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shunkashuutou · 5 years

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Fall Semester 2018-19 A lot of catching up to do!

Surprise!

I told you I hadn’t given up on blogging!

Wow, last semester was CRAZY. Like I honestly had never been so busy before; but I survived! And I’ve cut back to just 2 part time jobs this semester, both of which I’m used to now, so it should be a little less hectic than last semester and I’ll have more time to focus on school (and hopefully a little more free time too).

Obviously so much has happened that there’s no way I can catch you up on everything, but here are a few highlights from the last 6 months!

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October Machi Asobi!

Mabs and I went to Machi Asobi in Tokushima last October! (We always go to the Machi Asobi over Golden Week in May, but this was my first time going to the one that’s in October) We debuted our Little Witch Academia cosplays of Lotte and Sucy, and it was a lot of fun! These cosplays were a collaboration; Mabs made the dresses and I made the hats and wands. It was actually the first time we’ve worked together on a cosplay like that, and it was fun!

And we ended up in CosMode magazine! A dream come true!

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YuYuYu Only in Kanonji!

In November we went back to Kagawa Prefecture for the Yuki Yuna Wa Yuusha De Aru only event!

We cosplayed Yuna and Togo of course, but this time we tabled and sold a variety of handmade goods! Mabs and I used to table and sell Touken Ranbu stuff at the OdeRai event in Takamatsu, but I always felt a little intimidated because there was already so much awesome Touken Ranbu stuff there. But with YuYuYu, I felt like the expectations were lower since it’s a pretty small fandom, so I actually had a lot of fun making things and selling them! My keychains didn’t sell very well (I still have a bunch that need homes; I should look into selling them online or something) but my stickers of Gyuuki attempting to eat all of the other fairies sold amazingly well, and I actually ran out before the event was over! (Mabs made a ton of keychains and even a really cute button, but I couldn’t find photos at the moment.)

We each made enough to cover our travel expenses, so that was great!

We stayed in Kanonji that night (at our old apartment, since the teacher who works there now was kind enough to let us stay there. It was really weird to go back to it) and the next day we went hiking up to Takaya Jinja, which is a shrine on the very top of that mountain.

It was a really tough hike; definitely the most intense hiking I’ve ever done, and if it had been any more difficult, I don’t think I would have made it. But the weather was perfect and we got to the top! The view is beautiful up there! It was totally worth it! Another good Kanonji memory with Mabs.

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Kaiyukan Christmas Date!

For an early Christmas present, Mabs surprised me with tickets to the Kaiyukan aquarium!! I’d been wanting to go back ever since we first went a couple years ago, so it was the perfect present for me!

It was such a happy day!

They have not one but TWO whale sharks now!

And they were having a special illumination since it was winter! Kaiyukan looked so pretty with all of the lights and the giant light-up whale shark!

We rode the ferris wheel too of course!

Here’s my photo collage for the day! (They even had a diver dressed as Santa swim around the big tank and wave to everyone since it was around Christmas time)

It was really wonderful, I was so, so happy. ;U;

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Hawaii!

As soon as it was winter break, I went to Hawaii to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my family! (Mabs went back to visit her family too) It was so good to see everyone again, and it was actually the first time I’d ever spent Christmas in Hawaii. (My cousin’s new puppy is really cute!)

A few selfies with flowers

My mom took me to get my nails done as a Christmas present, and I had a lot of fun having my nails be all colorful.

My mom also did a kiwame Ookurikara photoshoot for me at the beach! We got some really cool pictures, and it was great to finally take kiwame Kara-chan out for a proper photoshoot. (Even though I’d made him like a year before, I had only taken him to events)

I finally got some kiwame sunglasses photos!

We saw this super cool art installation with hundreds of light-up flowers that changed colors to match the music that was playing. It was so pretty!

I could have stayed there and watched all night. I love big installations like this.

I’m so glad I got to spend time with the fam, and enjoy the warm Hawaii weather! (I went to the beach a lot too, but of course I don’t have photos from that because I was too busy playing around in the water)

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Matsumoto with Hala and Hana!

In January we went to Matsumoto to visit our friends Hala and Hana! They’re sisters from Australia, and we’ve been internet friends for years now. (thank you Sengoku Basara) Hala was doing an exchange program in Matsumoto and Hana came to visit her, and I’m so glad we finally got to hang out all together!

Also you may remember, but Matsumoto is where Mabs lived for a year right after we graduated from college, so I’d been there to visit several times before. It was great to go back again! Matsumoto Castle is so pretty with its big moat.

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Valentine’s Day!

For Valentine’s Day, Mabs and I got McDonalds and drew hearts with ketchup, since that’s what we did last year too, LOL. We’re going to make it a tradition. So romantic~ ahaha

I wanted to give Mabs one of those rainbow roses I kept seeing around last summer because they’re pretty and also kind of gay, but the only ones I could find in February were fake ones made out of soap and they were expensive, so I made one myself out of some cardstock, lol.

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My birthday!

I had a fun birthday! Of course I wanted to do something different than usual for birthday makeup, but I wasn’t sure what color to go with, so I just used all of them lol.

I liked how it turned out! I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Violet Voss Fruit Sorbet eyeshadow palette that I very spontaneously threw in my shopping basket when I was at Sephora in Hawaii, lol.

After I finished school that day, I went over to Mabs’ place for a birthday dinner. We made ratatouille and then she gave me the cutest cake ever...

A whale shark cheesecake!!

Look at how she decorated it! And the white chocolate fins and tail, and even the little waves on the plate! It was almost too cute to eat, but it was also really delicious cheesecake!

And she got me a whale shark blanket! it’s like a big pocket for your feet, and it’s been so great for keeping my feet warm on chilly winter days! So cute, and a great addition to my growing collection of whale shark stuff!

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Hanging out with Mabs!

Even though it was a super busy semester, Mabs and I hung out for at least a little while almost every weekend.

Because we have less money for adventures these days; we’ve been doing more walking and just exploring the areas we can get to on foot. These photos are from the day that we just happened to stumble upon the shrine to Sanada Yukimura that we went to three years ago! It was closer to her apartment than we thought!

We just have a lot of fun together. <3

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Aaaaaaaaaaa

And despite all of the craziness of last semester (I never want to have 4 part-time jobs at the same time ever again), I still managed to keep my grades up!

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New cosplay!

Over spring break I sewed a dog!

The little paw pads took forever but I’m so happy with how it all turned out!

It was for a new cosplay of course!

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Agi’s visit!

And a few weeks ago, our friend Agi came to visit us for a while, and we did a photoshoot all together! We finally got to check out the cosplay studio here in Osaka, and it’s so awesome! It has a ton of different sets, the tickets are fairly cheap, and it even has a cafe inside so you can order food! (cosplay takes energy so food is important!)

It was so much fun taking photos all together! Mabs and Agi were so perfect as their characters!

And of course, while Agi was here, we took him on the usual Osaka sightseeing tour (Osaka castle, anime shopping in Nipponbashi, Namba/Shinsaibashi, Amemura) plus Fushimi-Inari in Kyoto since Agi loves foxes.

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Nagoya!

And then right after Agi left, I went on a 3-day class trip to Nagoya! We worked together with students from a computer school in Nagoya in small groups (4 people per team, with a mix of students from the different schools) to come up with an idea based on a certain theme and make a website or app in just 3 days. Working with the Nagoya students was a little tough, but it was a good experience. Hanging out with my classmates was by far the best part of the trip though! I have some fun photos, but I would need to ask my classmates’ permission before posting them, so instead here’s a photo of Nagoya’s famous miso katsu. (Just what it sounds like; pork katsu with miso sauce)

One of Nagoya’s special omiyage are these frog manjyuu!

Their faces are so derpy and hilarious. Of course I had to bring some back for Mabs.

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Sakura Season!

And now its cherry blossom season here!

This is my last week of spring break, and I’ve finally had some totally free time! (after spring break started, we had a two-week special course at school, I learned how to pay my taxes in Japan, one of our college friends came to visit, I did an internship at another design company, Agi came to visit, and I went to Nagoya. After all of that I was feeling like I needed a spring break from spring break!) It’s been so good to get back to my hobbies again, and I’ve been going on walks every day and looking at the sakura!

This weekend Mabs and I are going to go on a hanami (flower viewing) date and check out the sakura somewhere here in Osaka. I’m really excited!

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And school starts on Monday! Going to do my best to make it another productive and fun school year!

I definitely want to keep updating this blog more regularly again, even if the posts have to be shorter than they used to be, so stay tuned for more from me, and I hope you all are having a nice spring! 🌸

#life in Japan #japan #cosplay #DMMd #YuYuYu #Little Witch Academia #2018 #2019 #April 2019 #kaiyukan

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drferox · 6 years

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How do you feel about the way Greencross is seemingly trying to build a monopoly of vet practices in Australia? Concerning, or not as alarming as people think it is?

Mate, I have many potent, insider opinions about GreenX and the rise of corporate medicine. I have been considering writing on this topic for a while, but now seems as good a time as any.

But first, full disclosure of where I stand within the veterinary industry. I am an associate veterinarian, which means I work in a practice but don’t own it, and I work two jobs. My full time job is in private practice owned by a single vet who actually works there. My casual job is at an emergency center, owned by GreenX. I have also done relief work at a GreenX clinic.

And frankly, the more I work for GreenX, the more it makes me cheer on worker-owned co-ops.

GreenX is just one of the multi-practice corporate vet chains which are popping up not just in Australia, but overseas. GreenX is just the largest and is actually on the stock exchange. You can buy shares in GreenX. That means GreenX is accountable to its shareholders and expected to make a healthy profit.

GreenX owns large numbers of vet practices across Australia, but also owns all the Animal Emergency Centers, all the Petbarn brand pet stores, an external veterinary diagnostic laboratory, at least one crematorium, a number of specialist hospitals and runs the admin side for at least one university teaching hospital.

It also currently operates a ‘Healthy Pets Plus’ program, where for just $450 a year you can get free consults, and is working on bringing out its own pet insurance line.

How are you feeling about this? A little uneasy?

I have concerns about a monopoly, because in my neck of the woods GreenX owns the 4 closest 24 hour emergency vet clinics, in addition to all the others around the city, so I don’t really have much of a choice where to send my patients. They also own quite a lot of the general practices in my local region, so that’s hard to compete with.

For a few years there, they also sent a letter to my boss every year offering to buy his practice. Just a form letter, which I assume they sent out to lots of practices in a similar way.

They pay for all their vet employees to be Australian Veterinary Association members, which grants us all a voice and vote in relevant matters, but not to receive the Australian Veterinary Journal. I don’t know whether GreenX gets corporate discounts for signing up so many members. This makes me uneasy because Banfield in the USA, which is owned by Mars, financially rewards its employees for taking up leadership positions with the various representative organizations over there. Which means if it ever comes up, corporation is paying for a lot of people to be there if an important vote ever comes up…

I mean, I’m not a conspiracy nut, but I’m not exactly happy.

But that is the corporation side, the people on the ground are not the corporation. They are by and large decent vets and nurses hamstrung by the corporate rules they’re obliged to follow. For some this works out fine, particularly in their early years. They have a structured training plan and can see where to advance in the corporation. It provides a willing buyer for a practice owner who might otherwise have been unable to receive the price they were seeking (another issue for another day). It has removed some of the management stress from vets in many clinics and dispersed it, allowing a pool of locums to be drawn from to fill in absences.

Doing so has added a lot of middle management and a lot of red tape. They are frequently recruiting at industry events, and promoting their chain at events like the Dog Lovers Show.

Working on the ground as one of their casual emergency vets I am profoundly dissatisfied. Considering we are supposed to be a top of the line intensive care clinic some of my complaints and concerns have included:

The introduction of Healthy Pets Plus robbing the clinic of its emergency consult fee ($165) and crediting only $10 to our ‘income’ for that month.

Then having the gall to turn around and say that because we are not making as much money this quarter as we used to, our budget is reduced.

Not offering staff a worthwhile wage to do night shift, so unable to retain them very long.

Not paying emergency nurses anything above the award wage (minimum wage for the industry), even if they have been employed at that practice multiple years.

Nowhere to advance unless you pursue a position in management.

Not granting even a cost of living pay rise (in line with inflation) despite meeting expected profit targets for three years.

Telling employees they are not allowed to discuss their wages with each other, which I’m pretty damn sure is illegal and is definitely shady.

Not paying superannuation properly.

Not paying vets and nurses in management positions their backpay in a timely manner.

Making it ridiculously difficult to access your payslips to see if you were paid properly.

