Blog 9

10 MAR 2022

Looking back at this term, I feel like I was generally more stressed out as I had to move to Singapore in the middle of my term. I hadn’t realized how much time living at home had saved me now that I have to do everything on my own. I also had an extra class this term on top of the emotional toll moving took. All this time taken to move in and fulfill government requirements meant all my assignments kept piling up until I was overwhelmed with work. I gave myself some time to fully freak out about everything, then started to look for solutions to manage this. 

In hindsight, this semester is probably the start of me being more organized in general. Now that I am assuming more responsibility for my life, I had to basically step up my game. I noted all my due assignments in one calendar and organized my assignments into their own workspaces using a project management software. For the next two weeks, I spent the majority of my free time rushing my due assignments. Things started to settle in the week after that and I was eventually able to catch up on everything. 

Like in every term, I think that there is always something I can learn from. I had group projects this time and attempted to be less stubborn about the vision I had for it, as per what I had learned in my sixth blog post. I gave my groupmates more freedom and helped where I could without changing their original idea. However, in all honesty, doing this is in school is a lot like gambling; and I, unfortunately, placed my bets in the wrong place. I still had to do the majority of the corrections at the end, but on the bright side, I ended up understanding the class better. Still, I have a lot to improve in learning to pick the right people and striking a balance between keeping a standard and being overly controlling. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a fully individual assignment that worried me the most at the beginning of the term. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle it as it just seemed incredibly tough. It did end up being as tough as I had imagined, but going through it really gives me a better picture of how everything I have been learning until now is connected. It’s still going to be tough for me, but as I worked on every aspect of the report myself, I have a clearer understanding of my own capabilities and my working style. 

One of the biggest things I have learned is how little I can control in my life, and also that I am more capable than I think in handling the parts I can. At every difficult part of every term, I am always faced with hopelessness. However, as time progresses, it’s getting easier to recognize and pull myself out of. Overall, I enjoyed being able to see myself emerge from this stress having learned how to more effectively handle things. Obviously, there are still many things I have space to grow in, especially in group work. I will always have to work with people, so I’m looking forward to improving on my ability to more effectively communicate with my team members.