About to enter week six of my studies. This past week (and this weekend) was a tough one.
Since classes started I've worked very hard to do more than what I was being asked for—it's a good habit to be in when you're out in the real world, and I want to make a good impression on my instructors. My projects have been detailed and I've been getting good grades, and I don't want to be known as the guy who does the bare minimum.
Unfortunately for me, several unpleasant realities collided all at once this week.
First, I can't code for shit. I don't want to be crude—in fact, I want to convince my classmates to sound less like crab fisherman and more like young professionals, at least while we're in class—but it isn't an exaggeration to say that our programming class is making me feel like goddamned Gir from Invader Zim.
On the bright side, I am a little artistic and fairly creative, and I can draw passably well. These are handy qualities to have, but (as I mentioned previously) I'm a beginner with photoshop. Our "art" class (Visual Design Principles) has been pretty interesting but easily the most frustrating class for me because I am perpetually running into brick walls because I don't know the software, and there's very little time to learn it.
Naturally, week five was the intersection of a major, challenging assignment in each of these, my weakest classes. Plus a final presentation for Storytelling (a strength of mine, but the assignment was very time-consuming), and my final project in Storyboarding/Cinematics (another time-gobbler) is due next class. Layer on a few other, lesser assignments that require time and attention and the ever-present board game assignment (I have much tweaking and polishing to do) and you have a very full schedule.
There is no room in this schedule to do extra work on these assignments, so while it's painful and frustrating to do so, I'm going to be handing in assignments that follow the instructions, and nothing more. I need to stamp it all out, ignore my pride, get back on schedule (sleeping, eating, school, and play), and focus on my strengths and being a good class rep.
The alternative is burnout and a bad attitude, which has been creeping in steadily these past two weeks. It ends today. Right after I run through that powerpoint presentation another couple of times...
Chin up; I'm rooting for you, and so are others. Don't fret if you can't code too well; your career as a designer likely won't require you to code yourself.
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