So Close I Can [Smell] It…
Wait… what?? The title sounds a little odd and maybe kinda gross when read out of context, but I’m actually referring to my graduation day. I’ve mentioned it a few times, and I suppose that it’s not actually all that close time-wise, (I still have three quarters, around 8 months) but I keep thinking about it. This is why I’ve decided (and hopefully will stick to this decision) to make a multi-part series, chronicling my experience of finishing up these last few quarters leading up to the big day.
The end of last quarter brought up a lot of changes in my life as far as priorities and decisions go, and it leaves me at a bit of a crossroads. For the last few weeks, I made a huge shift of priorities as I dedicated a large portion of my time to doing schoolwork and ended up having to sacrifice a lot of the time I previously spent on hanging out with friends. While this ended up putting a larger stress than I had anticipated on my friendships, I can’t say that I regret or would change the decision I made. Those last few weeks really showed me that I know how to work hard, prioritize my assignments, and get good results and I’m really happy about that. Most importantly, they showed me that it’s possible to have a low-stress finals week! (please note that it was still only low-stress, I’m not sure the no-stress finals week is possible). This is something that I’ve been striving for for years ever since my academic career began taking a downturn, and it’s something that I am very proud of achieving. I was even able to carry that through my week break from school and finally start working on my portfolio website which I have been putting off for the longest time. It’s still in its very early stages, a work in progress, but I’m hoping that within the next few weeks, I’ll be able to present a functioning website (we’ll see what happens, that might be wishful thinking).
Now, I feel like I’ve gotten a bit ahead of myself; I suppose I still haven’t explained the awkwardness of my title. As I said, I’m still three quarters out from my graduation day, so I didn’t feel quite right saying that it’s “so close I can taste it”. Rather, I say I can smell it because it’s close enough that I have some sense of it, but it’s still fairly faint. As of right now, I think I’d say it smells kind of like… a Caramel Macchiato (or some other type of sweet coffee drink, pick one you like). Now how does this make sense?
A Caramel Macchiato has the sweet smell of caramel (obviously), the creamy smell of the light foam on top, but it still has that faint bitter scent of the espresso underneath all of the fluffiness. And that’s kind of how I see graduation at the moment. The fact that it’s so far away allows it to seem so sweet and easy; I think about it and that it’s coming up, but I don’t feel the stress of anything quite yet… at least, not that much. There’s still the faint idea that I know it’s going to be stressful, I know it’s not gonna be easy in the time leading up to it, trying to prepare and finalize my portfolio, but that time’s not gonna be coming for a little while, so I try not to think about it.
In these next 8 months, I’ll be getting prepared as much as I can to get out there into the real world. I’m already planning on dipping my feet in the water and trying out some logo design projects I’ve been following for a while; just to get myself into freelancing and hopefully get some extra cash in my pocket. For graduation though, I look forward to having to get my portfolio pieces chosen and finalized, finishing up work on my website, finding an internship, and starting to market myself out there as an upcoming Graphic Designer. But for now, while I still can, I’m gonna take the time to kick back and smell the coffee.
UPDATE: Considering I never actually posted this earlier when I first finished writing it, I guess it doesn’t really seem like an update to anyone other than me. Anyway, after finishing my first day of this new quarter, the reality of graduation has sunk in a little more… actually, it kind of sunk in the way a fist punching me in the face would sink in to my cheek. My last class of the night was my Portfolio Prep class, getting me ready to create my online and physical portfolio for presentation at graduation, and I gotta say, that class was intense. The amount of work that we need to get done and the time frame it’s scheduled in, the teacher, the level of work that’s expected, everything was very in your face. Coming out of the class, I took two things from it…
A reality check of what I need to get done… and that it needs to happen sooner than I expected. As you could tell from what I wrote prior to the update, I was fully prepared to set this ride on cruise control for a while and let it happen. But I’ve really come to realize that that it’s not gonna work that way; if anything’s gonna happen, I need to make it happen.
A defibrillation to my brain, jolting it with new found excitement and energy. Not only have I realized I need to make things happen, I’m ready to make them happen. Seeing some of the work of students I’ve been looking up to for the past years, I’m ready to be that for someone else. These guys don’t realize I’ve been seeing and admiring their work, and I only hope that I can be the same for someone else.
After tonight, I can definitely say the air has changed a little bit. I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it a Caramel Macchiato anymore, maybe we’ll switch it over to a Cappuccino… dry with an extra shot of espresso (still fluffy, but a little more bitter, I’m glad I can still make some use of my old Starbucks training).
