*My Final Thoughts

I am now done what seems to be the longest year of my life.. second year graphic design. I don't think I learned as much as I could have. It's hard when you don't always get along with the faculty or can't quite understand all the content that is taught. Even after talking to a certain teacher, I don't know what's changed. I did what I could to try and change it, but it was next to impossible to make any significant changes that would directly affect me. By the time anything was done, it was too late. So my only hope is that it helps future second year students to be the best they can. The last thing I want is more students having to go through this almost useless year. To top it all off, I was going into an evaluation with work that I felt could have been a billion times better, but I didn't have the knowledge of the tools to do it properly.

The last two weeks of school are always the toughest to get through. It's full of pain, anger, and exhaustion. It is the time of year when you have to fully devote your entire life to graphic design and nothing more. You give up family, friends, sleep (my least favourite. Oh how I love sleep), eating and even hygiene (though that is something I will always have time for.. no matter what!) for a 15 minute evaluation of your work. Is it even worth it? Yes. It doesn't seem like it in the days and hours leading up to it, even while you're in it, but hearing that mostly negative feedback is what makes up better designers. I don't expect to go in and hear "Oh this is fantastic! Absolutely amazing! You can just skip third year and we'll let you graduate now! You're just that good!" It doesn't work like that. We all need the critism to make us stronger designers. After all, there is no such thing as a 'D' designer. As I entered my second semester evaluation, I could feel the negative energy in the room. I knew they didn't like most of my stuff, but I just kept reminding myself "It's okay. This will only improve your work. Don't become attached to my work. It'll sting too much otherwise." It worked out pretty well actually. Not sleeping for the nearly 28 hours prior didn't hurt either. It was like being in a drunken state, which kind of numbs the pain of all the hate they generated towards my work.

As I left the evaluation room, all I could think was "sleep!" Eval had felt like a weird dream and it was all over. Now all I have to look forward is having a fantastic summer and all of things I hope to learn next year, in my third and final year of graphic design. As scary as it is, I'm ready for it and looking forward to my future, wherever it may lead me.