Wow! The Semester is Half Over!
I realized two major facts during midterms: I need to drive myself harder, and I am solely responsible for my own success. Compared to my first year at RMCAD, I’ve been pretty lax on myself the first half of this semester. The reason for this is partly because distractions are more easily accessible, and I’m easily distracted. I currently live in the school’s dorms (out of necessity, but that’s a different story) which offer a lot of physical and social activities. Furthermore, friends and acquaintances seem to be popping in and almost all the time to hang out, talk, or invite you out to go do something. Although I knew that this is a basic fact of dorm life, I didn’t expect those distractions to pull me away from my schoolwork as much as they have. Until now, I’ve been used to apartment life which has a few more degrees of separation from the outside world than dorms do. Yet when I think about it, people frequently stopping by to talk or hang out is not a bad thing. I rather like it when they do, but I just have to regulate my time a little better.
I didn’t have much direction on how to balance my coursework either. I was devoting equal time and effort to all my classes without realizing that some of them actually needed less effort than others—in terms of quality. Midterms were a wakeup call for me to get myself organized and refocused.
My biggest class this semester is Thesis 1, where I write, direct, and produce my own full-blown film. Over the first term of this semester, I wasn’t as driven to work on it as--I think--I should have been. In many instances I would have rather go workout or hang out with friends than work on my thesis—not that I was behind—I wasn’t, but something a 3D animation senior, John Melton, said the day before my first midterm really impacted me. He said, “at this school, if you want get anything done, you’ve got to kick your own ass. No body’s gonna do it for you.” At that moment, I had an epiphany. I realized that I am the only one to blame for any mediocre work, and that I need to be more self-motivated to achieve the results I want. So far, I’m staying motivated to get more stuff done, and I’m reasonably on schedule. Hopefully I can keep it that way. {^_^}
I’m sure you’re wondering what the colorful, crazy poster is about. If you hadn’t noticed, the flier is to showcase a special speaker coming to the RMCAD campus on November 6th. Since I happen to work for the director of college’s Career and Alumni Office who is coordinating it, I had the privilege of designing some publicity for the event. I think it turned out pretty nice. What do you think?
