This week I've completed a lot of the final aspects of my Final Product, but instead of talking more about that in this week's blog, I'd instead like to focus on Shona's reelection campaign. One thing that I do somewhat regret with my Final Product is that because I drilled down into local control so much, I didn't have the opportunity to go in depth with other parts of local government. That's not to say I haven't seen those different aspects through mentor visits and observational opportunities, but with actual products and synthesizing material, it's been mostly kept to local control. Campaigning is one side of being a representative that I definitely knew had to be a big part of the job, but didn't realize until watching Shona this year just how much of a focus it was. Shona's dedication to meeting new people and willingness to be out at the polls every day shows the commitment it takes to serve in a capacity like hers. It's such a unique part of the job because most other careers don't have an aspect where daily you have to interact with strangers to vie for their support. Moving forward it will be interesting to watch as the rest of the campaign unfolds and how that impacts the future of Frisco.
This week I've done a lot for my Final Product. It's crazy to me that I'll be giving my speech for Final Product and the end of the year in class in two days. It seems like this semester has really flown by and I can't believe that Final Product will be due in two weeks, Final Presentation Night in two after that, and then school is over two weeks from then. Over the long weekend I spent a lot of time working on my Final Product video, but I understand now that I need to pivot to my Final Presentation Night speech. The good thing about the speech is that because we've been building up to it all year, the foundation is already there and the bulk of the content has already been put together. Still, I'd like to finish up Final Product enough to the point where I can include my explanations of it thoroughly in my speech, even if final touches haven't yet been made. Moving forward I need to remember to get everything else in order, from my preparations of my suit to the re-caps and reflections of my Final Product. Hopefully I really finish it by the end of this week, so I can shift my full attention to preparing for Final Presentation Night.
This week I’m going to be gone on Wednesday and Thursday for a college preview overnight at Williams College. On the one hand, I’m so excited to go back to Massachusetts and get a taste of the life I’ll be living for the next four years, but for ISM and school, it’s a pretty inconvenient time for me. My goal is to get enough of my final product done before I leave so that by the time I come back, I can send my first cut of the video to my mentors at the end of the four-day weekend. Speaking to Shona and Will, they really stress the importance of just getting stuff done, which I think is a great lesson to learn, and one I struggle with a lot. I tend to get so wrapped up in other classes and and other parts of the ISM, that I lose focus and then am paralyzed by everything I feel like I need to get done. My goal for today and this upcoming week is to get to a place with my Final Product where I don’t feel guilty studying for my AP exams because I don’t think I have enough done with ISM to allocate the time.
Now that I'm in the final month before Final Product is due, the pressure is really on for me to complete everything to a high level on time. Especially with Prom this weekend and increasingly stressful AP exam prep, my goal is to have my video completely outlined and the beginnings of filming done by the end of this week. With other projects, I find that if I can make small deadlines for myself it helps me get things done, as opposed to the looming stress of broadly "finishing Final Product in the next month". After talking to my mentors last Thursday, I think I have a better idea of how to outline the video. In general, I do feel like I'm a little behind from where my calendar says I should be at this point, but thankfully with the extra weeks I put in toward the end to just finalize and polish, I'm hoping it won't be a problem. Looking forward to these next few days, I intend to finish my outline and ideally even begin to film parts for the video before skip day on Friday and Prom on Saturday. I forgot how busy the end of the year gets, so it's important that I keep that in mind with these last two months of ISM.
This past week Monday was really fun because I was able to sit in on the Frisco City Chamber forum. After learning about the election from Shona's point of view and seeing all the signs across town, it was interesting to me to finally be able to hear from the people themselves and put a face to a name. It surprised me how much of a difference there was between reading about their platforms and stances online in comparison to actually hearing them talk in public about their priorities for Frisco. There were three sections of the the forum, the Collin College Board of Trustees, the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees, and the City Council seats. Because I've been studying city council the most, that was definitely the part that I enjoyed the most of the forum. Overall, I think I took a lot away from that evening about stage and public presence and the importance of it in relation to running for office. A lot of the people, based almost solely on their confidence and eloquence, swayed me to or from their side and favor. It's definitely a skill that I've been able to hone from ISM and I'm glad to see how that could potentially help me in a career where I run for office.
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