Week 1 Reflection
Now that the first week of senior project is over, I have a lot of reflection thoughts. I was so excited for this project to be the only thing on my mind during this time but I’m also struggling with the hard thoughts of leaving Proctor in a couple of weeks. Suddenly I wished that I had more math classes, more time with my friends, more dining hall meals, and more weekends in the dorm. I guess that’s the funny thing, though, right? We don’t really appreciate the things we love until they’re gone. Proctor never prepared me for that.
Beyond my personal problems of not wanting to grow up, I’m very impressed with my work so far. I’ve got a really good routine down and I’m happy to be still doing my favorite thing, learning. But, in that learning, I find myself struggling with the same problem I’ve had my whole life. Overworking. I’m known for drilling myself into holes of determination to finish and reach the goals that I want. During the school year, I tend to lock myself away without breaks to get work done. It becomes really detrimental to my health because it makes me go crazy. My personal goal from this week, on top of learning course material, is to let loose a little. Stop my cycle of toxic learning determination. I’m sick of being so high-strung that it ends up making things worse in the end. I think that I am making progress on this goal this week. It was really hard in the beginning because I was so stressed about not getting everything done. But by the end of the week, I learned that it’s ok to take breaks sometimes, and it’s actually a really good reset. I’m getting better at not being so hard on myself and that I’m going to succeed even if I take breaks.
The material that I’m learning about is absolutely fascinating. A large proportion of what I have to learn is straight memorization but I’m also starting to recognize the logic behind some of it. On Friday, I hit the 50% mark on my course, which I’m so proud of. On Saturday and Sunday, I did extra hours for a combined total of 6.5. Now I have 40 down! I remember when I first enrolled to get my Merchant Mariner's License, I was so overwhelmed with all the work I had to do. Now that I’m halfway through it doesn’t look so scary anymore. I want to get some work done this weekend to keep the things I’m learning fresh in my mind. I’m going to make flashcards for the stuff that can be studied that way. My favorite module from this week was the weather one. I learned about all the different types of clouds and some phenomena I didn’t even know about. I think that I liked it so much because a lot of it was reviewed. Learning about the different types of waves was just a physics review for me. The coolest fact that I learned was the Buy Ballot’s Law. In the northern hemisphere, if a person stands with their back to the wind, the low-pressure area will be on their left. In the upcoming week, I am going to start my navigation modules. These are supposed to take the most time of the course but I already have a background of plotting and such from my time on the water. Hoping it isn’t actually going to be that difficult.
Wow. Great job! Your thoughtfulness will travel with you well beyond Proctor.
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