficulty in this activity as it was cold and we spent about four hours outside. The volunteering in "Kaziukas" fair required a lot of collaboration and communication, as well as flexibility. It was an interesting and valuable activity.

P.S. 4 CAS hours

Below you can see our volunteering team and the fair:

 

Helping with children's New Year's party organisation

This activity happened a few months ago, on 10th January. There is an annual children's New Year/ Christmas party organised in a company "Eslauda", where my mother works. Help is always needed as there are many children coming and somebody has to take care of order and entertainment.

This time, I decided to join the organisation team, which mainly consisted of the head organizer Rima, Santa Claus man and me. There were about 20 children with their parents participating in the event. Thus there were quite much to do. What I did was help with the gift packing: I packed candy bags together with Rima a few days before the event, also helped to choose gifts for children of certain ages. Also, on the day of the event, I coordinated the guests and played with children, engaging them in various games and dances, which were led by the Santa Claus. Finally, I played some chrildren songs with the guitar in the beginning and in the end of the party.

I greatly enjoyed this activity as I love having business with children, as well as I like organizing things and playing the guitar. The activity involved group work, communication and creativity when interacting with the children and required some organization skills. Of course, there were some difficulties in the process as it was at times difficult to manage the children, also it was a little stressful to perform in front of about 40 unknown people the songs that I have just learnt, and it was also challenging but both interesting to find and learn those children songs. I believe this volunteer activity in children's New Year/ Christmas party was both fun and challenge for me and allowed me not only to help with this beautiful event but also to develop my skills and confidence in my abilities.

P.S. 3 CAS hours

Movie night iniciative

Just before Christmas holidays, when everyone starts catching the Christmas like spirit and the studying relaxes a bit, I thought that a good movie night with a cozy atmosphere and friends would be a marvelous idea. So, I gathered two more enthusiasts and we all three: Laura, Paulius and me organised the whole event.

The movie night (evening, actually) took place in one nice classroom, on 18 December, after school. We chose a movie called "The Theory of Everything", based on student's opinions and the newness of a movie, as well as a scientific/romantic theme, which is likely to interest many people in Lyceum.

At first we needed to arrange the event with school's administration and CAS coordinator, we needed to crystalize the idea and make concrete, this required group work, planning skills. Then we had to find a nice classroom and think of the setting, food, time, information etc. Finally, we decided to create a cozy comfortable atmosphere by bringing  blankets and pillow from home and making the seats on tables, also; with regards to food, we asked classmates to cook some food and to share it (what was their CAS too), we ourselves organized tea, napkins, cutlery and the table functioning as a snack bar. me myself, I took tangerines and home-cooked pop corns, which took quite a lot of effort to make. The information about the event was posted by my Laura in Facebook, also, real posters were hung in the school.

On the day of the event, we three came an hour earlier to make all the things ready: we brought in the blankets and pillows, food etc. It was all going fine, but technical part went with difficulties: we couldn't connect laptop (in which the movie was) to the projector and later we had problems with sound quality. Finally, all the trouble were solved by our cooperation and smart- creative thinking. There were approximately 25 people in the movie night, some of them said they really enjoyed the movie, the atmosphere and the food. All of us went home happy and relaxed. Of course, we had also to stay to clean everything after the event, but that was not a problem, some people helped us.

I hope this movie night event, although fresh in Lyceum, will become a more frequent phenomenon, and more and more people will come to enjoy good movie with a great, familiar company! Looking back, I think that the most challenging parts were forming a reliable and active organization group and also the technical difficulties on the day of the event. Anyways, I am pleased to say it all went really great!

See the pictures below!

P.S. 5 CAS hours

Christmas time: decorating classroom door!

Christmas-like door contest is a tradition in my school. So this year wasn't an exception, either. However, this year, when everyone is so busy with studying, since it's a very important year, nobody wanted to spend their time on decorating our class' door.

I'm not much of an artist, but this time I decided to volunteer in order to maintain the tradition and due to the duty-feeling. Also, two more girls joined into the creative team.

It took a fairly long time to merely come up with an idea for the door; we had many vague ideas but none of them were concrete. Ultimately, after long talks, discussions and negotiations we settled on the Christmas  bulb idea. So we prepared the materials and next day after school we met to implement our project at last. Well, it took much more time than we expected. We spent about 3 hours on making and applying the decorations. First, we needed to cut all the shapes out of the round piece of paper, which was to become Christmas bulb, and then place another round sheet of paper underneath. Well, again, agreeing took the longest, but cutting small shapes also was a meticulous and tedious task.

Finally, we ended up having decorated out class door and feeling satisfied with the good result and fun cooperation, even though we felt tired. Overall, I think this was a great creativity and cooperation demanding activity, which contributed to our school's beauty and our class' honor. :)

P.S. - 3 CAS hours

 

Singing in Jazz pictures/Musical Boxes

In such a dark and cold time of the year, the former Jazz Pictures, now Musical Boxes event is a great way to turn ordinary Friday evening into cozy, warm and artistic musical night. The Musical Boxes took place on 5th December, at 6 pm in Lyceum's main hall. The annual event invites all musicians to perform pieces of music not to compete, but in order to create an enchanting atmosphere where people can come together, enjoy good music and have some tea.

This year, I decided to participate in the Musical Boxes myself, since it's the last year in Lyceum for me and I felt like sharing a wonderful song by Coldplay with the whole school. I also found the concept of the event beautiful and exciting. So, about a month before the event, I started searching for guitar backing. Eventually, I found a great guitarist named Ignas who agreed to play guitar for the performance.

Me and guitarist rehearsed once a week for two weeks and twice a week the last week before the performance, and it took a great deal of time to harmonize and make the song ready. It was fairly difficult to balance between studying and extra-curricular activities, which can steal a lot of time, too. Sometimes it was stressful to manage both rehearsals and homework, but with aid of time planning, I managed to do both quite well. The biggest obstacle for me was stage fright, which was greatest the day before my performance. Anyway, I managed to stand up on the stage alone in front of the whole school and sing "See you soon" by Coldplay quite well, even though not perfectly, for which stress could be blamed...

Overall, I must say I am very happy to have participated in such a great event and I have not only spent a fun time rehearsing, developed my performing and singing skills, but also, more importantly, have overcome my fear of stage. I must say, for that I am very thankful for my friends and their support.

You can see the performance in the video below (sorry for bad quality).

P.S. 5 CAS hours

"Food Bank" action

On 18 October, the "Food Bank" action befell. It is an event when, in various supermarkets, people are invited to donate food for the disadvantaged groups. I volunteered there from 9:45 to 13:30 and it was a nice experience.

At first, my task was to invite the people passing by to contribute to this action: I was handing leaflets and explaining what this event was about. Later, the volunteers switched their responsibilities, and then I was standing at the food receiving spot. There, I received the food being donated, thanked the donors and gave them small presents, as well as registered the food given. This was an active task, and required quick reaction, and communication.

After these four hours, I was rather tired, but happy to be useful. I saw the piles of food donated, therefore I felt like the effort of the volunteers was absolutely worth it! The result was rewarding.

Overall, this activity required endurance, since it lasted for a long time and was rather monotonous; also, communication skills were really important during the volunteering. To add, this action raised food for the poor, therefore I believe this had ethical implications for me as well.

P.S. 4 CAS hours