Joe Rosenblum
Blog Post #3
5/19/22
When I first started thinking about what my senior project was going to be, back in early February, I would have never imagined I could do what I was able to have done over the last two months or so. Originally when thinking about what I could accomplish throughout my senior project before it had officially started, I was very ambitious. I thought my schedule would work out perfectly and that my commitments outside of the project would work in cohesion with my project, I thought I would accomplish almost too much. That was not exactly the case.
Right off the bat, I realized how time-consuming my baseball schedule was and that the time of day in which most of my practices and games took place was the perfect time for me to be exploring New York City for my project. I also found out that analyzing the marketing aspect in terms of the effect of local tourism wasn’t exactly accomplishable and so I had to change the course of my project would be. In my original meeting when discussing what my project would be, a faculty member gave me the idea of creating an entire day trip for incoming tourists in New York City instead of just a recommendation of one place at a time. This was very helpful because it allowed me to be very creative in how I could design my trips. Instead of for example my guide suggesting to visit the high line, I could suggest eating at x restaurant then Citi bike towards the Highline to go to this great museum. This ability to have almost a blank canvas for designing these day trips was something I didn’t expect going into the project and yet I am so glad I did. Being creative is something I missed doing from when I was in trimester two in film class. This idea of finding my love of being creative on a day-to-day basis is a theme throughout my senior project in terms of finding myself in different ways.
The goals I had set out before starting the project were just to get me started in the right direction because I truly had no idea the amount of time it would take to travel around the city and also write about what I was seeing in a way that was compelling for others to view. Instead of just writing paragraphs about my day trips I decided to make it a bit more about bullet points and photographs to give examples of what tourists would be viewing when taking the trips. Another thing I thought about when creating this project was that I found myself seeing parts of the city that I, as a lifetime New Yorker, had never seen before which led me to think that these trips could be for everyday New Yorkers aswell. To circle back to the main idea, the goals i had set for myself were a bit unrealistic and as my project went on, my adjusted goals were definitely met.
Some challenges I faced throughout the project were very much time management-based. Throughout this project, I learned a lot about myself and what kind of work styles I thrive in, and what kind of work styles I have trouble in. When I create a schedule for myself each day that is pretty specific, I tend to succeed in accomplishing what I set out for as opposed to when I didn’t set that specific schedule. I learned to use my time on the weekends to plan out different writing or exploring when I had a busy week from the baseball team and my economics class. Also including others when exploring the city made it even more enjoyable for me.
If I could sum up what I took away from senior project, it would be very different from what I think most people would expect. Over the course of the six weeks that I had to work on this project, I grew as a person in terms of learning about myself and others. I learned about what environments I work best in, I learned about how I communicate with others when I’m not in the school building every day, and I got clarity on how I envision my future to look past high school. In the first couple of weeks, I noticed that my sleep schedule was awful in the previous trimesters at school, and how much sleep is important to day-to-day success no matter what I was doing. I also realized how much I valued everyday interactions with peers because I really missed that during the six weeks besides the days I went into the school building. And most importantly, I learned that whatever I do after high school and after college, must have meaning to me and must be enjoyable to me. I want to wake up every morning excited to go to work, or whatever I end up doing because at the end of the day if you aren’t enjoying what you are doing, then why are you doing it?