Semester One is Done

This first semester of grad school flew by. It’s one of those situations that felt like it took forever but at the same time, I couldn’t squeeze enough in. There was always something new to learn or something that I felt I was missing out on.

For my RE blog posts, I tried to teach myself something new outside of classes each week. These mostly ended up being software that I’ve never worked with. In the beginning, it felt like this would give me structure and make each week a bit easier. Once classes started picking up and more assignments were coming in, this proved to be much more difficult. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just sit down and write about my dog–I had committed to this weekly theme and I wanted to stick to it as much as possible.

The biggest thing I learned from my little series: there’s always a free option. It may not be as good or as easy to use as the real deal, but it’s out there.

Next semester, I think I will take a new approach to my RE blog posts, but I may still try to stick to some kind of series or theme. The one thing I enjoyed most about this was it felt like an exercise. Plus, there was always an end product. Right now, I am thinking about using a generator like What Should I Design? or Sharpen. Sharpen even has different categories that would allow me to practice for both UX and branding challenges.

I am looking forward to coming back refreshed for next semester! I‘m also looking forward to a nice, cold beer come Thursday evening.