Week Five : life/college

It is almost the end of September of my senior year and these past two weeks have been the most challenging for me. I have been trying to keep up with a reading schedule on Crime and Punishment for my AP Lit class, while rewriting the constitution for AP Government, and making sure I pass both my tests in math and AP Bio. In-between all of that I am in the middle of helping student council plan homecoming and still finding afternoons where I can go meet with my mentor. This week in mentoring I went by Cortney’s office and watched her design the plan of a business and also read some of her design books, looking for furniture for my current assignment (I am designing an apartment on my own from the floor up).

 I realized how expensive a chair can be and there are so many different measurements that you must take into account when creating a kitchen counter or the trim on a door frame. I have a new appreciation for interior designers because they must pay attention to every detail that is in a room. This week I also got to go with Cortney to meet a client that is currently remodeling her house and I got to help pick out new curtains and contribute to the process of deciding which to go with. It is so important when you are designing to work with a color scheme and stick to it so that you can make the whole room connect and tie together.

Another thing I am working on that I am sure most other seniors are too is applying to college. I have already sent out two applications but I won’t hear back till November or December, but in the mean time I will take the SAT for the last time so my score will increase before I apply to UGA. This is a very tedious and not enjoyable time right now but once I get accepted and know where I am going it will all be worth it. I just want to maintain focus this year so I can graduate will honors and be able to go to the college of my choice! 

 p.s. pictures to come. 

Week Four: Debt

I have enjoyed being able to mentor with and learn from Cortney Orme these past few weeks. She has so much creativity when it comes to design; I am always learning a new technique or style from her. But along with other working Americans she is not making as much as she use to and the interior design field as a whole is hurting right now. This scares me to think that I am hoping to one day be in a job where I may not be able to provide for myself. I am hoping that by the time I graduate college that our economy will finally have bounced back so there will be job opportunities for interior designers and that they will be paying as much as they use to. I hope that this does happen because I have a major interest in design and I know that it is something I want to make a living out of. I would hate to have to sacrifice that for another job just so I can make more money in the long run.

My Dream: Week Three

Even though I am just getting started with mentoring Cortney at BCA I hope to finish this year knowing and retaining all the tips and guidelines of interior designing that she teaches me. I hope that this really is the area I will work in some day and that I will benefit from being with my mentor and seeing her at work. To make sure I am taking advantage of this opportunity I will keep an open mind about everything and jump on any projects she allows me to help with.

Mission Statement

I seek to always bring an optimistic personality to all challenges and tasks I am faced with. I want to continue to be an honest person and always stick to my word. I don’t want to get caught up in things that don’t matter and I want to benefit and helps others as much as I can.  

Wisdom of Play, by Shawn Acher

In Shawn Archers video he discuses’ how the relationship between success and happiness has been corrupted over the years. People have allowed the amount of money and their success defines if they are happy or not. Once you achieve something there is momentary bliss and then you are stressed again trying to be more successful.  At the end of his speech he challenges the listeners to be a part of a 21 day challenge where you use one of his five research habits to try and find happiness in your daily life. I am going to try it but using the first option and write down three things each day that I am thankful for. Doing this is supposed to show an improvement in your optimism and increase your success rates. The other four are writing for two minutes a day to describe a positive experience from that day, to increase work happiness; or exercise for 10 minutes a day to train your brain to believe that behavior matters in your success; or meditate for 2 minutes a day to undo the negative effects of multi-tasking in your life, this decreases stress; and the last one ids to write an email or note the first thing in the morning to someone in your life praising them or thanking them.

Week Two: Communication Styles

I feel that I handle leadership with a spirited attitude and that I handle everything as positively as I can. During the Lapdog retreat I learned how to communicate better with other types of leaders and that it will better my relationships with them if I can adhere to there preferred communication type. Sometimes when working on projects and such I have a hard time delegating things out because I am concerned that people will not follow through or not do a good job on what they are assigned. I think it is easier to be the on being trusted because I have trust in myself to get jobs done and I am willing to prove it to others. I can definitely work on how I receive criticism or feedback I sometimes think people are out to get me and I take it in a negative way and almost always get my feelings hurt. I just need to keep in mind that they are trying to help better me and how I am as a leader. During the retreat I enjoyed getting able to be with the other kids from different schools and doing the communications game where we had to make matching crafts out of objects without being able to look at each others, we had to rely on successful communication to complete the game.