CALL TO ADVENTURE
The very first part of this process started some time ago in the distant year 2019. The entirety of year 10, including me, was shown the personal projects of they year 11s and were told that we were going to have to soon do our own personal project. I received some good advice, one of the most prominent being "not to make a book," something multiple people who made books told me.
REFUSAL OF THE CALL
After doing the form required for the personal project, I decided to blank it out of memory. I completely ignored anything relating to personal project for the next several months despite being told to think about what I would be creating.
MEETING THE MENTOR
... until one day near the end of year 10 in 2020 where we were told that we would need to start caring about personal project again by our personal project supervisor. Devastated, I started to really focus on what I would do. I had eventually narrowed it down to do something in a foreign language, eventually leading to me choosing French as it was the language that I was learning anyway and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get better at it. From here, I successfully created my goal and decided the global context. I then forgot about the project again.
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
Soon after having forgot about personal project for the second time, I entered year 11. At this point of life I was starting to think more about who I wanted to be and also that the sin of A divided by a is equivalent to sin of B divided by b.
Anyway, after a while we had another meeting on the personal project with another introductory meeting in which I took some notes and was told about how it worked. The way they seemed to treat this project made me feel like if I failed it then I could say goodbye to all my future endeavors in education and, if I did really bad, my organs.
That was an exaggeration, but they did treat it very seriously. It could have been because the personal project is a good opportunity to build life skills, or perhaps because doing well on it would make the school good. Regardless, I had to start caring about the project.
TRIAL AND FIRST FAILURE
Soon, by which I mean a month or two later, we started the real thing beginning with the first draft of Criterion A. It was essentially just a more formal report of the goal and global context. Luckily, as most information was already collected, it did not take much time. It was worrying having to deal with the pressure seeing as how big they made the project seem.
It went well, except that I had some struggles related to procrastination and made some errors that could have very easily been solved by a good proof-read.
MEETING ALLIES AND ENEMIES
Time skip! We are now another couple weeks ahead and Criterion B has started. I needed to create a criteria to judge the project, an action plan, and also pretend that I had already started working on the product. At this point I had overcome the disastrous enemy of procrastination (for now) and done good work. I had met with my project supervisor and learnt about the grammar mistakes in my Criterion A.
It was not too hard to do Criterion B. I blew through the writing portion in some time around 80 minutes, though creating a criteria and action plan took a bit of extra time.
Regardless, I finished and had a good idea regarding how I would continue.
My friends were:
- Doing the work over time.
- Thinking about the work as soon as it came out.
- Not starting until 2 weeks before the due date to avoid failing other work.
However, I learnt of new enemies.
- E-portfolio subjects! (French and Product Design)
- Games!
- Being tired both mentally and physically!
For now, though, I didn't have to worry about the enemies too much.
I'm sure they won't be recurring characters, right?
...
Right?
APPROACH TO THE CAVE
From here started the longest break between due dates in which time we were meant to start working on the product. This was, for me, a book. As you can see, I took the advice of those who warned me extremely seriously and with all the possible respect I could. To be fair, though, they did fictional books with a set-chapter count they decided on beforehand. After seeing their suffering, I did a non-fictional book with a undetermined chapter count so I could drop out whenever I felt it was getting too difficult to expand it further.
The very first part of this process started some time ago in the distant year 2019. The entirety of year 10, including me, was shown the personal projects of they year 11s and were told that we were going to have to soon do our own personal project. I received some good advice, one of the most prominent being "not to make a book," something multiple people who made books told me.
REFUSAL OF THE CALL
After doing the form required for the personal project, I decided to blank it out of memory. I completely ignored anything relating to personal project for the next several months despite being told to think about what I would be creating.
MEETING THE MENTOR
... until one day near the end of year 10 in 2020 where we were told that we would need to start caring about personal project again by our personal project supervisor. Devastated, I started to really focus on what I would do. I had eventually narrowed it down to do something in a foreign language, eventually leading to me choosing French as it was the language that I was learning anyway and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get better at it. From here, I successfully created my goal and decided the global context. I then forgot about the project again.
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
Soon after having forgot about personal project for the second time, I entered year 11. At this point of life I was starting to think more about who I wanted to be and also that the sin of A divided by a is equivalent to sin of B divided by b.
Anyway, after a while we had another meeting on the personal project with another introductory meeting in which I took some notes and was told about how it worked. The way they seemed to treat this project made me feel like if I failed it then I could say goodbye to all my future endeavors in education and, if I did really bad, my organs.
That was an exaggeration, but they did treat it very seriously. It could have been because the personal project is a good opportunity to build life skills, or perhaps because doing well on it would make the school good. Regardless, I had to start caring about the project.
TRIAL AND FIRST FAILURE
Soon, by which I mean a month or two later, we started the real thing beginning with the first draft of Criterion A. It was essentially just a more formal report of the goal and global context. Luckily, as most information was already collected, it did not take much time. It was worrying having to deal with the pressure seeing as how big they made the project seem.
It went well, except that I had some struggles related to procrastination and made some errors that could have very easily been solved by a good proof-read.
MEETING ALLIES AND ENEMIES
Time skip! We are now another couple weeks ahead and Criterion B has started. I needed to create a criteria to judge the project, an action plan, and also pretend that I had already started working on the product. At this point I had overcome the disastrous enemy of procrastination (for now) and done good work. I had met with my project supervisor and learnt about the grammar mistakes in my Criterion A.
It was not too hard to do Criterion B. I blew through the writing portion in some time around 80 minutes, though creating a criteria and action plan took a bit of extra time.
Regardless, I finished and had a good idea regarding how I would continue.
My friends were:
- Doing the work over time.
- Thinking about the work as soon as it came out.
