Every night I wondered if I really wanted to carry on with this degree. It just didn’t seem worth it. I have friends who have degrees, some from Cambridge, some of them First Class and they say it was never this punishing for so little reward (I.e we still don’t get good grades). I felt that it just didn’t need to be this hard, although I don’t mind challenging work if I come out of it learning a lot. I felt that the things I learnt, I could have learned and had a hot meal every night (too late by the time you get back at 10pm, too tired to eat and we didn’t know where you could get anything and there was no time/energy to find out) and proper sleep for most of the week.
But thankfully! I came back to the UK better off, not because it was hellish, but because this group work showed me that I can design! All the way through this course, my worry has been my lack of experience in drawing and designing. it’s the opposite of the career I’ve had and I was rubbish at art at school and never even doodled in my notebook, preferring to natter (some things don’t change) so this has given me confidence. Seeing some of the things I had in my head created by Danny in sketchup/photoshop on the wall felt amazing (also made me wish I had those skills!)
The other thing was that I saw how long it took people to do stuff - a week long project was a good idea (although we could have done it in England, but its good to have on the CV) as it showed what you could achieve under pressure. I have always had limited time due to work commitments, having only left full time work in January 2012 and now I saw that when other people only have a short amount of time they do sketches like mine, may sound stupid but I always assumed all the beautiful pics I saw people produce had been whipped up in moments, but I guess they take time! So it gave me more confidence and made me want to practice and improve my drawing as it seems more possible now.
Anyway, enough waffle, I wrote this in Lille, but worried it was too emotive so didn’t post - but I guess that’s what blogs are for…so here goes…
Congratulations for seeing the positives of going to Lille - yes, it is hell. Personally, one of the worst week's I've had ... and that's including the one where I lost my staircase.
ReplyDeleteBut it does make you stronger ... and gives you the opportunity to see that not everyone (yes, there will always be at least one exception) just dashes off masterpieces in a couple of minutes.
What I, eventually, learnt through the BA is that most people seem to fall into either generating ideas or can produce brilliant graphics ... and that only a few are truly great in both fields (just wish I was in that category!).
And there really should be a certificate issued to state that you've "survived Lille".
Thanks for your comments Isabel, which are much appreciated! Well put. Always good to see that I'm not alone in my thoughts.
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