Week 12 - Off Week

I have decided to fully embrace my week off. Everyone is on spring break, we hit 80 degrees while still in winter, and I’m wearing shorts. In the last six days I have read the first three books of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (audiobooks totally count), gone to see Project Hail Mary in the theater, went on a photo hike with a friend who is just getting into photography, and began filming a commercial for the barbershop. The only time I even thought about my educational track was when I ordered the books needed for Q2.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a workaholic. I have a hard time relaxing, and usually when I get focused on some type of project, I tend to go all in. This educational track is no different, and I’ve been trying to take it seriously so the methodology sticks past the first week. But this week was a little different, I found myself actually enjoying the mental break from all the obligation I had put on myself, taking longer walks on my lunch break, using my camera for fun and trying to remind myself that it’s okay to not have a million projects all going on at once.

I deal with one of those issues that many millennials deal with, the guilt of not being productive. I used to love video games, and now I oftentimes feel guilty if I take an afternoon to zone out, even though my wife always tells me, “It’s okay if you take time for yourself." I don’t disagree with the statement, I just have difficulty applying the principle into my actual life. To me, the hobbies that I pursue ARE my “me time.” Having done a video podcast for the past three months made me realize that I have become significantly more confident in front of the camera, and has also helped me recognize that I understand storytelling more than I give myself credit for. In that mindset, I decided to start on a back burner project that I keep putting off, filming a commercial for the barbershop.

Now, to clarify, I don’t mean social media content. I think we all live in a social media fueled existence, and so many people are able to create good content on their phone without a lot of effort. But what i’m talking about, is an actual short video with story telling elements, to differentiate my barbershop from the other shops in the valley. I decided to sit down and come up with a concept, I’m scripting it out, getting the footage, and will actually edit it all in Final Cut Pro instead of clipping together a trending video clip in my social media app. I even dragged my drone out and reminded myself that I enjoy sending that up in the air to get aerial shots of Boise.

And this is the ultimate takeaway I have from the first quarter of this curriculum. In my final off week, I took the lessons I learned and applied them to the fun I was already having. Q2 is going to be a focus on developing my voice and framing my stories, so I’m anxious to see what’s to come next.