3 May 2013

Dear Upcoming Senior Class,

Senior Venture Projects will make you feel like you're going insane. Rule number one: LOVE WHAT YOU PICK! Seriously it will make your project soooo much more enjoyable. If you don't love what you're doing you won't do it. Rule number two: pick a reasonable timeline. If you push yourself into a timeline you're not comfortable with you'll get super stressed out. If you pick a reasonable timeline you give yourself time to work on things at your own pace and still get them done on time. Rule number three: don't wait until after December to even begin working on your project. As soon as you decide what project you want to do start working on it. It will seem like less work if you do it in little chunks throughout the school year. It's your senior year it will go by fast. Rule number four: pick a good reaserch paper topic. Mrs. Schneider WILL tell you no if it;s not a good one. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many times I had to restart my entire research paper planning because my topic wasn't working out. Rule number five: ask for help. Mrs. Schneider is awesome enough to stay after school and work on your papers and things when you need help. I satyed after for about an hour and had my entire research outline done when I went home. Again start researching your topic as soon as possible! Waiting too long to start researching slows everything down and you feel like it's taking forever. Mrs. Schneider will look over your papers if you ask her. Your advisors and mentors are there for a reson. Use them. All the teachers want is to see you succeed in your project. Which means they are more than willing to help out. If you're like me and get your actual project finished early into the year, it's neer too soon to start making your power point. I waited until the end to start it and I felt so behind. The powerpoint and pictures are such good tools and visuals. Use a lot of them. I didn't have much on my power point my first time around until I went over and practiced. You will definitely realize how much you're missing once you practice. Things don't cross your mind the first time you do things and they will be caught the second time you look at it with a "fresh eye". Rule number five: be organized. I cannot stress enough frustrating it is to lose a paper you are positive you need. There were times that I put a piece of paper on the table and said "Oh, I'll grab it later and put it away." No! Put it in it's home right away! You seriously will not believe how easy it will be putting your portfolio together if you put the sheets in the correct places and they are finished. Rule number five: be proud. Once you've accomplished a senior venture project you've done something fantastic thing. There comes a point where you need to take a big step back and see what you've done. Once you've finished your project and the presentation your senior year will will glide right on. Senior ventures are very very VERY stressful but you eralize how capable you are of something you've never thought posible. Good luck next year seniors enjoy it while it lasts because it will go so much faster than you think.

Deadlines

I'm done with my project so I'm not worried about the first deadline I'm just worried about my portfolio. I think the senior venture work day will make me feel better about it by letting me figure everything out. Once I figure out what I need to do I know I can finish it myself.

Coming Together

I feel really good with where I'm at with my project at this time. I feel as if I just have little things to do to tie the ends together. I need to sit down and figure out which things I need to finish though.  I got all my recomendation letters and the biggest part of my project finished. Hopefully this weekend I can sit down and figure out what's left over.

Publishing

I've gotten a few phone calls asking me questions about my project this Saturday. It's nice to know people have heard about it and are considering coming.

Tonight

Tonight I'm going to Mitchell to get mirrors and what not for Saturday. There's just so much to freaking do. I need to sit down and make a list of what I need for Saturday too. I've heard from a few people that they are going to show up so hopefully it's a success and they find a dress.

Crunch Time

I'm to the point where I need to get stuff done. I spent two hours last night just marking dresses so I know who's dresses they are. I still need to go through and sort them by sizes so when I go to set up on Saturday it doesn't take as long. I'm scared I won't have enough hours of work put in once I finish though.

Ohhh man

This whole project thing is really a pain. In like two weeks I will be done with my event. I have about 40 some dresses and they are literally filling my house. Angie cannot make it to my event because she has to bring her daughter to the airport that day. I need to ask Miss Halverson if she would be willing to help out that day so I am not running low on help. I asked Nicole if she had any racks i could borrow for my event and she said just to remind her within a few days before the event. It's all coming together but it's  still kind of scary to think people may not show up.

Research Paper

I finally finished with my research paper. I felt like I could talk about the makeup forever but it was really hard to find good sources for everything. Most of what I would find were on Yahoo Answers and I couldn't use those. I'm fairly happy with my paper. I feel like i got my point across to the reader.

Research paper

This research paper is getting easier. I'm really not the worried about the writing anymore it's more I feel like everything is coming to fast. There seems to be so many deadlines coming too fast.

Relaxing

I have started to feel better now that I've been getting e-mails and calls about my project. I got an e-mail today from a girl that said she had two dresses and a phone call from someone who said she had 3 one of which is brand new. I need to remember to talk to Dionne, Lynn, and Chelsea to see if they want to set up a table to make hair appointments and what not also. I also need to get a hold of Becky for a cookie lee table.

Ball Rolling

I had a break down yesterday from worrying about my project completely failing. Later last night I was working on my research outline and got super frustrated again but I got most of it done I just need to research ym last two points. I also finally got some dresses and that definitely made me relax a little and I got an e-mail from a girl in Freeman about wanting to sell hers. I feel better now about getting dresses beings as I now have 20. Now I'm just worried about people not buying them.

Procrastination

This whole procratinating thing is really coming to bite me in the butt. I got the flyers done and hung around town but i have yet to get them to any other towns. The event is coming up way to quick and I'm starting to get a little frustrated and worried about wether or not I'm going to completely fail this project..

Meeting

Tomorrow is the first time I'll actually sit and talk to Angie about my project. Hopefully we can decide on a date that is reasonable and I can get my head straight about all the little details that could either make or break my project/event. I've been reallllyy bad about remembering to blog and pretty sure that's just going to bite me in the behind once  my project really gets moving and I have to put my portfolio and board together.

Mentor

Calling my mentor was a little stressful. I kept putting it off because i didn't want to talk to a stranger on the phone. I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to say to her. Once I actually called she wasn't there -_-, so I ended up calling again after school. She sounded very happy to help me with my project.

Back on the Rack

It took me forever to get my proposal written up. I had so many things I wanted to include in this event but I had to decide which ones were relevent to my project. I finally picked a name that I feel is appealing. I like the fact that Back on the Rack expresses the consignment aspect of my project.

Prom Dress Drive

I've decided to do a prom dress consignment for my project. While I think this is a really cool idea for girls to get rid of their old dresses and make some extra cash and possibly find their dress for this upcoming prom I'm having troubles thinking of a cute name to call it. Calling it a prom dress drive is really drab and wouldn't make me want to go or particiapte.

Stressing

I haven't even started my project and I'm already stressing out about it. I don't know where I'm supposed to start or anything.

My Fears

My biggest concerns for this is if I want to do my dress drive no one will show up or I won't have enough dresses. I know I will procrastinate so what if I don't get done on time? What if in the middle of my project I decide I hate it? What if I really can't do it? What if I fell apart? Would I fail?

My expectations for this is to learn something new and to see that I can actually successfully do something on my own. Maybe it'll help break my procrastination problem that I've had for so many years. I want to be proud of what I've done. Hopefully under classmen will look at my project and think it was a really cool project. I want to do something I've always wanted to do but haven't had the guts to do it. I expect this to be a long and frustrating goal.