The End
After 4 years of hard work, this is it. I'm done with e-Communication once 3PM hits today. I want to take this moment in order to reflect on what I learned over the past 4 years. Trust me, there is a lot that I have learned in this time. Not just with technology, but how to talk, communicate, collaborate, balance my time, and be a leader for my peers. So I want to take a moment to explain the ways that I've grown, the challenges that I made, and why it is so important to me as a person.
Technology
Technology is the big thing with this course, obviously. I have had to learn how to deal with technology and use it to my advantage. The big thing I had to learn is to balance various programs. Notably, dreamweaver and illustrator. Those two programs have been where I have spent a vast majority of my time, especially dreamweaver. I started knowing literally nothing about both, yet as time went on, I realized so much about each one, found the quirks, and was able to use them to create something special. Sometimes, I needed to learn totally new things, as seen in my wordpress project that melded a flash project into a wordpress child theme (seen here). Of course, it was not always so easy. Technology changes all the time, and with many projects earlier in the year, I had to get used to a heavily overhauled version of dreamweaver that took quite a bit of getting used to.
Collaboration
Knowing how to work with people is one of the most important skills you can possibly learn. With big projects, it isn't just about yourself, but instead, you delegate and break it up. When doing that, you realize that big projects can become much more manageable when you are able to break it up and instead just work on your specific part. For example, my friend Michael helped me on an episode of my podcast (as seen here) and I still think it is one of my favorite episodes of the podcast to date. In the tech world, this is hyper important due to the fact that you will need to work with people to knock out big projects, and you have to work with them in order to make something great. There is no if ands or buts about that. However there are times in which you don't agree on things or sometimes butt heads with someone you are working with. What is important is that you can't let that get in the way of the final product and instead need to work past it for the sake of the project.
Communication
You need to learn how to listen. That is a fact of life. Sometimes, though, that isn't something I necessarily want to do. When I started, I just thought I could do everything by myself and that my opinion was the best one, but I was dead wrong. After talking to people, I realized that they had really good things to say and that my work would really improve if I took the time to listen to what they had to say and that my work can only grow by listening and changing work accordingly. For example, my entire portfolio (as seen here)was totally reworked after a classmate said that the theater theme simply wouldn't work well with the brand that I was building. Because of that, I retooled, and created something totally different and the work that I made was much better accordingly. However, this isn't without challenges. Sometimes it can be hard knowing what to change when getting feedback or working with someone, so I look towards them again and work with them and create something beyond that which I originally made.
Project Management
Knowing how to create a project is one thing, but finding a timeline is just as important. You need deadlines and milestones, as that gives you goals to reach for and things you need to learn. The project that really taught me this was none other than Video Games Tonight (seen here) where I had set a strict timeline for the project in advance and worked to keep on it in order to create a product that came out consistently on time, which is doubly important when you are creating something to be released on a weekly basis. Of course, it isn't always easy keeping to this. Sometimes you may lose a day and as such, you need to work to fix that and get back on track. It isn't always easy, but it creates a steady workflow that you can see makes its way into the quality of the final work.
Leadership
Being a leader is something that can really see you as desirable to employers, and can see you as someone who can take charge. It isn't a trait that can easily be shown in a project itself, and instead, it shows over the course of my work as something in every single one, due to the fact that it wasn't just me behind the project, but everyone around me who worked with me, gave me feedback, and did helped me out where I needed it. Of course I did the same for them, and every project created this year was better because of it. Some people don't like being led quite as much as others, though, and that is understandable, but the greatest thing a leader can do is listen and in some cases be a follower as well. It is a trait that I have grown into over time and I feel as though the increasing quality in my work overall is a test of that.
Strengths and Weaknesses
I'm not perfect, and there is some stuff that I'm not perfect at. Yet there is also stuff I'm very good at. In terms of strengths, I'm good at taking criticism, listening to what others say, and working in illustrator. These strengths flourished over time and there were by no means something that I just got overnight. As for weaknesses, I would say it is taking leadership in some cases and using media queries to their full potential. Of course I can grow on these weaknesses and become someone stronger accordingly.
What Am I Gonna Do With This
These are practical skills that I have learned. I will use the people skills that I learned in order to create a more profitable experience in college. Not in terms of money, but rather building stronger business relationships with people in order to become a better and stronger person as a whole.
What I Would Do Different
I wish that I had more focus early on and worked harder from a earlier time. I wasted time, goofed off, and didn't put as much focus into my work during the beginning of my senior year as I did at the end of my high school career. Of course that is very much on me, but I just wish I could go back in time and make even more amazing projects from an earlier time and work to make great things earlier as opposed to working so hard just starting in the second half of senior year.
In Conclusion
This has been 4 short years. I have made a lot of websites, wrote a lot of papers, done a lot of homework, but most importantly: I grew a lot. I hope that anyone wanting to enter the e-Communication program in the near future is able to have such a positive experience like I did. I grew, I laughed, I worked, and I had a wonderful time that led me to grow so much as a person. Thank you so much Olathe Northwest. Thank you so much e-Comm. I will never forget these past 4 years.
