FINAL BLOG POST!!

When I started the project I was not entirely sure of what the point of it was going to be. I knew that I was combining many of my different interests, but I was not sure how I would feel at the end. After finishing though I realize my project did help me grow and learn things about myself. I realized my passion for learning about other cultures and eventually after college being able to continue this and help people in places like Kenya, and other unstable countries in that area.

In doing this project I hoped to make my organizational skills better and keep my time management in check before I head off to college. Time management has often been a problem for me, but it began to improve as I worked on my project. Although I did not do a good job at posting on the blog four times a week, I did stay on top of my work schedule. I learned as I went on in the project to focus on how much work I got done in a week instead of stressing out day by day. This way if I had a really busy day I did not worry about staying up late to work on my project, but another day when I had lots of free time I would pick up the work I had not finished for the week. I think this is a strategy I can implement in college and beyond to meet longer deadlines.

I had lots of success in getting myself interested in all the different aspects of my project. I thought that there would be at least one part of my project that I would hate doing, but I did not find this. The part of this that was a struggle though was realizing that everything that is interesting to me is not to everyone else, and trying to make the presentation appealing to other people. To do this I tried to cut back on the history aspect of my project and include more about modern Kenya and what is being done there. I also struggled in general with figuring out how I would present my information and whether a book or a powerpoint presentation would be more effective. I am still not entirely sure if I made the right decision, but I am happy with the information I chose to present. Narrowing it down in order to make it interesting was hard, but it is a skill that will be useful for the rest of my life.

I hope that this project continues for a long time in my life. I have set myself a $500 fundraising goal for the summer in order to raise money for my charity, and I hope it continues even after that. I learned in this project how to find good charities, learn about what they’re doing and what your money will go towards this and I will continue to donate money to places like One Village at a Time throughout my life. I also hope to use the knowledge I have gained to eventually be able to travel to Kenya or a similar country battling poverty and other issues and volunteer hopefully helping the deserving people. I thought before this project that this was something I wanted to do, but now this project has verified this.

 My favorite part of work this term was learning about what the charities were doing in Kenya and how much of an impact they have made. The flipside of this was the low part of the term and that was learning the hard truths of life for many in Kenya. It was very hard for me to read what kids struggle through on a daily basis, while I sat in my comfortable bed on my laptop. However, when I started to learn of all the good the charities there were doing I started to feel inspired instead of depressed.

 What I would tell the students for next year is to not rush into choosing their project topic, because it realy took me awhile, but I eventually came up with a project that suited me and that I enjoyed. My other advice would be to not stick to what they say they are doing at the beginning of the project. They should allow themselves to change the order of things if it works better or change what they’re doing for their final presentation if they think of a new and better idea.

The most important truth I have learned about my working process is that some parts of it are never going to come naturally to me. Things like getting work done on time and remembering to do certain things will always be hard for me, but is all about putting in the extra effort in order to have a better working process. The most important truth I have learned about myself is that I do not always have to be so sure of myself. Although picking a project and sticking with it was not a scary decision it was important for me to be able to make a decision that I was not sure was right. I really had no idea what I wanted to do for my project while other people seemed to be so sure of their ideas. This scared me at first and I thought I would hate my project, but it all turned out well in the end.

Sincerely,

Eliza