Humans of Carey: Alexi Kusumah

Year 2 student

I started at Carey in the Early Learning Centre when I was three years old, and I’m now in Year 2 with Ms Bodey. My favourite thing about Carey is my friends – I love being able to see and play with my friends at school, rather than talking to them through a screen!

My favourite subjects are Maths and Music. I’ve been playing violin since I was three, and the double bass since I was five. My favourite song to play at the moment is Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, but I also love playing the double bass in the school band. We’ve done a lot of busking, like in Canberra, at the South Melbourne Market and in Doncaster. It’s a lot of fun.

Outside of school, I train six days a week at a high-performance gymnastics club. I’ve been doing gym since I was twoand-a-half, and when I’m 16, I want to go to the Olympics.

My favourite move to do is a tick tock, where I do a handstand and lunge my legs over to touch the ground on the other side, and then swing backwards to standing. I also just learnt to do a one-minute handstand against the wall – it’s a long time to stand on your hands! I really enjoy competing too – I recently performed at Waverley Gymnastics and I was really happy with how it went.

I usually train for three hours a day when we’re able to go to the gym, but right now because of lockdown, I’m training for a few hours a day with my coach through Zoom. I can’t wait to go back and train at the gym – we don’t have all the equipment at home so it makes it a bit harder.

When I’m not at school, playing music or training for gym, I really love playing board games and card games. My favourite game is Monopoly. I also love art – I made a mosaic with beads and stones with my family. Being in lockdown has meant that we don’t have to spend any time travelling around to music lessons, school or gym, so we’ve had lots of time to be creative! We’ve also decided to start learning Swedish together, so we’re definitely keeping busy. I can already say a few sentences!

I can’t wait until there’s no more lockdown and I can play with my friends and go to gym!