Commitment

"The most tragic thing in the world is wasted talent." It occurred to me as I was reading other people's blogs tonight that most of the students in ENG 401 are very committed to their work they do in this class. Almost everyone in the class has at least 20 or more posts on their blog. I then looked at my measly six postings (seven including this one) and had an epiphany...I have commitment issues. Newsflash fellow 401ers: The key to success is NOT hard work and determination. The key to success in ANYTHING depends on your commitment to the subject. If you are 100% committed to something ... hard work and determination will be intrinsically connected to the commitment you put forth. Wednesday I was excitedly telling myself that I would have the entire five day break to catch up on schoolwork. Here's how my Thanksgiving break went down: I worked Tuesday night for 6 hours, Wednesday morning for another 6, Thanksgiving with the fam on Thursday, I worked 14 hours on Friday because it was double time and a half, then another 10 on Saturday, and another 7 today. It's very clear where most of my commitment lies. I work for AT&T mobility. It's a great place to work but it is a very stressful demanding job. They look at my job as a career, I look at it as a part time job to pay bills and tuition. The money is amazing, therefore, it is really hard to give up. I want to put school first but realize that I also need some sort of income to support myself. I am not sure what I will do to help rectify the problem, maybe you guys could give me some insight on the matter. Anyway, going back to 401. The point, I guess, of this posting is to convey or make a promise to myself, Dr. O'Rourke, and the class than I am willing to make more of a commitment to the collaborative learning process we are taking part in. I have felt, due to the lack of commitment in the learning process, like the odd man out sometimes and I want to do whatever I can to rectify this dissonant feeling. With all that being said, here is where I am at with a few weeks left to go: I am shifting gears a little bit in my inquiry project. I am writing with less emphasis on affect in visual media and more on the future of visual media. When I was writing my exploratory draft I discovered that the argument I was trying to make didn't feel that strong. I honestly didn't think it was an important enough topic to write about. I know I should have realized this sooner but unfortunately I didn't. However, because I am going into graphic design, exploring research and topics about the future of visual media felt like it would have more significance to me than what I was writing about before. Fortunately, I have already done a good deal of research on the topic and I have first hand interviews with Jacob Hill and Bonnie Foley on the subject. With this change I am going to have to rewrite my annotated bibliography and rework my proposal. I will post them for your review as soon as I am finished with them.
See you guys in six hours.