Finally Finished

This week I focused solely on my original work and am proud to say that I officially completed it. For my original work I created a functional saddle pad that included extensive materials and structure research, as well as, implementation of antimicrobial technology to make a saddle pad that helped limit fungal growth and bacterial infections on horses. I have been working on my original work throughout the entire semester and it is safe to say that I was quite nervous putting it all together. I was so worried that at some point, something, anything, was going to go wrong and I was going to have to start all over.

It was quite difficult, as I was bringing all of my information and design together, to actually make the saddle pad. I had gotten the necessary materials last week and had this great idea in my head of what I wanted to do but as soon as I looked to make the first cut in the fabric I began to worry that what I had planned was not going to work. What if, as I was putting everything together, a certain piece of fabric ripped or would not cooperate? What if I got the saddle pad all put together and it resembled nothing more than a blanket? What if everything suddenly burst into flames and my entire project was ruined? It is safe to say that I was a bundle of nerves as I cut and sewed my saddle pad. In the end I was pleasantly surprised by the results, considering that my design worked and the saddle pad looked as though it could have been made by an almost professional seamstress.

As I completed my saddle pad and began to compile all of my research and designs that I had produced throughout the process I realized the amount of work that I had put into this project, especially in the last week. I had worked so hard to truly fulfill the goal that I had set out for myself at the beginning of the semester, and it was a great sense of accomplishment to have this final product of a saddle pad to show the culmination of all of this hard work.

While I most certainly enjoyed the original work process and am looking forward to the final product that we will do next semester, I am glad that it is done. These past couple weeks, especially this week, have been extremely stressful as I have spent any spare time possible thinking about my original work and working on its completion. I am definitely looking forward to a couple of weeks where I can just revel in the hard work that I put in.