Give Myself an A

On December 16th, 2015, I got an A in Projects Studio 3.

I got an A because I became highly tolerant of discomfort and uncertainty at the end of the semester. In the past, everything was so easy to me. It’s not because I was smart, but because I stayed in the comfort zone. However, with the class like this, which urged students to be vulnerable and to explore themselves deeply, discomfort just became a common thing in my life, and I am willing to embrace it. Also, compared to other design projects I had done before, Exploring Myself (the major task in this studio) is an uncertain and never-end task, which helped me to understand what “real life” is (not a school life which is safe and certain). The older we are, the more uncertain world we are going to face. At the beginning, it’s not a natural thing for me; but now, uncertainty is part of my life and I am not that afraid of facing it.

I got an A because I changed my mindset from fixed mindset to growth mindset. As a designer, I always admired design masters such as Philippe Starck and Frank Gehry. I was almost jealous of their talents, but had never thought that I could be like them. Also, I sometimes didn’t believe that I could do something, and thus let opportunities slip by. However, at the end of this course, I learned to listen to my fixed mindset “voice” and talk back with a growth mindset “voice”. There’s no trick of doing it, but only belief.

“Faith in oneself is the best and safest course,” said Michaelangelo.

I got an A because I applied what I learned from the class (listed above) in my life and will keep using and developing them in the future, and this is the true spirit of education.