Needing to get approval months in advance to order extra stock for busy times of year

Watching the sheer stress of being a manager at these clinics wear good people down to the bone or brink of madness.

Once GreenX has bought into a practice, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them.

Acquiring a practice and promising ‘nothing will change’, that all the things we like will stay the same. Only to change those things, slowly, over the following 3-5 years to match the other clinics in the chain.

Mandatory tea break.

I have also listened to management-types of GreenX make arguments for having unpaid internships in general practice for newly graduated veterinarians, for 12 weeks.

And just about lost my banana over it.

Unpaid. For Twelve weeks. Straight after graduation where they’ve qualified as veterinarians.

Oh hell no.

Interns typically get paid less anyway, and a new grad vet wage isn’t all that much. But they wanted to pay nothing for the first 3 months.

Why? Because new graduate vets are not profitable at the start, they typically cost the practice money as they get themselves established. Everyone knows this, it’s part of the deal when you take on a new grad.

Having to work 3 months straight out of uni for zero pay is insane, it’s almost murderous, and it’s simply evil. This plan was ripe for abuse.

It was also vocally shouted down at the PANPAC conference where it was suggested, thankfully, but these are non-vet, corporate types of people trying to run a series of vet practices for profit.

I just want to be the friendly neighborhood vet on the corner, you know? Just local, quality service where I can get to know the pets over time, and schoolkids aren’t afraid to bring in an injured bird if they find one in the playground. To be part of that community.

And this is what most vet practices have been. You own your job, you don’t need to make a massive profit, just enough to keep doing what you want to do.

But now GreenX has shareholders. The business owners are not on the ground with the rest of us. I have concerns and I don’t like it.

That is not to be negative to those working for Greencross, the boots on the ground that are probably not being treated as well as they should, but need a job to keep the lights on. For some the structure suits them. For some it’s just a job. It is the team on the ground that is the only reason I started working for them in the first place, and stayed.

But do I wish it was something other than GreenX? Yes.

UPDATE: I’d like to contribute in this discussion some ‘advice’ that was shared on Facebook. Members of this particular group are warned to be careful what they post as it’s not a private group and anybody can take a screenshot, so I think that’s fair game.

I do not like this. I do not like this at all. I can’t even tell if it’s satire or trolling, because it’s too close to the truth.

Not only does it make it look like it’s now all about the money (which it is, for the shareholders) it reduces veterinary medicine to a numbers game. By this metric, a ‘good vet’ is one that earns $300 per consult, and twice as much of their billing comes from lab fees as consult fees. They also admit almost a third of their consults.

Doesn’t matter if clients like them, if they solve cases or achieve good medical outcomes. All the qualitative stuff is gone, just the dollar values.

(Oh, and if you meet those metrics, you’re in no way guaranteed to get a pay rise. From experience).

Now it is entirely possible to meet those metrics just by working your cases appropriately and seeing a lot of them, but thinking like this pushes vets, especially young vets who want a pay rise so they can afford their own car, home, etc, to be thinking of the dollars and not the animal or client as they practice.

Maybe I am old fashioned or a dying breed during the rise of corporate veterinary medicine, but I am profoundly uncomfortable with this. Worse, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and a strong feeling of this is not my veterinary medicine.

I am heartened to see most of the comments on that thread from angry, like-minded vets insulted at being reduced to ‘trained monkeys’ and focusing on these metrics instead of patient outcomes and client satisfaction, but as GreenX picks up more and more young vets, training them to fit its mold, I am afraid of more of them being modeled into what GreenX wants, or becoming disillusioned and leaving the profession early.

#veterinarian #vetblr #corporate medicine #vet industry #vet school #ethics #collusion #corruption #greenX #greencross #vet

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barrenjars · 3 years

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a very long thought

Dear Ross, It's been a while since I've sent you an email. Life has been moving fast this week. In my impatience to leave NM, the days can't pass swiftly enough, but on the other side of things it's become increasingly difficult to savor well the season of advent. Much like lent, I am finding this season is revealing of my ineptitude at grasping and practicing regular observance; and simultaneously, there is this begrudging realization that this season still bears a great capacity for grace towards others and ourselves. I had a wonderful call with a former NM colleague of mine, who left NM several months ago in a rather dramatic way, and has served as an invaluable sounding board as I process the systemic misogyny, racism, and ethical dilemmas that NM is fraught with. I am coming to see that: the type of woman who lasts the longest at a firm like this is submissive, a follower, steady and reliable, patient, and a professional who doesn't have idealistic career aspirations. I don't fit, and I never did, and that's more than okay. I've noticed that my voice has become quieter in this last year and a half, I've stopped speaking up and interrupting as much, I've been more hesitant to take initiative on projects because I know they'll get assigned entirely to me if I show the least amount of interest, I've begun to automatically defer to the men in the room, to adopt a submissive posture. It's taken my involvement with the endowment project and the leadership cohorts to realize that I've been cloaking my true self in favor of a more palatable, amiable version of my working self. It's what I did at moody to survive, and what I felt I had to do in this space in order to not be labeled as an emotional or immature millennial. With these realizations have come bitterness, that I've become complacent in letting myself stagnate in my professional development in these ways. But then I am reminded that no work experience is wasted, and that I've learned so many things of what not to do when I finally achieve a management position, or end up in a hiring role, or lead a team. So in that sense, my education here at NM has been constructively helpful. Even as I have limited myself, I've also grown in my understanding of how corporate systems work, and how my ethical framework ought impact the spaces I exist in. I deeply respect the co-workers who comprise my team, who have been supportive and encouraging and who have trained me from the ground up. But I also know that my existing in this space long-term was never going to be worth it. Justifying my staying by highlighting my role on the team as needful was just a construct to make getting through the week a little easier. But no job is worth a psychiatrist, four anxiety and anti-depression medications, aggravated PTSD, and the suicidal hole I existed in for most of this year. It took a long time to realize this. I know that at one point, somewhere on the future trajectory, there exists a reality where work will be fulfilling and good, as I believe God has created work to be. And I am daring to hope in that direction. The last two years have been a halting lament of losing parts of myself along the way, but I'm coming to realize those parts were never really who I was, they were just facades I created to fit the environment I was in. Assimilation is deadly and subtle, and I wrestle with the reality that this is most often my default posture. _ I've begun mentoring a girl at her request, did I tell you that? She's from Moody, and is currently in an intensive agricultural internship in Florida learning how to sustainably grow food with hopes of teaching students in CPS as a community organizer when she returns back to Chicago. Anyway, it's been a good exercise in deconstructing the stays of purity culture with her and identifying casual gnosticism and discussing a more holistic theology of body which contains a framework of how we ought consider the purpose of our beauty. The whole relationship dynamic has been challenging in the best way and I feel unqualified and incredibly blessed. One of my former roommates used to ask often, what is the purpose of beauty for the single person? And I always felt that question was inherently flawed, because I don't think whatever purpose of beauty exists or stewardship thereof then changes functionally when the individual becomes married. I want to hear your thoughts on this. You know I obviously have a very complicated relationship with beauty, and I tend to reject more easily its influence on self-image than make myself wrestle with the implications of if it were to hold a role. _ There is a good chance that Fancy the Sqrl will become a book, though I have no idea what the premise would be. Emily is out of town again so we roasted a bunch of fish and vegetables last night and it was delightful, and today we're making poppyseed chicken with gluten free breadcrumb topping. Our friend Rachel Naffziger from moody will be staying with us this week, so you may see her on Thursday and Saturday. Lizzy bought a new velvet chair for our living room, and it is velvet, and solidifies everyone's opinion that we can absolutely take NO MORE FURNITURE in this tiny apartment, but the chair is loved by all and I'm really enjoying lounging on it upside down. Right now, the goal is to army crawl my way to Friday, and gain a few days of reprieve before launching into another grueling week of training next week. That sounds dramatic, because it is. I am going to go buy my brother a japanese kitchen knife for Christmas now. I hope your Wednesday is going swimmingly. Yrs, S

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babcockdylan95 · 4 years

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inky-thoughts · 7 years

Text

Inky’s Guide to Getting Accepted in Art School

Even though application season is mostly over now, I think this article might be helpful if you want to apply in summer semester or want to wait until next year to start your studies.

Some friends and siblings of friends asked me some stuff since I’m some kind of veteran and eventually got in, so I thought I might just collect all my advice into some kind of (really long) masterpost.

I’m from Germany, so I can’t talk about other countries, but I think about US-colleges are enough posts already going around. I think I will divide this in several steps that guide you through this. (Feel free to skip parts, lol)

Step 1: What do I want to study? Step 2: Where do I want to study? Step 3: What does the uni require? Step 4: ~The Portfolio~ Step 5: The Entrance Exams Step 6: Waiting

Step 1: What do I want to study?

Not every art school is the same, and depending on what you want to study specifically, there might be one better than the other, but only in that prospect. Do you wanna be an architect, interior designer, a classic illustrator, animator, game/concept artist, graphic designer, product designer, web designer, film maker, typographer, photographer, or the classic student of liberal arts? (of course there are even more professions out there)

Look for what you wanna do, and related studies! Look at what the jobs usually require, or what your role models/idols studied, and then go from there! Usually they also mention their universities, so check them out if they still offer the same or a similar degree.

But there are also studies which include several branches - this is great if you can’t really decide on one thing yet, or if you want to be qualified to do several things during your lifetime (this is me btw)!

Don’t be immediately put off by alternatives/related studies or narrow your view on only one specific study. Sometimes it takes time to see the benefits of a certain degree that you didn’t want to consider beforehand, but that usually happens after you got out of your lane.

You got an idea of what you want to study? Great. Now:

Step 2: Where do I want to study?

This one is one of the more difficult and probably most time-intense question. Or, actually, it consists of several other questions:

1. Do I want to go to a public or a private school?

This, usually (at least in Germany) is a question of money. There are a lot of private schools which might be good and “easy” to get into but they are especially one thing: pricey. If you happen to have big funds to 1) support your living, 2) the high tutition fees, know you’ll have a scholarship secured for the entity of your studies, or are not afraid to get a loan to pay for your several hundred euro fees per month, then you might want to try private schools. However, most people don’t have such an access to money and thus prefer to go to public school where you have roundabout 300 or so euro per semester, your public transport ticket included.

2. Where can I study the subject I’m interested in?

Some studies are available at almost every town that has a somewhat medium-sized or sometimes also smaller university/college. Some are actually taught on only one or very few and very prestigious unis/colleges in the country if you don’t want to go to private ones.

If the former, lucky you! You can allow yourself to think about the questions below. If the latter - prepare for not making it the very first time while simultaneously working your ass off.

If there are really just a few unis which offer your preferred studies, actually spend time and money on visiting the town(s) and checking out the uni(s) yourself. Try to go to the scheduled portfolio classes/feedback the profs and sometimes also students offer as you can already collect impressions of who the people are you want to spend your next few years with. In my experience, if you don’t click well with the people there or you feel highly uncomfortable in a way that hinders your creativity, listen to your gut feelings and perhaps reconsider. I don’t mean the “I’m so nervous so many people I don’t know!” anxiety. Think what pushes you further in your works and your over-all development, and then check if they offer you the needed stimulation and critique you can work with. Also try to sense how the atmosphere is, especially between students and profs, and if it’s an atmosphere you think you can work with and imagine yourself within, or not. I found that, even if the studies sound like your wet dream, if I’m unhappy with the surroundings and don’t feel somewhat connected to the people that teach me, I don’t get to my best, and that’s not what I want. Looking for “your” uni is some sort of self-discovery and checking with what you’re okay, and with what you’re not.

3. How far away from home do I want to live?

Some people are driving home to their families nearly every weekend, others want to have as much space between their parents as possible - if you have the opportunity to choose where you want to study, this is something you might want to consider. Think about travelling costs and how long you’ll hit the road, but also living costs and if it’s possible for you to move to another town.

4. Do I have a close friend/group of friends/a partner who I want to stay with and not be miles apart?

There are several options here: 1) jump into the cold water. Some things need to be done alone and you might find new friends/partners you don’t need to give up your dream for. Sometimes you realise that you don’t even mind breaking apart with people who were actually dear to you. Sometimes, your bond is strong enough to withstand the hardships of distance. 2) If your friend(s)/partner is looking for a place to study/work/whatever, too, and thus is (relatively) flexible with moving with you, look for places where it’s possible for both parties to stay. Check towns which offer both your studies, or have a relatively close distance to another town which offers the other party’s subject. There it’s the most logically that the person who has the most limited options gets most of the say. Still, you won’t know for sure sometimes whether both of you will get accepted or not.