- Not starting until 2 weeks before the due date to avoid failing other work.
However, I learnt of new enemies.
- E-portfolio subjects! (French and Product Design)
- Games!
- Being tired both mentally and physically!
For now, though, I didn't have to worry about the enemies too much.
I'm sure they won't be recurring characters, right?
...
Right?
APPROACH TO THE CAVE
From here started the longest break between due dates in which time we were meant to start working on the product. This was, for me, a book. As you can see, I took the advice of those who warned me extremely seriously and with all the possible respect I could. To be fair, though, they did fictional books with a set-chapter count they decided on beforehand. After seeing their suffering, I did a non-fictional book with a undetermined chapter count so I could drop out whenever I felt it was getting too difficult to expand it further.
The creation of the book followed a cycle like so:
My process journal was a document that contained entries saying what I had done in the working session. It was quite fun to write.
ENTERING THE CAVE
At this point, I was nearing the end of the creation. I had a bunch of chapters complete and only needed about one or two more, then a couple of proof-reads.
However, I had to do this despite having already used a large amount of time and energy on the e-portfolio subjects and games. All 3 of my enemies had formed into one.
Regardless, I pushed on and entered the cave.
...
Nearly immediately after finishing the chapters, I decided to just stop.
On November 29, 2020, I left my last process journal report. It reads as the following:
"I’ve even ditched the final review and further reading.
I’ve only done the table of contents.
I’m done with this for now.
Perhaps if I had more time, I wouldn’t have to stop; but I’ve done enough.
The product can be laid to rest, and I can move on.
It’s not the best, but as a wise man once said:
“To strive for perfection is foolish,
you should stop working on the product, Rayed.”
-Abraham Lincoln, probably"
I feel like it reads similar to the final note of a mad scientist who has been working on the same experiment for years on end, and honestly that isn't too strange of an analogy.
And yes, I know I misused that semi-colon; you don't need to tell me.
REWARD
Upon completing the product, I had to do the Criterion C report. This didn't take too long and was dealt with in about an hour. I now no longer had to worry about the project for another week or two and, since I had just submitted e-portfolio too, didn't have to worry much about any sort of additional work.
Freetime, GET!
DISCARDING OLD SELF, ACCEPTING NEW SELF
With this, I had only Criterion D to start. It was short. With this, I had completed most of the personal project.
I had learnt many lessons from this. One was the importance of working in things in small units. It is so much easier to convince yourself to do something for 5 minutes a day then to commit 1 hour weekly. Plus, most of the time I started to work for "only a bit of time" turned into work being done for a lot of time.
My words of wisdom to you, fellow traveler, is to set a habit in small steps. Any step forwards is progress and, after taking even just a tiny step, you may feel inclined to take more. It is much better to make a very small step forwards rather than going back, even if the difference is distance seems negligible.
PATH HOME
My final report did not take long to make. Pasting some things in and some adding of things I needed took about an hour or two; formatting took about the same amount of time. After the submission I had completed the report. All that was left was the presentation.
RETURN HOME
This website was the last step of the project and, since you are seeing it right now, it has been completed.
I have no more process to tell you about, reader.
If you are reading this and have already submitted your project, I bid you a good day.
If you are reading this in preparation for your project, I bid you good luck.
Regardless, thank you for reading this wall of text. Goodbye.
ENTERING THE CAVE
At this point, I was nearing the end of the creation. I had a bunch of chapters complete and only needed about one or two more, then a couple of proof-reads.
However, I had to do this despite having already used a large amount of time and energy on the e-portfolio subjects and games. All 3 of my enemies had formed into one.
Regardless, I pushed on and entered the cave.
...
Nearly immediately after finishing the chapters, I decided to just stop.
On November 29, 2020, I left my last process journal report. It reads as the following:
"I’ve even ditched the final review and further reading.
I’ve only done the table of contents.
I’m done with this for now.
Perhaps if I had more time, I wouldn’t have to stop; but I’ve done enough.
The product can be laid to rest, and I can move on.
It’s not the best, but as a wise man once said:
“To strive for perfection is foolish,
you should stop working on the product, Rayed.”
-Abraham Lincoln, probably"
I feel like it reads similar to the final note of a mad scientist who has been working on the same experiment for years on end, and honestly that isn't too strange of an analogy.
And yes, I know I misused that semi-colon; you don't need to tell me.
REWARD
Upon completing the product, I had to do the Criterion C report. This didn't take too long and was dealt with in about an hour. I now no longer had to worry about the project for another week or two and, since I had just submitted e-portfolio too, didn't have to worry much about any sort of additional work.
Freetime, GET!
DISCARDING OLD SELF, ACCEPTING NEW SELF
With this, I had only Criterion D to start. It was short. With this, I had completed most of the personal project.
I had learnt many lessons from this. One was the importance of working in things in small units. It is so much easier to convince yourself to do something for 5 minutes a day then to commit 1 hour weekly. Plus, most of the time I started to work for "only a bit of time" turned into work being done for a lot of time.
My words of wisdom to you, fellow traveler, is to set a habit in small steps. Any step forwards is progress and, after taking even just a tiny step, you may feel inclined to take more. It is much better to make a very small step forwards rather than going back, even if the difference is distance seems negligible.
PATH HOME
My final report did not take long to make. Pasting some things in and some adding of things I needed took about an hour or two; formatting took about the same amount of time. After the submission I had completed the report. All that was left was the presentation.
RETURN HOME
This website was the last step of the project and, since you are seeing it right now, it has been completed.
I have no more process to tell you about, reader.
If you are reading this and have already submitted your project, I bid you a good day.
If you are reading this in preparation for your project, I bid you good luck.
Regardless, thank you for reading this wall of text. Goodbye.