Volunteering to help in anything is usually a very rewarding experience and recently I got an opportunity to do just that. One of my closest friends decided to organise a turf tournament in our city. Teams from all across the city could come to compete and hopefully win it. I had always been fond of all kinds of sports, even those that were new to me. I profoundly enjoy playing football and cricket since I have many memories associated with them as I grew up playing them in my society. It was a no brainer for me to volunteer when my friend presented the opportunity to me as it was going to be a cricket tournament. Although this time, I would be a referee at the game and would be moderating it. This was a little new to me as I had never played the sport professionally but I still decided to volunteer just to see what the experience would be like. I do not regret my decision one bit as I had a lot of fun at the event, even boring tasks like setting up the stumps or testing the balls were fun because I had the company of good friends. Even though it was a fun experience for me, there were still some difficulties that I faced and learned from. I have presented them in the form of learning outcomes below. 

LO4 – Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience – 

Even though the experience was fun, the weather and working conditions were the opposite. Since it was a big event with several teams, I had to clear out my busy schedule in order to make time to attend the event. What was more challenging was to work in a very hot and humid environment for a long time. Unlike the participants, I had to come way before to set the field up and make sure everything was alright. This took a lot of commitment and perseverance to do as it seemed like a waste of my time at many instances but turned out to be worth it in the end.

LO5 – Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively – 

On top of all this, I also managed to develop communication and social skills by the end of this experience. This was because many of the teams were filled with people apart from my peers and since they were practically strangers to me, talking to them effectively was a challenge for me. I am not someone who is very socially fluent and gels with people very quickly. This experience forced me to stay out of my comfort zone and has improved my communication skills. I also understood the benefits of working collaboratively by the end of this experience as we wouldn’t be able to have run the event smoothly if we didn’t communicate and divide our work beforehand. There were several last minute hassles that we were challenged with but we were able to overcome them with teamwork. This experience has taught me many things and I have made many memories by the end of it, glimpse of a few of them are shown below.