5. Which university’s profile works with me?

Especially in the creative field, I really wouldn’t underestimate this! Look at the uni’s claim, check out the study’s module structure, and try to get behind the philosophy of the university and its teachers. It’s easiest to talk to students and alumni on this as they have experience on what their uni focusses.

Are they focussing more on free artistic expression, or do they want to show you what’ll make you fit for the business world?

Are they working a lot with concepts or are they d’accord with whatever?

Do they want you to have your own signature style or are the students more or less copies of their profs?

Is there a certain genre/style the uni prefers/teaches? How does your style and approach fit into it?

Will you have to specialise or can you keep my options open even until the very end? Is it a pace you are comfortable with?

There is nothing bad in either of the options. It is a highly individual choice to make, and not everyone needs the same. It is about if you feel like you’ll fit in and get something out of it that you think/feel you need.

6. Do I like the town?

Sometimes, it is love at first sight, sometimes you grow fond of it during the first few months, sometimes you just won’t warm up at all. You just need to picture that you’re stuck in this town probably for a few years until you can actually move away, so it’s worth thinking about it. Is there everything you need nearby, or do you need to drive to the next town until you finally get The Thing? How are the demographics? How okay do you think the people are with some crazy actions you gotta do because of an uni project? Is there an established student community? Artistic scene? What about lgbtaq+ community? Any other hobbies I want to continue? - The list is very long but it’s nothing I personally thought about too hard. The thing I worried about most was whether or not I’d find a place to live as soon as I was accepted.

Step 3: What does the uni require?

In most cases, their website will tell. Most want you to hand in a portfolio (occassionally with a “homework” to a specific theme that changes per semester) and you need to participate in an entrance exam, and/or a personal interview. Some others want you to (additionally) have an internship in the respective field under your belt - that may vary from just a few weeks to actual YEARS, or an apprenticeship.

And, if you don’t believe you are highly artistically gifted, having your A-levels isn’t something to scoff at either. After all, you’ll be studying.

So really, inform yourself, and I even kicked out a few because I knew I’d be wasting way too much time on the application process alone, or simply didn’t understand what they wanted me to have, as I am a very direct person.

This is also the time to check in if they have any portfolio feedback scheduled. Bring a bunch of your own stuff that you’d think somewhat portfolio-worthy, and just listen to what they say. When I applied for HAW Hamburg, both times I had no idea where their focus was on. First time, I got accepted but failed one entrance exam, the second time, my portfolio failed, and I didn’t know why. Now I know that they are really into traditional drawings, which I provided the first time, but the second time I had a lot of digital works printed out that (now) aren’t really that good.

There is actually a website that focusses on portfolios from most universities in Germany, where people can upload their accepted portfolios and describe the entrance exams. [precore.net] It helps to get a feeling for what certain fields of study or the universities are looking for, but don’t obsess over it too much. Take it as advise, not as non-plus-ultra.

Step 4: ~The Portfolio~

So, here it’ll get very, very specific on what I’m studying/have applied for (communication design, illustration), I have literally no idea for architecture, or product and interior design.

Again, every university has a different focus (hint at precore.net), and it also heavily depends on what precisely you want to study, but I have found a few rules for myself that worked quite well:

The Rule of Thirds is working with basically anything conceptual (I believe): 1/3 of your portfolio shows your ideas, conceptual thinking, and work process, 1/3 is your technique, and the last 1/3 is composition and finished works.

Show who you are, not what you think they want you to be (or else this is not the right place for you).

Try to keep it cohensive. Especially in the field of design, a lot of people stress to have the “Red Thread” through your portfolio. Some dedicate half a year entirely to their portfolio and create it from the scratch. I haven’t done that, I’ve always used older works in combination with newer ones, but I barely created solely for the portfolio. However, what I did was selecting my works according to some kind of theme that I thought summed up my works best and what I wanted to achieve with my works. It helps incredibly much to select.

Profs are sluts for sketchbooks. They want to learn about your working process and your interests. This kind of is a part of The Rule of Thirds.

Don’t be scared of something new. Try out something you’ve never/ barely done before, whether it be another subject (we all have our preferences - whether it is because we think it more interesting or simply easier - and take something you usually don’t take, something you think is boring, or struggle terribly with, and see how it goes!), material (never done graphite? try it!), or even medium (more of a drawing person? test out photography). Make a few studies to test it out, and perhaps it turns out good! Profs appreciate openness and the courage of facing your demons. But don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t go well - learning process has a huge value if you can see it, but if you really don’t like it, don’t take it. You just won’t know unless you try.

Don’t be scared of mistakes. Your portfolio doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be you in first place. In most cases, if you can carry your message, you basically won already.

Don’t just copy something. Enhance it, or create something new! It’s nice that you can replicate a photorealistic Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, but how does it enhance the photo you took as reference? If you’re unlucky, you even messed up the proportions a little. Try as little as possible to rely on only photos as references, and draw from life. It might be more difficult for some, but it also forces you to get down the essencials of your subject, and you end up learning more.

Keep in mind that for animation or film, you probably need to hand in animations or clips, so plan enough time (and money if you need the equipment) for that.

Check your university of how many works they want you to hand in. Most have a minimum, some a maximum. If they don’t say anything, usually 20-30 works are fine. They usually also have a limited size, no bigger than A1 is what I’ve found most, so bear in mind to photograph bigger works or e.g. sculptures.

Some ways to either get your work count up or down: work in series! Technically, one series is one work, but I haven’t seen anyone who would not let them pass as individual works in some kind of context either.

The Presentation of Your Portfolio

Selecting your works is one thing - how you hand them in another.

Think about how big your works are, and adjust the rest accordingly within the uni’s parameters. Some want you to write your name on it, some ask you especially not to as you’ll get a number on a form so they can evade accidential favouritism.

More on the folder’s appearance: Usually, it’s enough to just hand in a folder of a good size for your works. None of my works were bigger than A3, so I sticked them onto I think B2-sized cardboards (more on that later) and had a folder for B2. It had been grey as they were the cheapest made from recycled cardboard. Others go crazy (like this dude here - still one of my favourites) and include their afore mentioned theme in the folder, like sewing one from a comforter. Yeah, people do that. Again, I didn’t do it and I guess most people don’t, so don’t stress out too much over it. As I said, some unis even request you not to.

Then bear in mind that people will need to look through your works - ideally without directly touching them and messing them up. Some actually laminated their drawings or put them into a folder with clearfiles. I personally didn’t like those options much as they are mostly expensive especially in bigger sizes, and you need to work with the reflection of the surface. I used grey cardboard (I think ~300g/m² ?) so it wouldn’t be wobbly but also not too heavy (30 B2 cardboards can get really heavy, just sayin’) and sticked my pictures onto them. This way I also could show my original pencil drawing and the digitally coloured version on the same board, or put a series together without them mixing up the order. I also didn’t ruin the back of my originals with something like what number in the portfolio they have (and people didn’t touch them!) I think in the good ol’ days people actually used paspartouts for their portfolio, but this is very time-intense and nobody I know does this outside of real vernisages or something.

Then, I mentioned before, names! Perhaps the uni doesn’t want you to put yours on the folder, but sure as hell you should write down the name under which you’re applying on the back of each of your work (or cardboard if you do it the way I did). The jury needs to handle so many portfolios, and yes, sometimes it happens that things get mixed up for whatever reason. In most cases they also want you to write down the date of when you created your work and what studies you’re applying for. However, if the uni requires you to write an index of your portfolio, rather write the date on the index. On the index usually goes 1) Number of your work, 2) Title of your work (if you have one - otherwise just say “Pencil Study 1-3″ or something alike), 3) Date of creation, 4) Materials used, and occassionally credits if it was a collaboration or you quote another artwork. Now you need to pay close attention and sort your works accordingly to the number you assigned them, and also write that number down on the back of it!

I personally ordered my works in a way that had some kind of story arch or suspense, others order them chronologically or according to the media used. This is entirely up to you and what you think suits your portfolio best. In the end, the profs will rearrange them anyway as they seem fit, perhaps because they are rather curious about the ones above or just were unsure about them. If you’ll have an interview with them, it’s most likely that they want to talk with you about them and ask some questions.

Now is also the time to save up some (a lot) of money. Depending on where you are applying, hotels and train tickets can become rather expensive, not to forget the art supplies you might need. It’s safe to say you might spend 200-400€ on the application process, portfolio together with the entrance exams.

How to get your portfolio to the profs

In most cases you have to hand in your portfolio before you even get accepted for the entrance exams. If so, you basically got two options:

Mailing

Check in on your postal service and consider how big and heavy your portfolio turns out, usually you can print the package stamps yourself if you do it online (it’s usually also a bit cheaper). Also remember to send a blank patch with your portfolio so the uni can send your portfolio back to you, they usually don’t want to spend any money on those things. Otherwise you need to go and fetch it yourself. Mailing is great if you live quite a distance away or can’t easily travel to the portfolio’s destination (e.g. through work, health issues, you name it) but also keep in mind that packages usually travel more slowly than a normal letter. So calculate enough time that you don’t just hit the deadline with it. Usually, universities take the date it arrives and not the one on the stamp! A thing you might want to consider: package insurance. Depending on how bad your postal service treats the mail and how dear your portfolio is to you, it might be a wise investment.

Handing it in personally

If you live near-by, want to visit the town, or simply are scared to send it off per mail, handing in the portfolio yourself is a nice option. I did it the first time I applied for Illustration, and it was a great way to visit the university I was applying to because it was far away and I didn’t have the chance to go beforehand. I also did some kind of sight-seeing because it was the first time I actually could spend a whole day in Hamburg. Also check in if your uni of choice has only a few days where you can come and hand it in personally! Sometimes the schedule is the same as with mailing, but sometimes it differs. Better safe than sorry! Some tips if it’s farther away, though:

If you have to travel a long way, try to get someone else go with you, especially if you planned in a LOT of time until your train back is leaving. At some point you’d probably run out of ideas what to do.

Take enough money with you so if anything unforseen happens, you are safe. Even if it’s just for a short trip to the museum because it started raining.

Plan it basically like a day trip. After all it’s a great way to discover your hopefully new home!

But remember to think about how you want to get your portfolio back! Do you want them to mail it, or do you want to collect it yourself? If you want them to mail it, include a stamp since most unis won’t pay for it. If you want to get it yourself, make sure to check what dates are possible.

Now it’s basically just waiting for the invitation to the exams (or the rejection letter).

Step 5: The Entrance Exams

Either you need to wait forever until you (finally) receive the invitation after sending your portfolio away - or you actually hand in the portfolio when you’re already at the exams (no kidding, some unis do this, such as Wiesbaden), not knowing if you’ll be among the “selected few” or really just a nobody who sucks.

Now, see how long the exams will be - some are done within one day, others take three or four days.

As soon as you know that you will be taking the exams (and it’s nowhere near your home town):

Look for hotels you can actually pay, or try consider youth hostels (they usually much cheaper since you’ll be sharing a room, plus you might get to know some of the other applicants). Know how long you will stay and calculate accordingly.

Plan your trip. Usually it’s easier to arrive the evening before the exams start, that way you have the chance to actually get enough sleep, so book your train tickets accordingly. With a car you are usually more flexible but keep in mind that you also need to park it somewhere and not every town has enough car parks for that.

Check what material the uni requires from you so you actually can participate in the exams. Go through your inventory at home and check what you’ve got. In my experience, if you didn’t have participated in entrance exams before, you will need to do some big shopping, and remember that art supplies are expensive. If you’ve been clever, you saved up a bunch of money.

If you work with different media than the disciplines in the entrance exam, test the new techniques/media beforehand. You don’t want to work with watercolours if you have no idea what you’re doing.

Some unis want you to arrive with your own photo camera - if you don’t own one, ask friends, family, and acquaintances! Also let them explain the mechanics of it throughoutly and test it beforehand because it’s a life-saver if you actually know your equipment.

Try not to pack too much clothes, especially if you need to still bring your portfolio with you! You will need some space designated for all your art supplies. Travel in a way that you can carry your portfolio folder comfortably together with the rest of your luggage.

Especially if you need to hand in your portfolio the first day of the exams, you might need to finish the portfolio in your hotel room - but keep in mind that you probably shouldn’t touch-up the works themselves but rather check if everything’s in the correct order and sticks properly to your cardboard. Don’t do anything else but the formalities, for the rest it’s definitely too late now.

Try to get a good night’s rest. Depending on your emotional state and how often you already did this, the exams can be quite draining. Get a rich breakfast that still is easy on the stomach, most people will feel queezy at some point and you really don’t want to throw up on your half-finished piece.

