Semester Take Away

What to say about the semester…

I have had mixed feelings about this class. This class was my favorite class I took this semester but there were a few ups and downs that took the gleam off for me.

Up

The first class was exactly what I was hoping for. I don’t know why I was so stoked (do people still say stoked?) to be doing the assignments and I had hoped others in the class would expend the same amount of energy on the projects and in class discussions as I had hoped.

Down

I was a fool to expect others to have the same work ethic as me. It makes me feel old when I think about how most of the people in class were ten or more years younger than me. And yet with just ten years difference there seemed to be a world of difference in drive and desire to get as much as possible from class. I’m not talking about the “art therapy” portion, but rather, the learning new techniques to approach assignments or jobs. There was a lot of surface skimming, not a lot of getting past the clique to the really creative stuff.

Up

The taste of cumquat sounds and feels like… a fun approach to a problem. I tried so hard to go past the assignments as I could. I could have just done something for the texture, or just something for the audio. But trying to take the visual out completely and focusing on both the touch and sound made me happy. I was so very proud of that project. And yet I hardly got any feedback from it. I was disappointed. Pride cometh before the fall…

Down

I failed at the round robin. That’s the only way I can describe it. I failed. I failed at time management. I failed at proper research. I failed myself. But it didn’t kill me to fail so that was good. And because I failed so hard, I was able to attempt it again for the fear assignment. And I felt like I won that time. I’m glad I didn’t do what I had planned on doing for the fear assignment. I love to sing even though I’m pretty sure I suck at it. I was going to sing my favorite song in class and volunteer to sing a solo in church. Because my fear was altered due to unforeseen circumstances…I was spared the torture of failing in front of a lot of people at something that gives me such pleasure.

Up

I loved my bible dipping project. I loved how I approached it. Doing “research” and rejecting the normal definition of ‘reuse’ gave me a new approach to addressing a problem. That my friends is what I was hoping to get out of the semester.

Down

I was very disappointed with the passing of the torch…even before Beth broke her ankle. I have been in several classes where curriculum changes so drastically that lessons are missed. For instance, in grade school, my class never learned geography (and I do mean never. I never had a lesson on states or capitals. And I sure as hell never learned where the other countries are located.) The curriculum had changed so much between years that lessons were never given. This trend has continued in my high school and college education. I always get in the class that things go wrong, get changed up, or a new approach is being tested. It drives me nuts. I get to feeling jipped. That is how I felt…jipped.

Up

The summer is here and I’m going to take a nap.

I do want to say thank you.

Thank you for all the fun projects.

Thank you for creating this class.

Thank you