Last week I began Fundamentals of Art 1, which is pretty much an introduction class to art. The class seemed incredibly overwhelming at first, compared to my previous two classes, but after actually breaking the class down. receiving a helpful e-mail from my instructor, and hearing some more than helpful words from another student/friend, whom I do intend to speak VERY highly of in the future, I became a lot less terrified of the class. This class is the first one to actually feel like school work so far, which is good and bad. The previous classes have been helpful, educational, and fun, maintaining a very steady, relaxed pace. This class, from the start, was more classroom like than the others. I have an exercise due each week, I have a project due each week, and I have discussions due each week. Three things due a week, stretched over a month long period. I still can not complain though, since I feel like this is a lot more convenient for my lifestyle than physically attending class sessions rather than doing it online.
The first exercise we had to do included a few steps. Look an idiot, I thought that we could choose either one or the other and complete it, because that is how the projects are. So I ignored my friends advice to do every possible assignment, even if there are multiple ones. Needless to say, I did not do so great on the exercise. I received a 33/100, fortunately for me, it was only worth 5 points so I got a 1/5. At first I beat myself over this, because up until this point, my lowest grade on an assignment had been a 75%. I spoke with my friend on Skype for awhile and he left me with some advice that was actually much needed and helped even more than he knew.
“You’re going to make lesser than average grades. You won’t keep a 4.0 GPA. In fact, the average I’m pretty sure is between 2.5 and 3.5; hell, you might even fail half the assignments and pass with a 70% overall grade. Focus on doing quality work, taking EVERY opportunity to do extra work (if the assignment says do 5 models, but 8 are available.. do all 8).”
This advice helped me a lot and after failing my exercise because I took the lazy route and only did one part, assuming it was all that was required, I learned the hard way and through him that I need to take every opportunity to complete work. He ended our conversation with “so.. fuck college grades.. just focus on learning” which I took to heart. I needed to get over that 33%. I had to learn from it and move on, and allow that failure to make me stronger and better, which I was able to do thanks to him.
Though this first week has kicked my butt, (mainly because I have been making this course harder than it actually is) I am eager and ready to start week 2 and bounce back. I will post my first assignment later on tonight. (It was a very simple Photoshop task.)