Try to be early. At least be on time, it’s something important for your future so treat it as something like that.

Before the exams start, try to talk to other people. It’s easier than you might think because everyone is somewhat nervous and will be happy to have some distractions. Also you immediately have some conversation starters: Where are you from? How was your ride here? First time applying here? Did you apply elsewhere? What are you most excited about? yadda yadda yadda. I know that a lot of artistic people are shy, me included, but this once, grid your teeth and try to get into contact with other people. This way you can cheer each other on, and you won’t feel so alone within the masses that are in the entrance exam. Plus, chances are if you get in, you already know someone.

In your exams, stay cool. Your work doesn’t have to be perfect, mostly it just needs to be imaginative. A good idea almost always wins over a bad technique because technique is something you can learn. Read your assignments carefully. If you need to, invest more time in understanding the task and just work faster as soon as you know what you need to tackle. Also, while a lot of people tell you that you always should look for better ideas even though you are convinced your initial idea was really solid already, I found it not necessarily true. Of course you shouldn’t close your eyes immediately on other options, but (depending on the time you’ve got for the task) if you don’t come up with something better within the next 15 min, go for it. To me, the exams always had something very instinctive. The exams are mostly too short for hesistation. Just be convinced of your idea, and if you can get this across, you’re already half-way there. If you’re done with your task, read the work sheet closely one more time, check if you included everything required, and then hand it in. Don’t try to touch it up any more, it most likely will ruin it. Entrance exams are nothing where they expect you to produce a masterpiece within 1-3 hours. It’s all about time and just working on it. It’s about calculating and reducing to the necessities. You won’t get bonus points if you go into details whereas the actual focus of your work lies somewhere else. Sketching helps you a lot for this, so try quick sketches at home before you have your exams, it can save your butt.

If you can’t keep your cool: Sit back. Straighten your back, close your eyes, breathe deeply and count to ten. This is just one picture you have to draw, just some text you need to write. It’s nothing more.

And, if you have second throughts because everything feels so easy “but shouldn’t” - really, be happy about this. I know it’s a terribly awkward feeling when you sit among so many people groaning about how hard it is while you’re just “idk it’s not that difficult.” It’s as though you didn’t see the backside of the paper or something. Generally, this is a good indicator that you’re actually good at it, though. You’re probably under less stress because you’re more experienced, just have a good day, or just are better prepared and have more advanced skills. Don’t feel weird about this, you might actually belong to the better “selected few” in the end.

The Interview

In a lot of unis, you will have an interview after being among the more successful contestants. It is most likely you will be much more nervous before that than while taking the exams because you just took the exam and are so much closer to your goal than before.

To get you off adrenaline highs, study breathing techniques. It helps not feeling like faining while talking to your future profs.

Try to talk to the others waiting with you. Everyone is nervous and excited, so that’s a perfect conversation starter. They most likely will be in a lot of your classes, so really, be nice. Apologise if you are snappy/gruff, they will understand it’s mostly your nerves talking, or at least assume it is. Also: Collect phone numbers! If you haven’t already, at least have one person’s number or facebook profile so you can fret together while waiting for the final results. If you both get in, this might be the chance to actually already have a flatmate!

Be nice to your profs! Don’t get cocky because you got into the “inncer circle” - if you are an ass and over-confident, they most likely won’t pick you. If you practically demand them they take you, it won’t score you any bonus points because if you’re that good, why do you even need to study?

However, be yourself. Be honest, and it’s also okay to admit to the profs that you’re hecking nervous because that means it matters a lot to you.

Prior to the interview, think about what inspires your work the most! Do you have illustrators/artists/designers etc. that you admire? Someone who made you think that these studies are actually your dream? Why did you choose this uni? Did you apply somewhere else? Where do you want to go with your degree later? What do you think is very important to you as a person and you as an artist/designer/whatever?

For example: I admired Tatjana Hauptmann since I was a child and wanted to become an illustrator because of her. Claire Hummel inspired me to actually become a character designer, it was the first time I learned this profession even existed, plus I love her work. I chose my studies at this university because it includes everything I want to be later: Illustrator, character designer, storyboard and comic artist, and director. I want to work in all of these fields at least once in my lifetime because there is so much I want to create. I personally love the storytelling that art provides as I believe storytelling is a very human thing.

This actually is already good to think about before you even start with your portfolio! As soon as I realised “Storytelling is My Thing!”, this was how I could connect my older works with the new, and it fit. Talk about what you enjoy about making art, talk about your inspiration, things that make you starry-eyes and go through the world with wonder.

Step 6: Waiting

The most horrible thing. You can’t do anything about it and usually sit at home for several weeks until you might receive another letter from your university of choice. Usually, there are two options:

1. You got in. Congratulations! If you need to move out, secure yourself a cheap and comfy place as soon as possible. If you were clever enough to exchange phone numbers or befriend people on facebook, it’s a tad easier to find a place to live. You either already have a flatmate, or you have someone who knows the town.

2. You didn’t get in. This isn’t the end of the world, even if it might seem that way. You usually can apply twice at each creative studies, so learn from the experience. If you applied a second time and didn’t get in, think long and hard if maybe this university isn’t truly your place to be. Look for other unis that offer the same/similar studies, maybe with a different mind-set on some things, and apply there. Though, if you got declined by several unis, maybe consider another profession. It’s not great to think about this like that, but sometimes you also need to know when to pick your fight, and when to give up. There are plenty of (popular!) artists who never got a formal education and actually pursue art only as a hobby. There is nothing shamefull in that.

Also get rid of the idea that only because you have an “artistic talent”, you are unable to pursue science or maths! It by all means isn’t mutually exclusive, my own backup-plan was becoming a chemist. I know a lot of friends who become nurses, engineers, computer scientists, or phsychologists instead of artists/designers but still keep their hobby and that quite successfully.

TL;DR: Be prepared and think stuff through, but please don’t stress yourself out. Be yourself, be honest with yourself and others, and you’re ready to go!

I hope this somewhat helped a few of you!

#art school #germany #university #application #portfolio #getting accepted in art school #long post #guide #idk how do you tag those things????

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things-that-make-me-slytherin · 7 years

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I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm on my senior year and very confused about a career. I was almost certain about studying psychology but I've been thinking about law (initially because of parents pressure, won't deny it). So, what made you chose it? Pros, cons... Whatever you may think that could help? (love your blog 💚 🐍 💚)

It’s not a bother at all sweetie! I’m glad you like the blog!

I think it’s great you’re asking others for advice, you don’t want to pay for half of a degree and find out if it’s right for you.

I’m assuming you’re in America because you said senior year, so keep in mind that I’m Australian and we kind of do things differently to the US and UK, and well basically everywhere. The main differences in regards of law is that in Australia you don’t need to do “pre-law” or an undergrad. Law is a bachelors degree in Australia and our law is practiced mostly with statutory law and common law. We also don’t have an LSAT nor do we need to know absolutely everything. Once you’ve got the lawyerly thinking down and you know the basics with statutory interpretation and how to do legal research and writing you’re generally ok at uni. But always keep your notes!!

My best advice would be to get a part time job or an internship at a law firm to see what the work is like and whether it’s right for you. In Australia (I’m not sure about everywhere else) you generally choose an area or areas of law to practice such as family law, criminal law, civil litigation for example. But someone who isn’t any good with one area of law can still be fantastic at another area of law. So try to see/speak to lawyers who practice different kinds of law.

Law is nothing like the T.V shows. At all. Here is what law is like:

Law involves a lot of boring reading,

getting coffee and drafting documents for senior solicitors and

a lot of hard work and long hours.

You won’t be spending all of your time in court,

in fact you’ll probably spend the most time in your office dealing with clients, researching or writing letters, advices or drafting court submissions.

The case files are generally massive unless they’re run of the mill wills and power of attorney files, most files are at least an inch if not two or three thick, some need multiple ring binders,

You are generally only going to like a handful of your clients and they will mostly drive you up the wall,

It’s incredibly rewarding, for me its knowing that I was able to do whatever I did and to a lesser degree that I was able to help someone,

A lot of your job includes being a point of contact for someone going through something difficult, you have to be able to empathise, or at least convince the client you empathise with them.

I wouldn’t recommend it if you can’t stand reading, mundane tasks like responding to dozens of emails a day, or you can’t work in a workplace with a hierarchy. Law is also still an old boys club really, there are hundreds of female lawyers but there are also plenty of judges and senior solicitors with skewed views on a woman’s ability to practice law. I think more so in the US from what I’ve heard?

I would recommend law if you’re determined, willing to put in the hours and like the feeling you get when you’ve helped someone out with their problem or you’re the kind of person who gets a kick out of precision in your work. Even though Australian law school isn’t the same kind of intense that US law school is it takes a lot of time.

I sort of fell into law to be honest, I had considered it but I had finished high school and was working part time with no set plan when I was made aware that one of my relatives colleagues was looking for an admin assistant/trainee paralegal. I applied and interviewed and moved for the job when I got it. My first day I went to court (not for a trial) but to look at subpoenaed documents and make notes on them (I was not alone). I ended up loving the job and my mother always joked and said “you’d make a fabulous lawyer, you’re so good at arguing” (not the only thing a lawyer should be good at btw). I had always considered law as one of my options. I didn’t have the marks to get into law straight away so for a semester I studied three courses and got the marks to get in to law.

Feel free to message me and chat to me if you want!

💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚

#anon ask #not hp #law #studies

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oneyeartransfer · 7 years

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Sociology, ‘trash major’?

“A sociology student at Cerritos College asks:

Hello, I'm planning on transferring in for the sociology major, but on past questions, I have seen here that sociology was considered a 'trash' major. Why would you say that, and are jobs impossible to find with a soc degree?

OK, a few things to parse here.

Sociology’s not trash. It was my major as an undergraduate, and I’m going to be pursuing graduate studies in the field. Safe to say that I take sociology seriously. But why does it, along with art history and communications, have a reputation for being a “low tier” major? Why are there informal tiers for majors in the first place? A sufficient answer to this question can be had with some basic sociological insights, which in itself kind of suggests that sociology is not useless, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. More on that later.

The simplest answer to the first question is that sociology is not a particularly rigorous field of study at the undergraduate level. This isn’t really a value judgment, although sociology, as with all social science and humanities fields, is more difficult if you are a poor writer and easier if you are a strong one. (This, notably, hurts international students.) However, writing is a rightfully deemed necessity of undergraduate education, so it is more likely students will be fine with this, compared with proficiency in high-level math (anything beyond calculus, or statistics that requires calculus).

Most sociology departments require no more than one methods course, which may or may not involve statistics (or bear a similar quantitative focus). There are debates among sociologists whether or not this should change into something closer to, say, economics, a social science with a great emphasis on quantitative methods at the undergraduate level. Many people don’t realize that research in sociology and political science actually heavily relies on statistical methods, but that isn’t as strongly reflected in undergraduate degree requirements as it is for economics.

Anecdotally, I got through my undergrad education in sociology with only two methods courses (one was optional as it was for my honors program) and one statistics course (used to satisfy IGETC). As far as transferring is concerned, this is a lot less work than the full math and physics sequences necessary to transfer as an engineering or physical science major, and they have to take MORE quant-heavy courses afterward.

One reason why sociology is really light on quantitative methods is because departments think it is a good way to attract students. Contemporary sociology courses and curricula are more defined by eclectic and quirky topics about things like hip-hop or on relevant social issues (like discrimination or mass incarceration). These fun and interesting courses may be meritorious but are not necessarily rigorous and generally, no pre-requisite knowledge beyond a healthy news diet is required.

That lower barrier to entry means that more people can study sociology if they want to, or, frequently, switch into from another major they decided they don’t like or find too rigorous. Readings in sociology are not particularly challenging with the potential exception of the classics (Marx/Weber/Durkheim) and a few of the 20th century critical theorists; more importantly, sociology is not a field in which one needs abundant amounts of prerequisite sociological knowledge to do well in. (This is accounted for the fact that sociology is a staggeringly wide-ranging field with little intradisciplinary consensus and no real scholarly canon.) The status of undergraduate sociology as a field that one can easily switch into is a key reason for its low prestige, because it suggests that it is accepting the rejects and victims of the curve from other fields. There are similar characterizations for communication studies and anthropology in social science and English and history in the humanities, all fields light on quantitative methods.

We live in a historical moment where perceived knowledge in quantitative methods has never been more important, especially for folks who want to break into the technology industry. “Big data, “data science,” “data-driven analytics” are now commonplace terms in households and not just Silicon Valley, and it speaks to the power of quantitative analysis. Coupled with the intense post-graduation employment stress that now preoccupies most college students, fields that emphasize the development of these skills, such as economics, engineering, and computer science thrive.

