DONEEEEEEE (April 23rd)

I've successfully completed 97% of my Senior Exhibit!! Hooray!I still have to get my written document in (Menu) but my presentation is ALL DONE.

I think that it went really well. I wasn't really nervous about doing it, but I really didn't "want" to do it. I was afraid that I'd forget to mention something like I did in my rehearsal. I spent several hours constructing a list of "key words" to go with each slide that I had in my powerpoint so that I wouldn't forget anything, but eventually I started writing sentences. At the time, I felt like I was wasting my time with that because there was no way I was going to stand in front of a room and read from a sheet of paper, but I think that just by writing it all down, I memorized it because in the end, it all came out okay. In the words of Mrs. Nobles, I "filled the holes with mountains"- the holes being the copious amounts of information that I neglected to mention in the practice run. Afterward, as I was talking with Mrs. Nobles, I kept thinking of little anecdotes here and there that I forgot to talk about but, I nonetheless talked for 45 minutes and Mrs. Nobles said that it was totally fine.

I really tried to focus on the journey aspect of my project and what I learned. To me, those were the most important pieces: knowing that if something doesn't work out, try something new and all the skills I picked up from going out into the world and doing things for myself. Snobles said that she looked around the room at one point during the presentation and saw the look on the students's faces...apparently they looked surprised by all that I had done. I say "apparently" because I couldn't tell if they weren't interested in what I was talking about or tired or whatever else. That was really nice to know, and actually Carmen said that to me also- she said how she really had no idea what I had been doing (like going to Poppy Hill), and she thought that was really cool. I loved hearing a classmate telling me that...it felt like my work was being recognized. To me, it was obvious that I needed to do something else with my project once my UMW thing fell through, but Snobles was telling me that most students would have just let it go and "made it work" for their presentations, like some have done in the past. I never really thought of it like that. One of the things I tried to share with the group was how I learned to take things in stride and just keep a smile on your face, even if everything is going wrong. Without meaning to, I practiced what I preached in front of all of them because during the beginning of my presentation my projected went out. Twice. It kind of frazzled me a little at first, but I knew that I couldn't just stop, so I kept going. Mrs. Nobles was great though- she was on her hands and knees trying to fix it for me. She eventually fixed it and the show went on, and I actually forgot that it even happened since it was early on. Later, Snobles told me how it was cool that I was able to keep going and how it really showed that I actually DID learn to take things in stride, instead of me just blowing smoke up everyone's you-know-what about all the things I've learned. The conversation I had after my presentation was really nice because I was able to see that people were actually really listening to me. An example is what I just said- Mrs. Nobles was really paying attention to me to make that observation. Yes, she's a teacher and my mentor, but still. Mr. Durso told me about how for the accreditation lunch, I had much, MUCH more pressure on me than I knew. Apparently before they came, the admins were talking about how it important it was for them to be happy and well fed, especially since we only fed them twice while they were here. That means that they really trusted me to make that happen. I didn't realize until later how vital that really was, and how easily that could have gone terribly, terribly wrong. It felt really great to hear that the admins felt that they could trust me based on Mr. Durso's and Mrs. Nobles's observations of me and the work I've done with Baking Club. Baking club was so good for me- it was really stressful at times, but it really helped me in so many ways.

In the end everything really worked out for me, and I'm happy with the results that I've gotten. The best thing about this project was learning that I can flourish in a foreign atmosphere. My favorite part however is knowing how proud people are of me. Several people who are important to me (faculty) but are not necessarily super close with have told me how impressed they've been with some of the things that I've done (mostly Baking club). That means so much to me. And at the accreditation lunch, all those people were so gracious and easy to talk to. It's been a long 18 months, I'm glad it's over, but I'm also glad it's done.