Hey everyone! I can’t believe I’m done with junior year and technically a senior now. I’ve been super busy this past week packing and flying back home, but I thought I’d squeeze out one last post about what I’ve learned this year.
Although my first semester of junior year felt more stressful in terms of workload, this past semester definitely had the most time-consuming schedule. If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll know that I essentially had class/work from 8am to 9pm every day because of my 6-9pm studios, and now that I’m finished with those, I’m not quite sure what to do with my free evenings!
All this work wasn’t for nothing, of course; my art has improved dramatically over this whole semester, especially since junior year art students start to take more specialized courses in the career path they plan to go into. I took two illustration studios and a third interaction design (web/mobile design, essentially) studio, along with an art history, a visual culture class, and a logic/discrete math class to continue to work for my compsci minor. The picture above is actually of my final critique work. I’ve had to pick up even more time management skills, since it’s not that easy to get home at 10pm every night and still have to finish all my work for the next day.
Speaking of getting home at 10pm, this meant I couldn’t really cook dinner in my own kitchen, so my studio mates and I adapted. With lots and lots of takeout. Seriously, we ordered so much takeout, everyone else in studio knew us as “those 4 girls in the corner who always make studio smell like food.” I think Corner 17 and Mai Lee are incredibly familiar with our orders now.
Lots of people also brought their pets to studio this semester!
Classes and studio life aside, I’ve definitely had to learn to be more independent this year. Dorm life was a nice transition into independent living, but there’s nothing that screams “you’re an adult now” than opening the fridge and realizing you have to change out of PJs and run to the grocery store because food won’t magically make itself. On the bright side, I’ve perfected my use of minimal pots and plates so I can do the absolute least amount of dishes I can get away with. I have also slightly increased my resistance to spiders. Slightly. Very slightly.
So what will I be doing this summer? Well, I’ll be working as an intern with an ad agency in downtown Tampa, which is perfect because I can save money and live at home. I’m super excited since I’ve never worked in an agency before, and this will be great professional experience for me to decide whether I want to go the agency route after graduation. Plus, the creative team is super chill (no dress code!) and the office is right next to the picturesque bay, so I think I’ll be taking lots of walks on my break.
All in all, this has been a challenging but fulfilling year. I’ve learned a lot in classes, and I hope I’ll learn a lot this summer. This is my last post, but I hoped you enjoyed keeping up with my rambling experiences over half my WashU career!