The whole notion that some majors are “better” or “worse” than others has been discussed plenty in past posts, and I refer to this as major stratification. It has always existed to some extent on college campuses. (Fun fact -- in the early days of Yale, engineers were thought to be at the bottom of the totem pole because their education was too “practical” and lacked deep training in classical philosophy, history, and the arts.) In my discussions with Jimmy on this matter, it occurs and is enforced because it gives students a sense of where they stand relative to their peers, even if the scale of measurement isn’t one that is reasonable or one they sincerely believe in. There really are not a lot of areas of commonality on university campuses these days (literally -- students don’t converge on quads or commons like they used to), so the purpose of such phenomena such as major stratification serves to provide common ground, even if it is built on a faulty foundation.

As for your job prospects, your major doesn’t matter that much, though some fields are better to study for certain job markets. For most students, skills are acquired through internships and research. The degree matters, of course, but employers are most concerned with your prior experience and what you did, not as much what you learned.

TL;DR: sociology accommodates all types of students, has some interesting topics, and doesn’t require math, and so is considered a low-prestige major at the undergraduate level. Students classify majors so that lame ice breakers can continue to have meaning

- Arthur

#ask #transfer #sociology #major prestige #college major #university #community college

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qmcareers · 5 years

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Guest blog: How to find work abroad

In difficult economic times such as these, UK graduates could find themselves struggling to find a job. Consequently, working abroad might seem like a more attractive and viable option.

But before you get applying, there are a few things you might want to consider.

Choosing a country

From a casual browse of the internet, you will find that there is no shortage of opportunities for employment abroad. Therefore, the onus will be on you to try and narrow down the results to find the jobs that best suit your preferences.

Are you looking for a long-term position that would see you living in another country permanently, or at least for an extended period? Maybe you might want something a little more casual, something that could be incorporated into your travel plans? If this is the case, it might be worth focusing on the region you most want to visit.

Whatever you decide, be sure to always check the visa requirements before you travel. While some countries are relatively relaxed on employing tourists, others are not quite so forthcoming. In such instances, applying for a visa can be a tricky process, without any definite guarantees.

Also, before you make any commitments, make sure you do a bit of research first. You don’t want to end up half way around the world in a job that doesn’t live up to your expectations.

Lastly, make sure you inform student finance if you start working. If you don’t, you might get hit with some unexpected charges as a result.

Where to look for jobs

The internet is a priceless vehicle for research. Through it, you will find an enormous amount of information – some helpful, some not – on working abroad.

However, what it does not necessarily offer you is the chance to meet with a foreign employer face to face. Look out for international career fairs, where you will be able to explore potential overseas employment and get first hand information from members of each company.

Don’t forget to use your university links either. Search through the advertised positions online and if you can’t find anything there speak directly to the careers department. Even if they don’t have anything to offer you themselves, they will certainly give you valuable advice on where and how to apply.

Some popular options to explore

Teaching English as a foreign language has for many years been a popular avenue for those of us looking to migrate. What makes it so attractive is not just that it is available to any native English speaker, but also its flexibility.

Essentially, those interested have two options: online courses or classroom based courses. The online courses are offered by a number of companies. All of them teach similar content and provide similar certification (just make sure to choose an officially accredited company).

One issue with the online courses is that it does limit your options somewhat. Due to the competition for places, certain countries will only employ experienced teachers or graduates of the classroom based courses.

The classroom based, CELTA courses are far more expensive, but this is because they are a lot more detailed and intensive, and give their students the chance to obtain some practice in teaching.

For many people, volunteering their services for a worthy cause is their favoured option for international work. Unsurprisingly, these placements are in very high demand and many will cost you money.

That said, they are not necessarily expensive, although the prices do vary. While you will not gain financially, you are sure to acquire some unforgettable experiences. It may be tough, you might be exposed to upsetting scenes of poverty and distress, but you will leave with a sense of pride at offering your assistance to those in real need of help.

Long story short: there is a broad and ever-increasing range of opportunities available to you. You could do a Ski Season, work at a Summer Camp, or even put that degree to use!

Working abroad is possible. All you need to do now is find your perfect match.

Kit Durant writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs.

from QMUL Jobs Blog http://bit.ly/2AwP3iI via IFTTT

#QMCareers QMUL Jobs Blog #Careers #QMUL #London #Enterprise #Queen Mary University of London

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diary-of-an-aries · 5 years

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Five Card Romance Oracle Spread (14-12-2018)

Requester: diary-of-a-pisces (tumblr url) / [email protected] (email)

Inquiry (as phrased by the requester): Should I give up on the idea that Bart Aarts and I will find our way back to each other, despite my firm belief that being in each others’ lives is kind of destined?

Cards drawn: Unrequited Love, Give Your Relationship A Chance, This Could Be the One, Retreat, Very Soon

Unrequited Love / “There’s not enough attraction or chemistry to keep this relationship going.”

Alright, upon drawing this card, it seems easy to think the worst of its meaning, especially considering its caption. Luckily, the surrounding cards are, for lack of a better word, much less grim than this one to the point where they, in a way, can actually put a (semi) positive spin on this card’s meaning.

Regarding your question, the Unrequited Love card doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever feelings / attraction that you and Bart Aarts share are gone or lacking. Again, considering the surrounding cards, I don’t think this is case at all, and if anything, there’s still quite a bit of chemistry to be explored between the two of you! Instead, I feel that this card is just a reminder that you’ve been putting more energy or emotional investment into your bond than he is. Whether we like it or not, we are all made of the same matter, therefore everyone’s energy is intertwined with one another’s; in other words, we’re all connected in some way, so even if you and Bart Aarts may not be an active part of each other’s lives, your thoughts and feelings still give your bond power.

This can pose a slight problem, however, should you be more invested than he is. Again, I genuinely feel that right now, you’re more attached to this bond than he is at the moment, and it’s causing an imbalance in your bond’s overall energy. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with putting forth any amount of energy into a relationship, whether that be directly through straightforward communication or indirectly through thoughts and fantasizing, but it can become difficult and counterproductive if you expend too much of it.

I’m getting this sense that you two are separated, and will remain separated, for a reason at the moment. I’m also getting the sense that this reason is a bit inexplicable, even if it may not have been before; divine forces are keeping you away from each other but of their own accord. Likewise, during this period of separation, instead of dwelling too much on how you’ve been and the plausible circumstances of your relationship, Bart Aarts has been living his own life - a life outside of you, at that. No, he hasn’t relinquished any thought of you. You’re still in his heart. You still have reason to be optimistic. And yes, you definitely still cross his mind from time to time, but whatever the two of you have is not his primary focus at the moment.

With that being said, I highly recommend you following a similar train of thought for the time-being. Instead of focusing a lot of your thoughts and inner energy (even subconsciously) on this person, direct all of that elsewhere. I’m not saying to never think or talk about him again, just that it’s dire that you limit to yourself to how often you fantasize about him or long for his presence. Of course, it’s easier said than done, but I have utmost faith that you have the capacity to do so!

Give Your Relationship A Chance / “Work on your partnership.”

Similarly to the previous Unrequited Love card, this card isn’t something that should be taken at face value. It seems to me that, no, you shouldn’t give up on the idea that you and Bart Aarts will be romantically reunited. There’s still hope for the both of you!

As expressed earlier, there’s still a good amount of attraction and chemistry that is keeping the two of you together, even if it’s a bit stifled for the time-being. Said attraction and chemistry is something worth holding out for and exploring once the time is right. In fact, I’m also getting the impression that the day you two reunite and are more actively involved with one another, the connection you share will deepen. It’ll be something that, I feel, will be refreshing for the both of you. And to add onto that, I also think that this time, your connection will be more lasting and satisfying than the first! Many of the unanswered questions left behind in your first, I suppose, dynamic with him will be more easily acknowledged this time of round.

However, though, I’d continuously refer to the last paragraph of the previous card explanation: keep the faith, and stay positive that things will work out, but don’t overinvest! Pining and fantasizing is only fun and healthy in small doses, but for the most part, your life is yours to live and yours for the taking! Live for yourself and not for anyone else. Once again, you and Bart Aarts are separated for a divine purpose, and there’s a need to focus your attention inward and on yourself for now. At any rate, I think that doing so will help to make your reunion even more exciting once it happens!

This Could Be The One / “You’ve already met the romantic partner you seek.”

In essence, this card is pretty much an extension of what the “Give Your Relationship A Chance” entails. Whatever you and Bart Aarts share with one another could very much be what you and your higher self desire in this lifetime. I’m getting the sense that, when you’re both at your best, you kind of balance each other out in a way but that it occurs very seamlessly and automatically, like your personalities are just naturally complementary, if that makes any sense. But, when paired with the other cards in this reading, this is something that has yet to be recognized fully. The true potential of your relationship hasn’t been fully explored yet because of your separation.

To elaborate on this train of thought, as well as on what I’ve said in the previous card explanations, I feel that Bart Aarts share a soulmate connection. Because of the nature of your separation, I’m leaning toward a milder form of a karmic soul relationship, in which the two of you are intensely drawn / attracted to one another but also have “unfinished business”, or some loose ends hanging regarding your relationship. This is not only the case in this lifetime but also in a couple of others, as well. If you do not subscribe to the idea of soul connections, then long story short, you can just consider this confirmation that the bond between you and this guy is something special - something that you cannot easily kindle with another person.

Anyway, this, I feel, is why you feel destined to reunite with Bart Aarts and what is keeping you and your thoughts invested in him. You aren’t desperate or over-emotional for feeling that your path leads to him because I too believe that it does! You’re probably tired of hearing this, but it’s, again, just not the right time for that path to fully pave itself for you both yet.

Retreat / “It’s time to disconnect from the world.”

This card works hand in hand with what I talked about with the Unrequited Love card and basically serves as confirmation that you’ve been dwelling on Bart Aarts and the prospects of your relationship a tad more than you should. Right now, it’s time to cast that aside. Your love life as well as the resurfacing of your connection with him will better blossom as you spend time alone.

For some reason, I’m getting this nagging feeling that concentrating on something oriented to your career and / or financial life may help you. If you’re currently employed, perhaps you can ask your supervisor if you’d be able to pick up extra shifts or, on a more lighthearted note, ask the coworkers whom you’re closest with if they’d like to hang out with you. If you are currently unemployed, then maybe you could consider applying for a few jobs / internships of interest to you. Working is a great way to not only build your resume and assist you financially, but it also gives you a way to take your mind off any excess amount of pining and fantasizing. Not only that, but it also gives you an opportunity to make friends among your coworkers!

Whatever the case, it’s necessary that you find a way to keep yourself more attuned to the current moment and all that you’re able to do for yourself. Fixating too much on hypotheticals and whatever is keeping you and Bart Aarts apart will become emotionally tedious and exhausting at some point (if it isn’t already), plus it also sends out a certain amount of “worry” energy into the universe. And the universe might wind up responding by delaying the time of your reunion with him, as daunting as that sounds! So, for now, just trust that everything will fall into place at some point, that things can and will work out in your favor, and that you can only control so much of the situation. After that, all you can do is remain optimistic (but not to a fault), and carry on in your sovereign lane!

Very Soon / “Clearly decide what you want so that it comes to you now.”

As great as it would be for you and Bart Aarts to reconnect now or within a few days, what I’m moreover feeling from this card is that you’ll, at the very least, receive a sign about your reconnection. I say this because I felt a bit languid while drawing your cards - that the energy between the two of you is stagnant, and like I said much earlier, stifled. I still think that the universe wants to keep you and Bart Aarts separate for a little while longer but that the universe will send you some sort of confirmation within the next week that 1.) you are on the right path and 2.) your path, at some point down the line, will lead to him.

What this sign may be is ultimately dependent on you. I think that this sign will be more personally tailored to you, though, instead of just a string of angel numbers on the back of a card or something like that; I think that this sign will manifest in the form of something personally significant, whether it be alluding to some sort of aspect in your relationship with Bart Aarts or something that means a lot to just you as an individual. Either way, you will most definitely be receiving a sign sometime soon!

I advise you not to actively seek something that signals your reconnection with Bart Aarts. Constantly being on the lookout for something you’re waiting for will just hinder its arrival as well as, again, relay a “worry” signal into the universe. Instead, and similarly to the theme of “letting go” all throughout this reading, just keep living your life to the best of your ability, and the sign will come to you. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and relieved once it does, and in that moment, I also advise that you take a minute or two to thank the universe or whatever entity you believe in for giving it to you.

