This past semester doing 20 Time has been a new experience for me. When given a long period of time to complete one big project, it is usually hard to plan one's time and make sure that one finishes what one planned to do from the very beginning. For this reason, I wish I had made checkpoints/goals to have finished by certain times throughout the semester; this way, I could make sure that I was keeping track of my work on staying on task. However, because I did not make checkpoints for myself, the end of the year approached quicker than I expected, and I still have more work that I want to accomplish.
This challenged me because I usually have pretty bad time management even on short-term projects, so I wanted to see how a long-term project would play out. I also chose a difficult topic to focus on, depression, because it is very relevant in society and especially with teenagers right now; however, it is a hard topic to talk about because it is glorified in the media. This project's goal was mainly to help people who may be going through depression; I was hoping that it would weaken the stigma surrounding depression so that people would not be as scared to ask for help. Furthermore, I was hoping that this project would help people recognize the warning signs for depression in order to nip it in the bud.
My plan to achieve this goal was to make a simple and short drawing book in which I drew a story revolving around a teenager who was battling depression. I would make this drawing book simple enough for younger people to understand, but I would also include statistics to make the book and point I make legitimate.
Honestly, I did not get as much work done as I planned to. However, I did accomplish a reasonable amount of work. I researched lots of statistics to add into my story as well as personal memoirs of people who have had depression to make my story more realistic. I finished writing my story completely but realized that I did not have a lot of time left to finish the actual book anymore; I plan to finish by my presentation because I am almost done. I think the reason why writing the story took so long is because I thought that the story was the most essential part; it was the part from which people were supposed to take the most and learn a lot from. In addition, I originally made the story too long and detailed because I was trying to perfect it too much, so I had to take time to cut down a lot of details and decide what was really important in my story; my story probably would have continued for a long time if I hadn't realized that the end of the semester was quickly approaching. Furthermore, because we only had computers during class, I used class time to alter my story and add in more statistics and facts while making the physical book at home, although I did sketch out pages during class as well. Although I have not finished my book yet, I am very close, just a few more pages left, so I plan to finish those up throughout this week.
From this experience, I learned that planning time is much harder than it seems. I also learned that being given the freedom to explore and do a project about one's own interests may be a double-edged sword; although this topic is something I am interested in, sometimes I research other topics related to this issue and watch videos about it, going off track.
If I had the chance to do this project again, I would choose to do something that is mostly done online or on a computer, because most of the 20 Time time I used was on the computer during class. Because I chose something with a physical finished product, I also had to continue working on 20 Time at home; I thought that it would have been smarter if I worked on something on the computer, like something with graphic design or animation instead. However, I do not regret choosing this type of topic at all, because it is so relevant in society right now.
I still have a few more pages to complete, but I would also be okay with sharing the work that I have done right now, because I have finished most of the drawing book at home. I plan to finish the last few pages of the book by my TED Talk, since I still have a week or so. After I finish this book, I can share it with my family and maybe bring it to school to show friends and other classmates. I may also share the story I wrote up on social media, since most teenagers use it nowadays.
Overall, this project was a very new experience for me and gave me many insights on how to manage my time and workload over a long period of time.
Outline for TED Talk:
- I will probably begin my story with a personal interaction with someone with depression or my thoughts and opinions on Speak Up For Change Week; probably something like: "Growing up I never really heard of depression...."
- In order to enhance my story, I could add in some humor and some pictures on a slideshow to add to the presentation. I could also describe a story of someone with depression who is well-known, so as to bring across my point that depression should be destigmatized.
- I will conclude my story by stating what my goals of this project were and what this project was supposed to bring to people.
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