Mount Abu is a beautiful hill station located in the Aravalli mountain range of Rajasthan, India. Recently, in December our school took us to Mount Abu for an educational trip. We did almost 4 treks there, we learnt how to do a realistic rock climbing and rappelling on top of it we learnt caving which was extremely fun. In this trip we learnt how to be more connected with the environment and learning how to stay and work with what’s available. 

Learning Outcome 1 – Identify your own strengths and develop areas for growth. 

Throughout this experience I learnt and discovered a lot of things about myself. I never knew that I could do all these long treks but I did, because it made me feel amazing. These treks were definitely tiring but extremely rewarding. I identified these strengths and developed my stamina. Since, I have never done such long treks and didn’t have any stamina but after doing these treks I realized that I can improve on my stamina and hence, since then I have started working on it. I feel amazing now that I know that I can trek for so long and the end results, the beautiful views after each trek makes me feel even more confident that I can go on treks like these more often. Everytime I figure out our own strengths and weaknesses, I feel more intrigued towards working more on them, Sharpening my strengths and converting my weaknesses into strengths. So I feel it’s extremely important for everyone to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and work on them in a positive way. Working on my stamina which was a weakness on the trip now helps in my day to day life. I have started working on my stamina and ever since then I have seen a lot of improvement in myself which make me feel even more confident.

Learning Outcome 2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills. 

Throughout this trip not being scared and not giving up on treks/rock climbing was extremely important. We went to this suicide point also known as the Golden horn chimney trek, it was extremely scary and lengthy. I loved the destination at the end of the trek but it was to reach there and not be scared of the suicide point since it was a little terrifying and challenging for me. I haven’t done something like this ever in my life so it was a little challenging for me but I knew one thing that I had to do this for myself and complete the trek. My friends were my biggest support throughout this journey since all of us encouraged each other to complete the trek and not give up so overcoming my challenge was a bit easier with them present with us. Taking up new challenges is very important for me since it makes my self-esteem rise and encourages me to work harder to achieve and overcome all the challenges I face.

 LO4 – Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience.

Since we went in winter it was a little too cold there. It was fun but not when we were returning from the trek and suddenly the temperature decreased. The long treks were tiring and it took alot of commitment in me to keep on going and not give up. It was like getting out of my comfort zone and challenging myself to commit to the trek so that I don’t just give up and complete the trek. I wanted to make myself strong and more persevering so that in normal circumstances as well, I can make myself more committed and not lose myself to procrastination. It makes me feel amazing since I could complete all the treks, climb and rappel all those rocks and also could do caving even though I was scared every moment. 

To conclude, they used the learner profile ‘risk-taker’ in this CAS experience. This activity made me more strong and confident about myself. I could learn and identify a lot of new things about myself. I made a lot of mistakes and am overcoming them as well. Through this trip the most important thing that I learnt was that it’s ok to make mistakes if you are ready to understand and overcome them. It might take time but the perseverance and commitment to overcome should be visible.