Signs may seem a bit miniscule in the grand scheme of things, but ultimately, they’re reminders that what we’re doing fulfills our divine purpose and that what we want is on its way faster than we think. Let me know once you do see your sign, so I can celebrate along with you!

To summarize: No, you should not let go of the idea that you and Bart Aarts will find your way back to each other because yes, you are destined to reconnect!

Note from the reader: Once again, I would like to apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for how delayed this reading is as well as how unresponsive I’ve been for the past week and a half. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. I genuinely appreciate it.

I will be working on delivering your other reading as soon as possible. If you had any follow-up questions or wanted any clarity or certain aspects of this reading, then feel free to shoot me an email! It was an honor reading for you today. You have such a beautiful energy surrounding you.♥

Wishing you all the best,

Mystical Mars

#readings #reading #december 2018

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siobhanoleary-blog · 6 years

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interning in another language; my thoughts after my first three months

I’m an intern, and it’s a hot Friday in July, which in French workplaces means that you’re either in your car on the way to your family country home, or you’re at work wondering why you’re not.

My office is Parisian perfection.

It takes up a floor of a Hausmannian building just by Place Vendome. Dark, almost black floorboards contrast with white painted walls. The desks are white and are pushed together to create a semi-communal workspace. My section of the floor has another secondary office with clear glass sliding doors which separate us. At the end of the office, right next to where I am sitting, is a wall lined with windows that lead onto a balcony which overlooks the Rue de la Paix. If I step out onto the balcony - as I often do in the mornings with an espresso - I can see the Vendôme column to my left, Palais Garnier to my right, and if I look straight ahead, the top of the Eiffel Tower that pokes out above the Hotel Mansart.

As I write this, there is a wealth of conversations happening around me. Here, it’s a constant hum of stylish and attractive french people passionately taking phone calls and delivering high speed “qu’est ce qui a?”’s to each other, yet I can’t understand most of it. That’s because I’m an 18 year old Australian currently interning at a prestigious French film production company in Paris, yet I don’t have any experience in the film industry, nor know anyone who works in it, don’t study film production (or anything at all for that matter), and I don’t speak French… I never really considered that I might work somewhere where learning on the job would encompass so much more than just the work itself. What am I doing here, you (or we all) might ask?

When I arrived in Paris I was just an eighteen year old, who really knew nothing of the world, and who had no idea what she wanted to do with it. Only two of those things have changed since then and one of them is that I am now nineteen. In fact I actually never seriously considered working in the film industry until… well… until I realised it was the perfect hybrid of creation and intellectualism. At the time, I was telling my friend that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, she then gave me a great quip of advice; ‘Find someone who has the life that you want, and do what they do’. French directors have cool lives, take it from me.

I’ve always been an avid watcher of films, and always had a creative side that I wasn’t willing to forfeit for the wholly academic careers I knew I could pursue. Directing to me seemed a really fantastic amalgamation of the two.

When my 3 month french course was starting to draw to a close I got worried. I was going to run out of money, and would need to be employed as soon as I finished the course or risk having to go back to Australia with my tail between my legs. After the horror of the incessant hospitality work that I did before I moved over here, I felt almost sick at the thought of having to make coffee and clean for hours on end again.

In Australia, there isn’t really an internship culture. You don’t hear of people as interns like you do in Paris. The idea of interning was not on my radar at all before moving here, and I always thought that really it meant collecting coffees with no pay. To my surprise, in Paris usually only one of those things is true. There is a massive intern culture; it’s a requirement of many university courses to complete one ranging anywhere between 3-6 months, and its French law that you have to be paid. After I found out about this wonderful, life changing world of the intern, I began to email a copy of my CV and a lengthy, passionate and unnecessarily emotive cover letter to every film production company in Paris that I could find from a google search. I think in total I emailed over thirty companies.

I got no response from most of them. Some of them replied saying they already had an intern, and others asked me if I spoke french to which I decided not to reply at all in an attempt to not affect my very volatile, very important mental state; wherein I was convincing myself that I was wholly capable of doing what I wanted to do. Then, one day, I received a response from a producer working at a company that I thought was far too established and professional to take on a monolingual teenager for no apparent reason. She requested an interview with me.

The day of the interview I was shitting bricks. I had about a month left of my course, with no guarantee that I was going to be able to survive in the city after its end. Unsurprisingly, my money was going down faster than I had anticipated, and I was having panic attacks that would wake me from my sleep with such an intense feeling of dread that I thought I was dying. My dad is a doctor, and I actually asked him if he thought it was possible that I could have a brain tumour. I would be sound asleep, dreaming, when all of a sudden everything would become corrupted, and I would wake up, desperately looking around my studio trying to figure out what exactly I was so afraid of. There was nothing there, of course, just the sound of my exasperated breath.

I was totally taken aback when I arrived at the office. It seemed unreal. I thought how I could ever be so blessed as to be able to go to this incredible place every day, and belong there. Everyone there would know I belonged there because I was employed there just like they were employed there. If I saw one of them on the street outside of work, we might say hello to each other. Maybe they’d be with someone who would ask who I was and they’d say ‘oh she’s from work’, and that would be a sufficient explanation. I could not conceive of it.

The interview was surprisingly relaxed and went well. The producer was young, and lovely, and basically said to me that she was happy to take me on and didn’t see why not. There were a lot of why nots, however, but we didn’t really consider them at the time.

Later that day, after I had called both of my parents in an unprecedented state of glee whilst strolling through the glory of the second arrondissement, high on life thinking I was some kind of prodigy, I received a follow up email.

The email stated that I would have to prove that I can understand and work in french before they would accept me. I would be given a month to improve before meeting with the production coordinator alone, where the secondary interview would be conducted in french. Fuck. To be perfectly honest I couldn’t speak an eloquent word in french.

It’s actually really difficult to gage someones proficiency in a language properly, and I seemed to have inflated my own in my head. I could say the basics, and had broken knowledge of certain aspects, but certainly nothing that would allow me to work in a french only workplace.

I passed that month in a near constant state of stress. I was at a flatline state of feeling like I’d left my phone on the metro. It was terrible. Well, that’s a bit much actually in the meantime I was enjoying Paris if you get my gist.

When the day of the interview arrived I had no more stress to give. Until I was just outside the door, knocking. The longer it took for someone to answer the more time I had to realise what was about to happen. It reminded me of when my dad told me about his medical final. Everyone was waiting outside the locked doors of the exam auditorium, and as the minutes continued to tick on he yelled ‘LET US IN! EVERY SECOND A VITAL PIECE OF INFORMATION SLIPS OUT OF MY BRAIN!'

From the moment she opened the door I really realised the voracity of my global move. I could understand maybe every 10th or 20th word she said. I was in a state of complete absorption, willing my ears and my brain to pull it together for the team, cos we don’t have another plan. By the end of it, I had grasped the most important thing: she basically said ‘why not?’ and that we would have a trial period and see how it goes. How long would the trial period be? No clue. Would I get paid? No idea. How much? Je ne sais pas du tout. All these questions and I didn’t want to even try to ask one, fearing that it might be the rectangle of wood that pulls the whole jenga tower down.

That was nearly three months ago now. I could tell you that its all been fine and dandy, because I’m still here, but the reality is that it has been really, really, really hard. I actually had been offered an english speaking internship with an art gallery at the same time, that I turned down for this position. So when things were getting really tough - namely when I was pulled aside and told I was really ‘timide’, which I found a little frustrating seeing that in order for me to be outgoing without speaking french I’d have to seem like a mute and, I guess, use extreme facial expressions or something - I wondered why the fuck I’d decided to make things so hard for myself. I have an amazing law and politics degree waiting for me in Australia, in a language I really love and have the hang of. And yet no, I decided to come here, and struggle, with all my knowledge and opinions tucked away under this disability of not being bilingual.

I have had many moments of being on the verge of tears. It’s incredibly difficult - and humbling, I might add - to go from an environment (high school, in my case), where you thrived because of your academic ability to one where you can barely ask for the time. And where no one would bother to ask you for it, knowing the difficulty and awkwardness that might arise from you not being able to understand.

No one wanted to talk to me, and I actually found myself hoping that they wouldn’t. I was scared to even make eye contact, fearing that if I did, someone might actually try to engage with me. Breaking into the social scene of a new work place is hard enough, and I have found it nearly impossible in another language. This is not to say that my employers and fellow employees have not been accommodating, truly it is far from that. My own lack of self confidence and insecurity, my own fear of seeming dumb and incapable, is what has disabled me the most.

Only now do I find myself increasingly able to laugh at the office jokes, answer questions, and engage in French. Sometimes I feel despondent that maybe it’s become too late for me in this work place to make up for what my estimation became after my first few weeks. Too late for me to finally be able to inquire about other aspects of the company and work that I am interested in. Too late for me to ask more questions. But I have to force myself not to think like this.

This experience has been the hardest, yet most rewarding of any experience in my life so far. The personal growth I have experienced cannot be underestimated, but I do have a long way to go. But I think that is a good thing.

If I had no where to go, well then I’d just be nowhere.

#interning

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tonightontv · 6 years

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She Could Fly is sure to attract attention when it launches in July.

The Dark Horse comic from AMC's Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell is a personal one, partially inspired by mental health struggles he only recently began speaking about publicly. She Could Fly follows Luna, a 15-year-old girl with mental health issues who finds solace in a mysterious flying woman who keeps appearing in the media. But when the woman dies on live television, it’s a sign that Luna’s world, as unsteady as it already was, is about to change even more.

Martin Morazzo illustrates She Could Fly, which comes from Dark Horse imprint Berger Books, a line of comics curated and edited by Karen Berger, who helped bring The Sandman to life and created DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint.

A month out from the series debut, Heat Vision spoke to Cantwell about its origins and how much of himself has bled into his comic book debut.

It feels like there’s at least two different stories being told here. Which came first: Luna, or the Flying Woman?

This story has a bunch of starting points, actually. The first part of this idea goes all the way back to 2001 when I had just finished my freshman year at USC Film School. I had gotten an internship at Marvel Studios for the summer, my first Hollywood gig ever, and it was my dream job.

Back then, it was just four small offices in Century City. Kevin Feige was 28, Avi Arad was still there, Chris Yost [Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars Rebels] was the head of the R&D "comic vault" and my boss, and we shared the space with a bunch of kite salesmen from Spectra-Star, because Marvel was still owned by ToyBiz then. [Sam] Raimi’s Spider-Man was in production, and there was a secret treatment for X-Men 2 locked in a file cabinet somewhere.

Anyway, that summer, I stayed with my girlfriend in her cheap-o apartment that had no A/C, so my parents bought me a really nice vintage rotating fan that was metal. I was kind of fascinated with it over those months, before it broke. Sophomore year, I had the comic bug from my time at Marvel and came up with an idea about a woman who was able to rig a rotating fan to her back and control it with her cerebral cortex. This ultimately ended up as a discarded idea in a file folder labeled "Human Fan." There it sat for the next 16 years, until I took little scraps of it and wove them into a completely new story that I had the good fortune of pitching to Karen in 2017.

By then, I had been a part of writing the storyline of teenage Haley Clark in the final season of Halt and Catch Fire. Doing that — plus seeing it come alive with Susanna Skaggs' brilliantly vulnerable performance — was one of the most rewarding things about our TV series’ conclusion for me, because it was so far afield from where Halt had started years previous. And in writing it, I was able to bring a lot of elements of my teenage self to Haley. But then, the story concluded, and I no longer had a teenage heroine to write for, so I decided to try to figure out a new one.

And that’s how I came upon Luna, in whom I was able to channel even more of my adolescent angst, including my more serious mental illness episodes I experienced back then, which I had never written about before, and only very recently — like 2016 — finally opened up about with mental health professionals and, even scarier, my parents.

Was there any nervousness about telling Luna’s story in the way that you’re handling it? Depictions of mental illness in pop culture media are complicated and difficult things, and there’s a boldness and honesty in the way the reader gets to see what Luna is imagining — and terrified of — that feels surprising, if not shocking. Did you do research into the subject when thinking about how best to show us what Luna’s world is like?

My short answer is: certainly! The research part for me was easy in a way, as I have suffered from this type of OCD — called Pure O or Primarily Obsessional OCD — since I was about 10 years old. I absolutely agree that mental illness depictions can be problematic if they feel slapped on. But I have an intensely personal connection to this one since I’ve suffered from it largely in private for most of my life. I only received a proper diagnosis at the age of 35 — well into my work on Halt, and when I was already married with kids — because I finally was able to overcome my shame and fear in talking about it. I actually had to, because the most recent episode was so bad that it was debilitating my life.

