I have been known to commonly judge the MYP, and I used to believe that I did so in a fair fashion; however this week I began to reflect about its true intentions only to find myself changing my mind about the whole program. True, my standpoint remains as to the way they approach teaching in most occasions, but I have come to think that it doesn't only lie on the professors, it lies on the students.
After truly understanding the meaning of mission statements, I have become aware that the vision of the MYP was solid, yet their strategy to attain their goals was maybe not the best. Furthermore the enjoyability of the class directly relied on the motivation of the students. I happen to be very fond of my science class and regardless of the teacher and the syllabus, I will always love the topic of science. And why is this? Because I'm motivated to learn from it. I share my P. 5 chemistry class with a group of about 20 other students, and I'm pretty sure that I am one of the most interested students in the topics we learn, and I love it. I constantly We get what we want from every class. We are constantly given the different tools to learn. True, the Innovation Academy does in fact appeal to most student's motivation, but if you are motivated, despite the class, despite the teacher, we will learn. It all starts with you.
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There is a reason for the plentiful hours put into building our class magazine, for the countless iterations that have been made towards the achievement of the cover image, for our never-ending quest into perfection. Motivation. Being motivated is the greatest drive towards accomplishment, it's what moves you to completing your goals and surpassing excuses and limitations. This is why we used our motivation purposefully to the advantage of our project. What the power of being motivated did in retrospect to our magazine wasn't only about effort, however, it propelled us to wanting and deeply desiring the product to succeed. We connected with the project, made it ours; that is what motivation did to us. The magazine truly became our baby, and we wanted it to thrive regardless of the price it would have. The moment that most stood out to me from this week and before's was when Mr. Bonnici asked the question: "Do you want to continue or stop?" To understand the importance of this instance you must know the context of the situation. We were deciding if we wanted to take the magazine to the next level, implying more time, more effort; or to stop, leave it as it is: an OK product. What I loved about that scenario was our certainty. The individuals discussing the question at hand took time to think of an answer, however after processing the information, without hesitation we all agreed to keep going. The fact is that we have already given all we have for the prospering of the magazine, and when you place your effort forward, you expect nothing less in return. Perfection. And I don't mean a perfect magazine, because given the time and experience we have in the area that is nearly impossible, however, we all wanted perfection in outcome, which is different whatsoever. We wanted perfect experiences, and the perfect sensation of final accomplishment. Knowing that we couldn't have given our baby one more bit of time nor emphasis → that is perfection. 
 This week perished in the same way it began: s t r e s s f u l . Balancing out summative assessments, the personal project exhibition, thinking about course options next year, and projects was a hard task to complete. I would be lying if I said i slept full hours these past seven days.
All of these events crumbled up into one seemingly e n d l e s s week troubled me intensely, which got me to think, why did I feel this way? According to Medical News Today: "We generally use the word "stress" when we feel that everything seems to have become too much - we are overloaded and wonder whether we really can cope with the pressures placed upon us." What this basically means is that we stress when we worry, however to worry we must care. I think of it as a Y i n - Y a n g . Where the good and the bad live closely together, and they simultaneously form part of one another. In this case, particularly, I find stress being the b a d inside the g o o d . Indeed, it is not a great feeling, and its unpleasant sensation causes irritation to many, however stressing means deep concern. I used to be the typical careless student, who's biggest stress was finding an outfit to wear on the weekend, however with the start of this new school year I have found motivation, and gained interest towards my academic life, which is the origin of this whole blog post in the first place. So if you think about it, in small dosages, stress is actually a good thing. It shows interest, it takes away the monotony of everyday life, and indeed makes the relaxing days more enjoyable. On Monday's class we had a discussion centred on the topic of IBG'S, and how many of us could had just joined a project to spend time or be with friends, which is something that got me thinking... Is my IBG right for me? I am well aware that it is not in my interest to follow a carrier in the culinary arts which is why my question lit up in the first place. I fear that my time is being wasted on a project that will not be purposeful to my future in life.
After fully getting the chance to analize the pros and cons of staying in this IBG, I have reached a conclusion. Even though I have learned an extensive set of skills, and had a good time while doing so, I trust that I could be spending this time provided in a more purposeful manner. This would in fact mean leaving my IBG, something I am not proud of doing, and joining or creating my own IBG that follows areas around anatomy or science, topics of my interest that I would like to explore more in depth. Maybe something interesting to do could possibly be exploring the possibility of building a skeleton, which will allow me to gain solid knowledge and insight on the human body and the order the bones are set up with. I would still need to measure the possibility of this happening, however it is important to begin the brainstorm in order to be able to have a project to spend the last hours of the day completing.
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