Day 12: A Reflection of the Week
This week has been quite a journey. I started this week expecting something similar to last week (a lot of work and a lot review), but it ended up being nothing like that. First, I’ll tell you about my day (not interested, just want the reflection? click here.)
6:30AM: My alarm woke me up. Usually, I wake up before that. It must mean I subconsciously knew I didn’t have to get up so early today. We were free to be working on our projects until 4:00PM, when we were supposed to present our AR projects for critique.
8:15AM: After eating breakfast (and a few videos on YouTube) it was time to get back to work. I had a presentation to finish and touch up! A bunch of edits and a little bit of break later, my morning was over and my stomach was growling again.
12:00PM-ish: I went out with some friends to Blaze Pizza for lunch. As someone who has never been to Blaze, I was surprised to see that someone had the great idea of making a quick “DIY pizza place”. Why haven’t I thought of that? Anyways, we all still had that presentation to prepare for, so we headed back, pizzas in hand. The scents of the pizza mixed with the scents of the city as we walked out of the restaurant. I prefer the pizza scents.
2:00PM: We finished the digital part of our presentation! (Great work, all) I was relieved to at least have that done and out of the way. I took some time to watch some videos (again) and then made my way over to our classroom at First Canadian. I walked through the revolving doors into the air-conditioned room inside.
“Where was everyone?”
Then I realized it was Saturday. It was odd to be the only passenger in the elevator. It seems like the financial district just…kinda stops on weekends here.
3:50PM: Everyone was almost here. We were sitting quietly in our desks (OK, fine, some people were still talking). There was a nervous, yet excited atmosphere in the room. We were ready. This is what we did all week. The slow movements of the clock in the room closed in on our time to present.
4:10PM: It was time. The first group up was Convenience Stories, then Newcomer Kitchen, then Building a Better Bloor Dufferin, each passing with a amazing show of hard work and a multitude of intriguing questions and suggestions afterward. Then it was us.
5:10PM: We were up. I stood up and got the powerpoint ready. I had the intro slide. A quick introduction and we were off! One slide after another, then one question here, one discussion there. Suddenly, as quick as it started… I realized that was our week. The result of 5 days work, in 20 minutes.
“I need to think about this….later”
5:30PM: I finally breathed out a sigh. This week has been a great amount of work: meeting new people, getting to know the problems they face here in Toronto, and making a whole AR experience to our best abilities on top of that. It was if we got closer to the heart of the city… the side that not many outsiders get to see. In a single week, we got to know these people, their struggles, their stories. It was a lot to take in… but now, for some, this is the end of our interactions. May they accomplish their goals and may we meet again.
Now, at the end of our second week, I’d like to take a moment to look back at what we’ve accomplished…
Somehow, we all made it through, after all the struggles and schedules to match, all the bugs and last minute changes. I was expecting this week to be hard, and it was… but, this is a different type of difficulty.
This was hard in a way where we pushed ourselves, to help the developer test the AR app that he developed, to do justice to the community members who have entrusted us with their visions. This gave meaning to our work. Some of us worked even harder and longer than last week, but, to me at least, this is the work that is fulfilling. We were doing good. We were making an impact.
I’d like to thank the communities that have welcomed us into their families and trusted us with their babies (metaphorically). I hope we have done you all justice. May you be successful in your goals.
What will next week hold? Well, this is my last post here, I’ll pass it on to the others to tell.
Jason, out-
SOME SHAME SELF PROMOTION (sorry for ruining the moment): Full size images of the pictures here can be found by clicking them. Oh, and I got my website working, minus a bug on mobile.
This is my last post here…but if you want to keep following my shenanigans, check out my personal blog at gemhunter178.com/Blog
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