Reflection

     Four years of e-Communication and here I am sitting in my last class on my last day as I write this reflection. I'm still trying to figure out what happened and where the time went. I remember filming for the first e-Comm promo video from my first year like it was yesterday. I remember making those first connections and meeting new people. Time flew by, but that time didn't fly by in vain.

     The amount of things I learned during my time in e-Comm cannot be written down on a single blog post, so I'll stick with the main bullet points.

Deadlines: Deadlines are a must and you have to be responsible for your own time. If you let something sit there without doing any work on it, nothing will get done.

Communication: You cannot be isolated and introverted if you're going to advance anywhere in any media field. You have to build relationships early and effectively and be able to collaborate with anybody-no matter how little you two get along.

Take Criticism: Criticism can hurt but it's always a good thing. Nothing would ever improve without critique, so it's important to know how to take it. Rarely will the intention be to hurt you, but even if it is, take the notes with grace and be able to react well to it and make adjustments based on the comments.

     Deadlines: The past two years, I have been largely responsible for my own deadlines, but it's not as easy as circling a date on the calendar. I have had large projects sit and stew while I sat idly by until I saw that date come up quickly and I panic and spend hours and hours working on them for several days at a time trying to finish.

Communication: Planning Route Sixteen was not an easy task, and it would have been much harder doing it on my own. Thankfully, it taught me how to properly collaborate and communicate with others to put out the best show and projects that we are/were able to.

Take Criticism: I've entered projects into e-Magine the past two years and each year they tore into it. Thankfully, though, I took their notes and rolled with them. I improved the project that didn't place Junior year and got it placed by Senior year.

     An obvious weakness of mine is procrastination/distraction. It is a little too easy for me to blow off a huge project so I can slack off during the hour until it becomes too late to make something the best that it can be. However, this wasn't for nothing. I was able to understand my weaknesses before something majorly important came before me in college. I learned what I need to do to fix this before it becomes severely problematic.

A strength of mine is my communication. The last 4 years have taught me the importance of communication, and I have been able to make a lot of collaborative projects because of my communication skills that I have acquired.

     I figure I will be able to keep doing freelance animation in college even though I'm not going to be studying it in school. I will be able to use my communication skills to land jobs and be able to work well with people once I enter the professional field concerning my degree.

     If I have one regret, though, it's that I didn't squeeze everything out of e-Communication that I did. I too often used it as an excuse to jump on the computer a few hours a day, and I wish I would have spent more time doing what I came here to do instead of what I'm supposed to leave at home. If there was something to change, it would be my work ethic and mentality towards e-Comm.

     e-Communication was easily one of the best decisions I've made in my life. It brought me to a school I love with some of the most creative minds in the school district with opportunities that I didn't thing were possible. All in all, thank you e-Communication for helping me become the person I am.