Four years, post-college, freelancing, collective | #1

It has been 4 months since I’ve graduated from college, and 4 years since I’ve graduated from high school. Time flies.

When I graduated from high school, college graduation sounded faraway. Yet, here I am. Looking back at the past four years, I’m certain that I’ve learned a lot, about relationships, industries, personalities, interactions, and more. I’m also certain that I’ve lost a few qualities that I used to possess, perhaps in an unfortunate way. For example, I find myself becoming a little more practical and less experimental than three years ago. I hope that by being aware of this, I will find myself being more wild than I currently am.

On a related note, in college, I was being cautioned that I should care more about those around me. I think I now am better at identifying when I should care more, but still need to be more proactive in caring.

Since returning from summer travels, I’ve taken on a few contracting positions. Freelancing right out of school in some way forces myself to pick up a few skills quickly, because I’m not shielded by a consultancy. Being challenged feels great.

&OhDotZero recently finished our first project; two kiosks for the Global Climate Action Summit. At the kiosk, you can pick your miniature home appliances and place them onto the floor plan to see how much energy and water you use. To make the numbers more relatable, we converted kwh and gallons of water into number of iphone charges and bottles of water.

Overall, the two kiosks look cute and well put-together. I personally also learned a lot about where I fall short and strive when it comes to collaborating and delegating. Additionally, it also made me realize (once again) just how much more I need to learn; both soft and hard skills wise.

&Lab got paused for a little bit because of the recent &OhDotZero project. Self-starting something, even with friends, is hard. There are no formal deadlines, which makes everything too flexible. Sometimes, I wish there’s a school that would let you graduate only if your collective/business is self-sustainable.

Since senior year, I’ve been taping a four-month calendar to the top of my laptop, to keep track of deadlines and to-dos. It helped me tremendously in acknowledging and acting on the to-dos for my thesis. However, this calendar hasn’t been as effective now. Perhaps because my to-dos are all listed on the page, instead of associated with a date.

One thing that I’ve always remembered from my dad is that, life isn’t fair, the only thing that’s fair is that everyone has 24 hours. And perhaps that’s why this Devinsupertramps’ video resonates with me so much.