I completed the program and earned my IB diploma.
Through identifying my strengths and passion, I was able to pave the path for my tertiary education. Learning to define my own strengths and interests, then incorporating them in to my work, allowed me to approach my studies with a newfound sense of confidence. Changing topics also made me feel more at ease during my presentation since I was able to dive deeper into this topic I already had tons of background knowledge on. It didn’t seem like a big change but being able to choose a topic that interested me really helped me focus my creative and research skills. My conclusion dealt with human rights and how everyone has freedom of expression, and how others freedom of expressions may conflict with others beliefs. My passion for human rights and culture led me to research on the way the LGBTQ+ communities were treated around Africa, it also led me to look at the way in which Western Countries reacted to the treatment. It hit me-why don’t I make my TOK presentation about LGBT rights in Africa? I had a passion for LGBTQ+ rights, understood the issue and knew how aspects such as culture and religion gave people different reasons for the way they dealt with the LGBTQ+ community.
The weekend before my final draft was due I was watching TV and saw the LGBTQ+ community being discussed. I barely had an argument and wrote an essay on PowerPoint rather than creating a proper presentation. I handed in my first draft but was not satisfied. My classmates were confident, they spoke up and backed up their opinions. I struggled with my presentations and could never reply back to the questions asked. My frenemie, the TOK final presentation, was coming up and I had always been one of the more reserved pupils in my class. Shortly after this, choosing my TOK topic became my “Aha! moment.’’ I was able to find my strengths in life: I am creative, and I am good at research once I apply both, I am confident I can present anything. Was I succeeding or failing? I was in fact, on the edge of a discovery. Although I felt as if I was barely making it through, I was still getting more than the minimum requirement for a diploma. My educational psychologist also coordinated with my teachers to help me keep up with work at my own pace. I was taught to list my work, prioritize and set timelines for how long it would take me to complete the work. The educational psychologist helped me by providing me with extra material with a breakdown for the topics I failed to understand. I found myself there two to three times a week expressing how overwhelmed I was and how I was failing to keep up with the work load and, as a result, grasp a lot of concepts. I soon began to understand that I could not cope without regular visits to the educational psychologist on our campus. I understood now why the alumni I met had told us those stories of late nights trying to juggle all their coursework. When year two came, the pressure increased. I was getting the required grades each term in order to qualify for a diploma.
I found my first year of IB challenging but manageable. We were taught to understand rather than be required to recite what we learned.
The IB curriculum was demanding but had a different approach to learning. I began to go to class and was pleasantly surprised. I knew I was dyslexic and learned early on in my academic journey and knew not to compete with others but rather to challenge myself. I took a deep breath and decided that I was in a new country, a new school and new learning curriculum and it was up to me to define the type of student I wanted to be.