This was shortly after the completion of season three of Halt, and I was just a mess. Pure O is very different than other types of OCD most people are aware of — largely because of Hollywood depictions — in that it doesn’t externally manifest in very obvious ways to others around the person who has it. We all remember Monk and his delightfully charming OCD. I actually loved that show, but OCD can be incredibly torturous in any form.

With Pure O, it’s really a constant barrage of disturbing images and thoughts that just repeat in your head over and over again, while you try to keep a plastic smile on your face for those around you and you try not to melt down completely. I had my most severe episodes at 10, 11, 12 and 13, then again at 22, and then again at 35. I dealt with them all privately, except for the last one, and it was incredibly hard on me as a kid. When you’re that age, and you just imagine infinite manifestations of killing your parents over and over again and can’t stop, you really freak out.

But my diagnosis was a watershed moment in my life, and it felt like I was finally able to move forward with this condition in some way, instead of just suppressing it until it reared its ugly head again. And that’s when I finally began considering its portrayal in some way in my work. So in a way, Luna is going through exactly what I went through around that age. And I’ll admit, it’s been scary writing her story, and difficult at times. When I saw Martin’s vivid depictions of what I’d written, it made me anxious in that old and very familiar way. The important thing to keep in mind is that Luna’s thoughts are egodystonic — meaning she doesn’t derive pleasure from them and instead finds them horrifying and frightening and relentless. In terms of comic detail, this even boils down to the expressions on her face when she imagines terrible things — no smiles or joy, just wide-eyed terror at what she’s imagining doing.

Still, I’ve had moments privately where I’ve confessed to my wife that I’m scared everyone in the world will think I’m a horrible and a broken, insane human being when they read She Could Fly, and I will lose absolutely everything I hold dear. This doomsday scenario, of course, is a yet another symptom of my own OCD condition.

For decades now — Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are seen as forerunners of this, but you can see it in 1970s Marvel and even earlier — there’s been a move to humanize superhero narratives. There’s definitely some of this in She Could Fly; what I kept going back to in the first issue was Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ Marvels, but also the “Game of You” storyline in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman — stories that are very kind and empathetic towards their leads, and look at the impact the magical/supernatural/unusual have on regular people. Was that kind of thing in your mind when writing this?

I absolutely wanted to ground the fantastic in the real modern world and see how something outrageous would affect a regular teenager and her family. In a way, I think that type of thing is happening on a daily basis in America and abroad — an insane presidency, pictures of skeletal polar bears on little melting floats of ice, advances in private space exploration, the confounding ideas behind cryptocurrency, even that amazing guy in France who scaled the condo balconies in 20 seconds and saved that dangling 4-year-old. It’s just every day at this point that we all read or hear about something nuts.

And all of these stories are imperfect, with lots of complexities and nuance and motivations and personal baggage, and it gets fatiguing trying to wrap your head around it all. Sometimes we just feel numb and saturated with bizarre events, and we end up just having to deal with them in a practical, mundane way to move ahead in life. That is very much the world of She Could Fly, and that’s how all the characters are grappling with this latest strange phenomenon of a woman in the sky.

A big inspiration for me is Jim Starlin’s Silver Surfer, which is my all-time favorite comic book. Starlin brought a sense of the above to that spacefaring series that I just loved. The cosmos felt like this big, black, depressive weird chaos in Silver Surfer’s life. It was like, "Yeah, I’m in space, it looks awesome, what the fuck is going on? Who am I? I hate this." I loved reading that existential crisis stuff while I sat in Dillard’s department store and my mom tried on shoes in the summer of ‘91.

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men felt a little like this, too. And this may sound weird, but the bargain basement fuck-up nature of the spy work in the original Get Smart TV show definitely influenced the bumbling nature of the physicists and defense contractors behind the technology in She Could Fly.

You’ve obviously got the background in terms of reading them, but why comics as a creator? What brought you to Berger Books?

Comics are a perfect medium for portraying internal thoughts and visions, and as you pointed out, the story is very much a post-modern take on the classic comic book trope of flying through the air. As the story coalesced in my head, I was in Toronto to speak at a screenwriting conference, and afterward, I participated in the March for Science there. And I listened to all these speakers, some of whom were these incredible, radical, 21st-century teenage voices, and I thought, “Man, I really should tell this story.”

So I reached out on Twitter to G. Willow Wilson, who writes Ms. Marvel. We had been mutual fans of each other for a time online — and she had even taken me to task at one point for how much the female protagonists of Halt had cried onscreen in season two — and I just asked her advice. I said I had one idea that seemed like a comic book, and asked how I should go about it. She turned around and immediately put me in touch with Karen Berger. It was incredibly gracious and led to this wonderful opportunity, which has been a dream come true.

I was heavily into comics throughout my adolescence, and it was so great to lose myself in these worlds when I was having OCD troubles. The same was true when I came to L.A. for college, and I was a stranger in a strange land. I spent hours alone at Golden Apple and Hi De Ho in Santa Monica. Comics have helped me adjust in difficult periods. So working with Karen, Martin, [colorist] Miroslav [Mrva], [letterer] Clem [Robbins] and the folks at Dark Horse is just next-level for me.

You’ve mentioned Martin Morazzo a couple of times now, and what he brings to the book. His artwork really brings the characters to life. Where did he come from? Did Berger present him to you as, "This is the guy"?

His artwork, especially in the later issues, just takes my breath away. And he is such a positive voice in our collaboration. I was unfamiliar with most of the cutting-edge artists working now when Karen and I first started talking. She turned me on to his work in Occupy Avengers, Electric Sublime and The Great Pacific, and when I saw it, I knew he could bring something special to this story. Every email from Martin containing new pencils or inks is like opening a present on Christmas morning. By the way, everyone should read Ice Cream Man [Morazzo’s Image Comics series with writer W. Maxwell Prince]. It’s like The Twilight Zone, but even more unnerving.

The first issue hints at a deeper mythology for the series, and the mystery of the Flying Woman, but also stories outside of that altogether, touching on Luna’s world — what’s happening with her grandmother, what her therapist is feeling. It reminds me of the way that Halt and Catch Fire was filled with all these wonderful, fascinating human stories once you dove deeper into the primary narrative. Can you imagine exploring all these different stories in future series?

One hundred percent. Luna is at the fore of this story, but I love writing for an ensemble. That was tremendously rewarding work in Halt and Catch Fire. Every character in She Could Fly is meant to be explored further in some way. My grandmother came to live with us when I was Luna’s age, and she was very ill, and it really disrupted the family dynamic, so the series will explore that. And Kido has been diving deep into Zen, which I have, too, largely to combat my OCD. OCD is a very ego-centric disease, and Zen pursues an egolessness. Kido is engaged in a similar struggle. Dana, Luna’s guidance counselor, will also become a bigger part of the story, for sure — more than you’d expect.

Chris Rogers and I always tackled Halt as a story about a family of choice, bound by a common cause. In Halt’s case, it was computers and tech. In She Could Fly, all these disparate characters become tangled up with each other through the mystery of the Flying Woman. It’s another family of choice story.

So what lies ahead in the next few issues of the series? What can you tease for those curious about the book?

I will say that Luna’s mental illness won’t be the only one explored. Almost every character is a little unhinged in some way, and that will all bubble to the surface as the plot heats up. And we’ll be portraying some marvelous and bizarre surreality that one can only do in comic books. We’ll go deeper into the Flying Woman’s story — who she was and why she did what she did. And you know, things will get violent. There’s a lot at stake for some of these people when it comes to that valuable technology, and it’ll get messy.

But ultimately, I think the story — as intense as it might get — is a beautiful one, and dare I say spiritual. This is Luna’s coming of age overall. Coming of age is one of the most difficult things we do as human beings.

She Could Fly launches July 11 with a 32-page first issue, and is available for pre-order now.

Halt and Catch Fire

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laholcevita-blog · 6 years

Text

Good Job, today too

Today (18/12/17) one of the idol i grew up with passed away and become one of the stars. I never thought to see this day writing this and completely in synch with the thoughts he had.

This year has been extremely hard for me, getting into Uni in the first place was the start of the whirlwind of my self destruction. It was hard knowing how much potential i had, my passion and thirst for knowledge is being slowed down by no one but myself, like any other beings like it was a creature that lives, my fears and hopelessnew grew. To quote president snow from my favorite trilogy Hunger Games " Hope is the only thing stronger than fear " and i only have the later, because the former vanished along with my beliefs of everything.

It began when i suffered so much through first semester of Uni, when i couldn't handle the fact that i got a C i was shaking, i made my parents disappointed again i killed my parents expectation, at first it was just a simple breakdown, then later it grows next semester i realise i can not go through with the way i am going through, slacking off assignment last minute, coming late, i took full 22 credits that semester and of course i suffered even harder, i got a D in philosophy, no biggie i said as i took my breath completely shaking to the core, mom and dad doesn't have to know, i could retake the course and everything will be dandy again! But it doesn't stop there next semester i got 2 D i was completely shaking even harder because i didn't expect that result at all, couldn't forget that breakdown i had i called uut wanted to get to her home but i abandoned that plan because i don't wanna burden her even more. I realise that day theres something wrong with me, my mood and anxiety was at the worst point ever that year it push me into finding out what was wrong with me. I thought i had bipolar lol and silly me talked about it to one of my psychology major friend, she was right that day dismissing my concern, it wasn't the right diagnosis i would call because one day i found out about adhd and everything just click. In 2014 I've discovered something new about myself, it's a help that knowing it's not entirely my mistake, i met someone on internet, lovely Shannon, she has helped me in a way that no else has. I didn't talk to anyone about it because i knew there's nothing they can do about it, i planned to meet a psychiatrist but i didn't have money back then and i said to myself you can go through this! It helps that i realise that i am not just a quirky girl next door, my carelessness my inability to focus isn't completely my fault and i wasn't in entire control.

In late 2015 and 2016 me and shannon was no longer in contact, fine i can deal it on my own, i got into seventeen and meet the awesome person and lady that Kitty is. I'll explain more about it later, but 2016 was one of the worst year for me, i took care my disorder more as i began to realise everything wrong with me, i was hard on myself, i failed school i failed my parents as they like to point out and at the same time that year I was proud for getting 5 As in seven course i took, but that's the only light it began downright downhill from there, i took time off the internet because it made my mental health even worse and from there i began to talk to kitty more in other platform, always Thankful for knowing her. That year i took my internship program everything was stressful, i finally realise such work environment doesn't suit me, it was also the time i started working on my thesis title, my restlessnese and overwhelming feelings began to come in full force it took me two months to get the first chapter to finalise, i hated myself immensely, everything was awful that finally i seek a psychiatrist help it was pricy but i had some money, i thought i have to help myself this is the answer but of course reality punch me in full force the psychiatrist know nothing about my struggle he understand nothing it made physically broken, no one could help me. I asked for recommendations still i want to try medications i was scared, I didn't wanna depend on stimulant i don't wanna be a junkie, but I've hit rock bottom i thought nothing to lose maybe meds would help me.

It took some time and bravery for me to see another psychiatrist, it was hard, but itvwas even harder when he simply declares i have anxiety disorder i guess it makes sense in a way theres young woman having a breakdown in the hospital, admitting no one can understand them but his diagnosis made me even crazier he prescribed me anxiety meds, clobazam, to which i took in fear because it was also prescribed for ppl with manics, i told my concern with another break down, he didn't take it well of course and still sure about his diagnosis. From there i was just devastated completely and resigning in hopelessness. No one could understand me no one could fucking help me. I took the meds though but i know i don't have anxiety disorder, my anxiety level is off the chart i realise its just not enough to be classified into one.

Few months of procastination overwhelmed me on thesis just made the situation several degree more worse. Everything is all i don't wanna be a liar, a manipulative loser and ultimately someone who's not even worth a living. I lay on bed all day all night feeling like the biggest disappointment and waste of air, my parents couldn't be more wrong. It's difficult for me to even begin explaining the concept to somone who raise and birthed me, it's even more difficult when i tried to open up to my relatives and they didn't take me seriously, it's next to impossible when i just made the professor i look up and admired to, the person who think i had so much potential but i kept letting him down every single time. Reality was so hard that sometimes I'd rather i never woke up from a dream, which i rarely had because it all just blank dark and cold like my life. The tears pouring down were competing with the rain outside.

