Being done with Original Work is such a great feeling! There were lots of times in this past week where I felt really overwhelmed and wasn't sure how I would get it all done, but now that it's over, I'm proud of the work that I completed and can't wait to take a break through the next few weeks. As much as ISM continually changes my life, it can be really all-consuming at times and there's very rarely a lapse in assignments or mentor visits. Because of the way the schedule worked out last year, I remember stressing over Original Work during the break, so it's nice that this year I can finally take a breath and come back in January refreshed and ready to keep learning. Moving forward, I need to update my Digital Portfolio today before it's due tonight and then submit my Original Work Assessment too. For reflecting on my project, I think that what really benefitted me this year was my research. I went particularly in depth with studying local control and that was a big benefit for my synthesis essay. I'm also glad I wasn't as stringent about writing a strict research paper over something a little more synthesis-based, because the information that I've learned in the past weeks have made me consider how I feel about these issues, too, in addition to what a city government would think about them, and it was important to me to incorporate that in my project somehow. Overall, it's been a great year, and I'll be back in 2019 ready to continue learning!
Of all the weeks in the year so far, this one seems to be the busiest. Original Work is due on Friday and unfortunately I still feel like I have a few hours to go before the project is where I want to finish it. While I have been working hard, my other commitments are really taking away from a lot of the focus I could be giving to ISM, even though I don't want that to show in the project. Hopefully over the last few days I can finish everything I want to complete for Original Work and be proud of the quality at the same time. It will be nice to meet with Shona and Will this Thursday, too, because maybe if I have last minute questions I can put final touches on the assignment before I submit it on Friday. Right now, however, I really just want to give as much time as I can to the research I've been doing on local control while synthesizing it in an approachable, interesting way. One thing I learned from last year was that while you don't necessarily want you work to be dependent on other people and their interests, it is nice to have a somewhat exciting project that audiences will be interested in at the Research Showcase and Final Presentation Night. Either way, it's comforting to know that this time next week I will be able to move on to other things and already be reflecting on the work that I did.
This past week I went to one of the coolest mentor visits I've been to in ISM. Visit Frisco is a yearly recap that the tourism industry of Frisco puts on every year to educate professionals in Frisco about who has been coming to the town in the last year and what they hope to accomplish looking toward the next year. Going into it, I was a little apprehensive, as I didn't even fully consider Frisco as a "tourist" destination. I learned so much from the meeting, however, about why people visit the city, what people are doing to increase visitors, and the reason all of it matters: tax. Observational mentor visits like this one make me so excited about year as a whole because I really feel like I'm witnessing the group of people in Frisco that help the town be as prosperous as it is. In this next week, too, I'll be attending a really crucial city council meeting on Tuesday that Shona and Will have specified will be very influential and a good one to come to. Aside from mentor visits, my focus is also having a complete shift to Original Work. As always, things in ISM tend to catch me off guard when I'm not keeping them in the back of my mind at all times, and the due date of this project is no different. I really need to buckle down in this next week to complete the project with enough time to discuss it with my mentors. One of my biggest upsets with last year is that I got my mentor so late I never got a chance to work on the Original Work with her. This year I really want to take advantage of the relationships I already have with my mentors. As a whole, it's been a good week and with focus and hard work, I'm sure the next two weeks with be great too!
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