Since we had so much time in the lock down, I planned on learning how to cook which will be a new skill to learn, it will also occupy my time and will also be helpful in the later stages of life since, cooking is a necessity for everybody.

LO2 was catered since I developed a new skill, even though I had a little interest in it, I didn’t know how to cook a full meal. But this lock down I learnt and made various dishes, be it fancy or a normal dish. Cooking without any help and being so new to this skill was difficult and a challenge for me. The correct measurements to salts and other spices was something I did face a little difficulty initially, before I got the idea of the amounts. Handling hot vessels were also tough, I burnt myself several times in the process, but those burns definitely indicate my learnings, so they’re good.

Since I am an organised person, I initiated a CAS plan (LO3) by taking the responsibility of one meal every alternate day and I made a whole plan for 2 months. I simply had to decide a dish and prepare for that particular meal. It led to helping my mom in the kitchen and also me learning a few new things. Initiating this plan helped me to pre-plan and make arrangements for whatever wasn’t available or even do some prior work like cutting vegetables so only assembling would be done at the moment. This made my work a lot easier and faster. I didn’t create a lot of mess in the kitchen or even use too many vessels while preparing.

There were days when I didn’t want to cook, or didn’t want to learn something new, but since I had committed it to my family, and to myself of learning a new skill, I kept onto it and without fail followed the plan I had made. This is how LO4 was also inculcated. Moreover, these small challenges like the burns or even when one is busy and doesn’t have time, I still had committed something which I had to fulfil. The challenges made it difficult but I was keen.

This whole experience will be helpful to me in the future wherever I go because food is always a necessity. I considered the choice of the skill I had selected to learn. I considered how will this be helpful to me in the long term and thus my LO7 was also an important learning. My opinions about this activity has definitely changed, it seemed very difficult to me but gradually it now seems to be a fun recreation where I also get a reward.

Thus, the learner profiles developed here were Reflective, Balanced, Principled, Risk Taker. I reflected on my past learnings from mom, and was a risk taker to start a new challenge all by myself. Deciding to learn a new skill even if for recreation showed balanced and being onto it and committing to it was me being principled. I am glad to have this as one of my skill sets now since it will help me in the future and I won’t be ever dependent for my food on anybody.