The Steps to Completion

Most of this week has been spent thinking about and planning for multiple assignments and events coming up for the next couple of weeks. The biggest of these being the original work. To me, it is very important to plan out the steps needed in order to complete a project to the best of my ability. For the most part I have felt overwhelmed regarding planning for my original work. There are so many steps, so many different roads I could go down. How am I supposed to figure out deadlines to complete on time? What if I have trouble doing all the aspects I am trying to cover? What if I fall into my usual procrastination habits?

In order to try and combat these thousands of thoughts, I began to systematically plan out the major portions of my original work in order to get a better feel for timing and deadlines. The first part that I would need to do would definitely be research. There are thousands of different articles that describe the correlation between sweat and bacterial growth that I will need to pursue. Additionally, I will need to do extensive research regarding current saddle pad material and structure in order to gain a better understanding of what is being produced and why those specific materials or production processes are being utilized. After I complete all of the research, I will then have to start thinking about what my design would be for the ideal saddle pad. This would require compiling all of the data and research I have gathered, in order to make an educated decision about how I should create the saddle pad, in order to meet the requirements that I have set for myself. I will then, either create a model of the saddle pad digitally or physically. While I know there are many details within the steps that still need to be thought out, being able to get the major points down on paper allowed me to have some peace of mind going into this next week.

A very important event is coming up this week and I am not sure whether I should be excited or nervous about it. The business symposium is happening on Thursday and while I am excited to have the opportunity to converse with professionals and work on my speaking skills, I am still nervous about the whole process. It will all be virtual and I worry that I may not convey my personality and eagerness to learn through a screen as well as I could have in person. It is definitely not the ideal way to conduct this type of interaction with the professional world but I still feel as though it will provide me with some very valuable learning experiences that I can use in my later research interviews. I definitely want to make a good impression, so I am going to do what I do best- plan.

There are many exciting things coming in the next couple of weeks and I am a little bit nervous and a little bit excited about all of them. I am really starting to see the value in the Independent part of ISM and I really think that all of this self guided work and responsibility will help prepare me not only for college but also for the professional world.