Week 12: Looking back so we can look forward.

Well we've made it. The making media course is complete, now what does that mean for me? Well luckily I get assessed on answering that question.

How do I even begin breaking down this semester? At times like this I find reflecting on the wise words of the assignment brief can give me the inspiration I need.

"This will be a reflection on your learning from the class over the semester. Competencies and accomplishments are included and clear, as are the goals for continued learning evident." - Canvas (2018)

Thanks canvas, I am going to structure this into 3 parts. 1) Competencies and In-competencies. 2) Accomplishments and lessons learned. 3) Goals for the future. I hope this is clear enough to satisfy the gods of the rubric.

1. COMPETENCIES AND IN-COMPETENCIES

It may sound overwhelming self confident but I felt fairly competent in my skills when I arrived here and being a part of this class was a chance to reaffirm this, mostly.. I brought with me the experience and skills of nearly two years of the Media and communications program so dropping into a class of students who were basically fresh from high school and undertaking their first courses really made me feel pretty wise and old. However while I had a decent base knowledge of the concepts and skills required in this course particularly with such things as the adobe programs, photojournalism or just regular journalism too, the course gave me the opportunity to further explore such programs which in the past I may have only learned the basics of.

For example with adobe premier, previously I had learned to simply cut and arrange a single audio file, this semester I went deep into becoming proficient with multi tracking and also manipulating sound into more creative ways. It helped as well having a group which was quite competent as well so in areas where I wasn't so talented, for example with adobe indesign for the magazine layout, we were able to cover each other's weaknesses to achieve a positive outcome. I think one incompetency that comes to mind for me was probably my tendency to occasionally go off on holidays, leaving my group without my guidance at times. But I was by no means a slack group member, one was already enough (oof sorry I won't name names)

In short I felt i performed all my roles competently. I lead the team with competence, I took advice and criticism with competence, I edited and crafted our work with competence. I'd say the only thing our team was incompetent at was being incompetent.

2. Accomplishments and lessons learned.

This semester I have;

• Hosted a podcast and have someone call me a natural radio host.

• Worked with a team who have become real friends to me.

• Lead a team on a HD graded assignment

• Been interviewed about fast food and given free Mcdonald's.

• Conducted a photo shoot and felt confident with how I wanted to portray a concept.

• Created a radio advertisment from scratch in about 30 minutes,

• Gained confidence in my own skills and ability to lead.

• Received anonymous love messages through my blog

• Fully enjoyed and felt capable in a subject.

On the flip side I have learnt;

• How to deal with ideas being rejected.

• How to fully back my ideas and communicate it to a team to make it a reality.

• When it's time to trust team members to complete things without my guidence.

• The Vietnamese people are probably the nicest people in the whole world.

• How to better use the adobe programs.

• How it feels to blog weekly and have random people say that they read it.

In addition to this here is a small list I compiled of things I learnt from the people I met in Hostels.

• Engineers are everywhere and probably are responsible for 75% of all hostel bookings.

• "First you do engineering and then you follow your dreams" - Indian guy in Taipei Hostel.

• Booking.com and Agoda are both owned by the same company with the same listings and prices. It's the illusion of choice.

• Russian women are gorgeous, while Russian men look like bricks.

• Israeli's spend 2-3 years in military service. They perceive their army as an army of peace.

3. Goals for the future.

Well my Vietnam adventure does not conclude with the end of this course and so neither will my blog. I have really enjoyed what I have been able to do with this medium and I have barely scratched the surface of it's potential. My goals for this blog is to continue to post on a weekly basis giving coverage to my travels in Vietnam until I go home. I'd also like to write some feature articles focusing on particular aspects of Vietnam, living as an international student or travelling solo. My goals for the future of this program are a little bit uncertain. This semester has given me a taste of some subjects which I have never really tried before such as advertising and making media itself and it has really opened my eyes to other career paths for me. I have seriously enjoyed this semester so much more in part due to the fact that I haven't had to complete a journalism subject. And so when I return home I am going to look into my options for switching programs. Another goal of mine for this year is to return to Vietnam to undertake a communications internship. I have been exploring my options with the careers office and they have recommended an online publication called Vietcetera which has an internship program. So who knows where that could take me.

It is probably a cliche` but it's true, solo travel is about self discovery. Living in a foreign country away from home for the first time has certainly been challenging at times. I've made some terrible mistakes here but I think they were mistakes which needed to happen and I never would have made them if I just stayed in my small little hometown. The lessons I've learnt are a part of who I am now, I don't know if I'm the same person who arrived here 3 months ago but I think that's probably a good thing.

I suppose it's fitting in this goal setting section to announce my resolutions for the new year so here they are.

• Be more honest, with myself and especially with people close to me.

• Continue blogging

That's all, I figured the less I made the easier they would be to keep.

Also here is the playlist I created while I was here, It's basically the soundtrack to my life for the last 3 months. It's a good mix of everything. I'm really just putting this here to see how embedding works for spotify.

Until next time.

-T