Kitty who takes no bullshit came as the support system i never knew i have, i met ben too early that year, 2017 is actually the year i took the matters in my own hand because i can not keep be like this. But every step ahead i took equivalent of several step back, my meeting with the old psychiatrist of course went shit but i don't give a fuck anymore, i steal money from my parents, i saved them from my freelance work so i can afford the meeting to begin with. I lied and makes excuses so i can get the time to make an appointment i am a filthy liar

The meds however turn out like nothing I expected, it gave me extreme nausea, it makes me hungry zoned out but I'm still the clutterheaded brain that i am it's like all of my dream of some kind of knight in shining armor vanished, there was never a one quick solution, all it left is one cold reality. It was the fool of me who expect something that is never the truth of life that no one can save me but myself. Even after my silly theatric of another breakdown i had in the cousin house because i have no money to afford another meeting, not even after they broke my trust and told my parents who of course treat me like a fucking freak. Another cousin who fucking belittles me that i was being stupid that all my concerns are faux i don't have energy to argue, none, all my wills are gone by that moment that it became easier to just lie and nod agreeing to all her comments

Each day my parents worries and anger grew into explosion just like my self worth, i began to hurt myself self harming it felt good and scary at the same time when i did, good because i deserve it i'm a fuckin piece of disappointment afterall, scary because deep down i don't want to die but i honest to god wants to end the pain i felt, i began to actively look for a way to end myself with the painless way as possible thats, it just hurt deeply the pain i felt is so intense that if i dont live in the house my parents own maybe i would cry for days its why the day jonghyun suicide news came out i couldn't stop crying i know exactly how he came into that conclusion, and every time i read into everything about it i just broke down, third day and the pain still raw i don't know if i could be at peace with the constant war i have, i know i have my good days i am a positive thinking person by nature i like to think the world would be at its definite beauty someday but when that bad comes it just hard i woke up feeling like there's no purpose in living, someday maybe i would update this blog and be able to write that i am Happy that i won my own war, and when that day comes i have to give myself a pat on my back, good job today too

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meganfloreyprintdesign · 7 years

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Fantasy portfolio- two-day session

The last two days was basically a career workshop which was really intense but incredibly rewarding as by the end, I had a clearer vision of where I wanted to be, the skills I needed get there and what I need in my portfolio to help me achieve this. The session started off with a fantasy portfolio presentation and guidance on what needs to be thought of when creating a portfolio. One of the things I remember clearly was the ability to be creative yet precise. I think this is a completely true and important to remember as presentation skills and how work is put together on boards is just as important. I think it says a lot about me as a person also because if I do a rushed job of presenting my work, it would suggest that I don’t care and I’ve also downgraded the quality my work. The presentation needs to be presented well to show the work at the highest quality. Also, it was mentioned that it’s important to have the ability to design to the company’s target market which is a very good point. I think clients want to see people who can commercially design towards a brief and who are willing to challenge themselves to fit the brief. However, I think it’s also important to just be creative and show a project where I’ve been free and experimental with no restrictions. I think this shows to clients a person’s high creativity and experimental, fun mind.

Below are a few notes that stood out to me from the presentation:

· Present the most recent work first and the oldest work to the back

· Use my judgment as to whether it is still relevant to include my graduate work

· The portfolio needs to be constructed in a way that allows me to change pages around to tailor my portfolio to a specific client

· �� Think practically about the easiest way to show the work. Something too difficult might have a negative impact on the client rather than positive

· Continue to do work after university, keep the portfolio fresh

· Make sure portfolio is 100% yours or label it accordingly

· Create a digital portfolio and have both because it’s easy to email

· Think about which areas you would like to ideally work for- aim the portfolio towards the particular market interested in

· Most people tend to stick to womenswear but show other areas

· Constantly reflect and edit portfolio- consider the organisation I’m showing the work too

These are all really good points which I will refer back to when putting my portfolio together after hand in. I’ll also look back on the Fantasy portfolio presentation for further advice and help. The key things I wanted to reflect on was ‘to continue to do work after university and keep the portfolio fresh.’ I knew this already but it reiterated to me that I need to continue to be proactive after university and set myself briefs to keep improving and updating mu portfolio. If I went to an employer and I still hadn’t got a job a year down the line, they would expect to see new work and not just work that I’d done for my degree show a year ago. Therefore, I will actively look for a job but also create more work in preparation for interviews and to update my portfolio. Also, trends change so it’s essential to keep making work that fits them and to show I’m commercially driven as I would like to be a designer for either interiors or fashion.

Nick suggested to us students that we should make a judgement if our degree work is even relevant anymore. This shocked me as I assumed I would keep it in there for years. However now that I reflect, work progresses and I might have changed or improved my work since then. I now know that work doesn’t just stay in the portfolio, it constantly changes by updating and reflecting what needs to be taken out. I’ll definitely reflect on my portfolio often, especially every time I go for an interview and make sure my work is right for that client, as well as updated. Another point that I find interesting was that it was said that most people stick to womenswear. I think my Japanese placement prints for a hospital could be intriguing to clients. I’ve followed quite a different context as my work wasn’t just beautiful but it was about having a purpose too. I wanted my work to be serene and to bring peace of joy to people in hospitals. Therefore, this is quite different from the traditional womanswear collection so I will definitely show these boards which could attract a client’s attention.

After the session, we had two mini sessions, the first being how I basically I wanted to live my life. I have a clear idea on this as I would like a job where I go to work every day, leave my problems there and solve them when back at work the next day. I want that break and I want to have a life or at least at the weekends. I don’t mind doing longs hours in the week but I’ve realised for me that it’s essential I have time off from work. With university, I work every day with the exception of a day off every two weeks and I work from morning till night. I’m happy to do it now as I’m driven and hardworking and I want to produce the most beautiful portfolio. However, I can’t work like this forever as I know for a fact I won’t be happy. At one point, I became mentally unhappy as I don’t really have much of a break from the work. Therefore, to live a happy and healthier lifestyle, I need to have a balance of work and breaks. I’m a family and friend oriented person also and I would want to make time for them and time for myself. Therefore, I wouldn’t want my job to be my whole life and I’m not bothered about being a famous designer, I just want a job where I can work five days a week and do what I love which is being highly creative and designing. My aim is to hopefully have a job as a designer, work five days a week, have a break and earn enough to live off and to save for a house. As long as I’m doing a job I love, having breaks and earning enough money to live off, I would be happy. Therefore, I want a stable income so I would like to be an in house designer which also allows me to bounce of other designers and work as part of a team which is what I also really enjoy.

Also, I’ve thought about how I really like structure and planning my time in advance so I would want a job where I have regular days and regular hours. A Monday to Friday job would be amazing but if not and as long as I have breaks, I’m happy to work at the weekends. If it means doing a job that I love, I’m open to change but I won’t make my job my whole life. However, I still be hard working, motivated and creative when working, even if I do less days than do at University. Nothing will affect my attitude towards work. I will always try my best and try and produce the most successful designs to fit the requirements of a brief.

As for moving, I would be happy to move around England if I found my dream job or a job that I’d been offered. However, abroad would have to be thought more into. Although, if someone offered me a job abroad, I wouldn’t turn it down as it’s not an opportunity I would want to refuse. However, if I was looking myself, I would be more cautious when applying for jobs abroad. I’m very close to my family and I’m also in a relationship so I would have to discuss with my other half and see if he would be happy to move that far away. If I was single, it wouldn’t be a hard decision to make and I would just apply, especially in America as there seems to be quite a lot of jobs out there. Moving abroad would be an amazing experience and really push my designs skills and knowledge. However, when in a relationship, decisions have to be made together. To begin with, a job in London would be most suited to me as I can commute from home. However, I’m also open to other opportunities and looking elsewhere that’s further out of my comfort zone but could lead to a whole new life and a lot of new, fun experiences

From thinking and really reflecting about what I want from life, I’ve realised how important it is to know what I want as I need to find a job that suits the way I want to live as well. Its drummed into my head that I really need to think when looking at a job, does it reflect how I want to live my life. How I want to live my life is a massive part of the decision I will now always think and reflect before applying for a job.

The next session was about my portfolio and what I needs to get to where I want. I said that I would like to be a designer for either a fashion or interior design concept studio. Jess Benstead wrote down a few notes whilst I was talking which I can reflect on and have posted above. As I’m happy to work in both fashion and interior, it’s important for me to show contexts for both. Also, I think that maybe having a variety of contexts when going for an interior or fashion job might be a good thing to show. It suggests that I can be versatile and work to different briefs. One of the things that I really need to work on for my portfolio is having repeat designs in my work to support getting a job in the interior industry. I’ll work on this aspect after hand in as I’m focusing on creating placement prints for my final project. For Nick, he said the important thing for me to work on for my portfolio is to show a variety of scale, colour and drawing skills. I’ve realised how crucial being versatile is as it suggests to a client that I can work to any given brief and create beautiful work for each one. Therefore, I really need to work on my portfolio showing a variety. From my work experiences, the creative director gives briefs to the designers and they’re expected to do each one well, even if it’s a weaker drawing area. Therefore, if I show that I can do a range of themes, work with different colour palettes and scales, this will reassure them and show that I’m capable of drawing and different themes. I could also show that I’m proactive, creative and talented. I also explained that I wanted to get an internship after University but Nick said to stop being afraid and look for a job. There’s no reason as to why I can’t get one. Therefore, I will now look for jobs, as well as internship as I have a good amount of experience, and great knowledge and skill from my time at University.

After these two sessions, I had ideas swimming around my head and the best thing to do was for to clearly state what I really want from a job, what I want from a life and what I need to show in my portfolio to reach this task. I felt slightly scared and intimidated by today’s session as its been sort of thrusted on us to really think about what we want. However, I also think it’s a really positive as it could help me develop my final project to showcase more clearly what I want career wise and also help me have a clearly idea of what I want to do after University. Below is key information that has basically summed up what I’ve said in more detail above.

Notes written straight after the session I had on 27/02/17

Portfolio

Says a lot about you and the way you work

Understand the place I ‘m going and make work for that

People want to see:

· A mature train of thought

· The ability to be creative, yet precise

· The ability to design to the company target market

Key information to consider:

· Present most recent work first and oldest work at the back

· Keep doing work after University- mention project with Emma Jarvis

· Explain that you don’t want do fiddly stuff but keep it simple and clean

· Moodboard, visual images that aren’t mind, would label accordingly

· Create a digital and physical portfolio

· It’s Important to show the journey

· Most people stick to womenswear, is that what I want?

· Whose life do I want?

What should I consider for my portfolio?

· Being able to use AVA- show colour separation

· Being able to use Photoshop

· Putting in A2 fabrics

· A broad range of motifs/work to show I can be diverse

· Contextualise work

· Show a variety of scale

· Show a good use of colour

· Show a drawing sketchbook

· Be confident

· Show repeat for interior’s

· Show good use of drawing

Where do I want to be? What do I want?

Facts

I want to have a job that I’m paid in house for as I want a regular and stable income to buy a house. Freelancing wouldn’t make me happy as I would stress a lot about covering bills. If I started my own business, I would want experience first anyway and to also do it joint with someone else. From my placement with Gabby Freeman at Studio Koo, I realised it wasn’t much fun and too much stress to build a business on your own. It’s best to have someone to bounce ideas off of

An in house designer will allow to me work as part of a team and brainstorm with others

Ideally, I want to enjoy my job, be creative and work hard at in the week from 9 till however long but at the weekend, I don’t want to think about it. I want a break so I can relax, refresh my mind and see my family and friends. From university, I’ve realised that I can’t constantly work every day and think about my work. I need a break and I want to have an organised routine from Monday to Friday and have the weekend to do what I want

Routine is key for me and income and to be happy

As for moving, I would move if it were in England but if it were abroad, that’s a massive move but I if it were a great job, I would go for it. I would prefer to work in London though so I can commute from home to begin with

These are things that I would ideally want but I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity. I would start where I could and hopefully work my way up to being able to live how I want as written above. I appreciate it might not happen straight away but I would like to try and find jobs that could suit this way of life. Although, I’ll always be open to opportunities and tiring something new because I never know what could happen. I could find myself in a job that’s the complete opposite to what I want and then I discover I enjoy it. Therefore, I’ll always keep an open mind and say yes to opportunities but I also know how I would like to live my life and I will bare this in mind when I look for jobs. The one thing that won’t change is, I won’t give up my whole life for a job. I want to live and a have a balance It’s important to me to have a break as I’m mentally healthier and produce more successful work. After reflecting and realising what I wanted, I decided to do some research to discover what commercial companies want to see in a portfolio. This was to help with my presentation I had yesterday as I need to give a presentation, explaining what I needed in my portfolio to get to my future career aspirations. Further posts on research and reflection will follow.

#reflection

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