Introductory Blog Post

Blogpost 1

Part 1- bio
Background info

Hi my name is Nicole Raghu and I was born 9/11. The most famous day in America, besides independence day, of course. 

My Interests

My calligraphy practice

My interests include dancing, baking,
and practicing calligraphy (although I'm not quite good at it). As a child, I started out taking gymnastics and since the eighth grade, I progressed onto dancing. Last year, I even participated in the Sound of Music, as Lisel Von Trapp. On occasion, I bake at home. Personally, it is a stress reliever for me, so I end up doing it while under duress. Most of the time I end up distributing my baked goods to my friends, since my family and I don’t eat sweets much. 

Language in my Daily Life

Growing up, I lived, for the most part, in Canada and the UAE. My parents, although affluent in more than 4 languages each, taught me English as they raised me. English is my first language, the only language I know and therefore, I speak it fluently. I honestly aspire to learn more languages, since I believe it makes a person more conscious of other people’s

cultures and more aware of how language has spread due to colonization and imperialism. Moreover, it enables a person to have a “worldly” aspect, appreciative of not only where they come from, but rather how the place they come from was developed. In a sense, language truly shows how people have adapted over time. For example, many Greek and Latin terms have been inscribed into the English language. 
By personal experience, I don’t face any difficulties with language barriers, since I lived and live in a place where the society uses English in everyday life. However, I really would like to learn a

language, or two, such as French, or Spanish. Not only does one develop analytical skills when they learn a foreign language, but they also are enabled to appreciate cultural diversity, thereby liberalizing one’s understandings and if applicable, creating a society where people are more at par with each other. Moreover, i strongly consider studying the English language is beneficial since it has the widest reach of any language today (around 2 billion people speak English), indicating that it is a globally dominant language, despite not being the most spoken. Additionally, the importance of English stems from the fact that it is the operational language of many international organizations, like NATO and the EU, thus turning English into a lingua franca.

Part 2- goal setting

New Experiences

Something “new” I would like to try this year,or should I say already tried would be moving to Raha. The change of atmosphere and surroundings is what I wanted to be involved in, in order to step out of my comfort zone, adapt to and experience new things.

Goals

In all honesty, I would say I’m a naturally goal oriented person. I like to succeed and accomplish every task I take on, which is why I set up small goals to achieve over a short period of time, rather than one large goal, over a long period of time. Although majoring in engineering is a goal of mine, I know that circumstances change, so I prefer to achieve excellence in everything I can right now, instead of worrying too much about the future. This is not to say I don’t want to meet my goals…. I do.  Some of the smaller goals I would like to achieve are general goals that most people have in common: graduating, having a successful job, marrying someone and raising a family. I generally choose to set several short term objectives that are common in nature and work at achieving them so that my life turns out well and additionally, I don’t get discouraged if a particular goal is not accomplished at a particular time. I don’t mean to sound haughty when I say that I generally accomplish all my short-term goals and achieve results that are similar, if not exactly what I want. My goals actually keep evolving as and when I meet my objectives & short term goals. 

How IB Will Help

I know for a certainty that the IB course will help me to accomplish my goals and enable me to think more critically and prepare me for the future, which is exactly why I chose this course. I intend on learning many skills that will help to further develop myself as a person and a learner, which will only enrich myself as a human and help me have a positive outlook on life.