When All is Said and Done… – Emily G.

Dear class of 2019,

congratulations on finishing your first semester of your Sophomore year! I know that WHAP is probably already stressing you out (not to scare you, but it does indeed get worse), and you’re running on about six hours of sleep, but I’m here to let you know that it’s okay, because your DAP is about to start, and you’ll only be a little more stressed!

My name is Emily, and whoever is reading this probably knows me. It’s an interesting experience to be writing this to you all, because I have just completed my DAP, and it was a stressful roller coaster. However, I’m here to let you know how to make it less stressful.

Let me start by first saying, my DAP was completely different than that of anyone else in biomed this year. For starters, I did an individual project. That was scary all on it’s own, because if I messed up, I had no one else to blame but myself. My project was to create a business out of my class: I had to create a website to advertise our business and create a business plan. Everyone else was creating a protective device for a specific joint. I was creating the marketing plan that helped them sell their product.

Why do you care what I have to say? My project was nothing like what yours will be. However, I do have some helpful advice:

1. Don’t let your first success get to your head. Everyone has success, and everyone has failure. If you get too cocky too fast, your next failure will be closer than you think.
2. Take a break if you need to. Sometimes, it’s okay to go get a drink of water, or take a step back just to breathe. Sometimes that break will even inspire new ideas.
3. If someone is giving you a hard time during your project and you feel frustrated, just think about the struggle they may be having with your project, their project, or even managing something else.
4. At least you’re not in animation.

I give these four points of advice, because they’re things that I have learned throughout this project to appreciate. I hope that you will keep these ideas in mind as you go through your project, because I would’ve loved to have already had these in mind before having a panic attack on the day of our presentations. Please, go on to your project and learn to love it, because in reality it’s helping you graduate, and you’ll make it out alive.