By Hayley Small
The Only Thing Worse Than Change is No Change
News/Journalism
A one-page description of the assignment, describing my outcomes and the degree to which I met these outcomes:
I chose to write a book about change.
I have gained a passion for writing and editing throughout my college experience. It is an excellent way for me to express my thoughts, feelings, opinions, stories, and skills that I have developed over the years.
This book, specifically, is about a subject that I have become very passionate about, considering the amount of change that I have experienced. Change has always been a big part of my life, as it has for anyone. But, it is something that has required a lot of reflection from me because of how frequent it is and how much it has affected the way that I function.
I wrote this book to share my stories in the hopes that my audience will gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the difficult changes they go through. Maybe they will even get to the point where they crave and seek out changes for themselves. I took the time to pull stories from my life about moving, handling trauma, and dealing with relationships, to talk about the lessons I’ve learned and the skills I’ve gained to become the person that I am now.
I included a lot of research from various sources to bring in other thoughts, opinions, and statistics as well. These resources relate to seeking after personal changes, comparing internal vs. external change, and how change often requires us to use the steps of the grief process to get through.
I interviewed several people about the biggest change they have dealt with, how it has affected them, and what their takeaways were. This resulted in a variety of feedback anywhere from mental health struggles, to moving from a different country, to a personal spiritual journey.
A page of any analytics collected – Facebook likes/shares, Google Analytics, etc:
This is a survey that I posted on social media to get a brief understanding of how people generally feel about changes in their lives.
This isn’t necessarily a surprise that, despite the pain and difficulties that come with change, it is overall beneficial. But, it is still a powerful thing to see that no matter how hard and painful and unpredictable and out of control variables in our lives are, people would rather deal with those growing pains than remain stagnant and unchanging. It’s reassuring for our world, even if it is a minuscule pool of people.
A one-paragraph description of how the data collected taught me how to increase engagement and readership of my material, accompanied by charts and tables as needed:
This, amongst the other research that I did, helped me to understand how people view change and what they understand about it and its effects. This made it easier for me to cater my thoughts and research to the same topics while introducing new thought processes and viewpoints that people, including myself, hadn’t necessarily considered before. I was able to pull from the common theme of “change is good” and add on additional subjects like, the difference between internal and external change, as well as seeking out a controllable and manageable change that will benefit us personally. The same goes for comparing the process of change to the process of dealing with grief. These aren’t new ideas in general, but I liked being able to piece them all together with personal experiences to show others new ways of thinking about change. It certainly gave me a new perspective and is something I can only hope does the same for my readers.
A one-page description of what I learned about journalism or related skill doing this project:
Writing is something that I have always loved doing. I have gained an incredible amount of experience with this skill throughout the process of earning my degree. This project specifically has been very beneficial to me because it was a high-stakes situation that I needed to make sure was accomplished on a specific timeline while meeting certain requirements and criteria.
I learned the importance of sticking to a schedule and timeline that I set up for myself. I created a timeline at the beginning of this process to help me to stay on track and get everything done promptly. Unfortunately, I slacked a bit at the beginning of this process and let my personal issues get in the way. This caused my timeline to get pushed back. I also had to cut out certain parts of the process that could have been very beneficial to my project, like additional rounds of editing and extra time in between where I could reset and come back with a fresh set of eyes. It ended up getting to the point where I wasn’t able to get my book published online in time to order the physical copy for my presentation in person. It would’ve come the day after the senior showcase.
I should have accounted for all of the issues with my timeline and planned it out better ahead of time. I was able to compromise and print out a poster of my book cover and pull up a PDF version of my book on my laptop to present it that way. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked out just fine in the end.
I also learned how to write according to particular goals, like, what I wanted my audience to take away. This book was interesting because I didn’t have a specific audience in mind, it was very general. So, rather than catering to a certain demographic, my mentor helped me to find particular points that I wanted to touch on and get across that made my book matter and stand out. It was a very helpful way for me to discover new ways of writing and how to use my research to my benefit.
A half-page description of what I learned about completing projects and being professional:
I think there is a lot to be said about the importance of projects and professionalism when it comes to this senior project. Again, I want to touch on the importance of not procrastinating and putting your best foot forward. I am a person who typically doesn’t procrastinate, but also isn’t the biggest fan of being rushed to do something important. I am still able to work under pressure and accomplish what I need to, but it’s stressful when there’s a timeline and I’m not able to get everything done on my own timeline, within my control. I think that’s why projects like this are beneficial for me because there is a time limit and expectation on them, so I have to work according to influences that are out of my control.
I had to rely on others responding to me for interviews and keeping their promises to help me out. I had to rely on others editing my book and getting back to me in time for me to edit it and submit it for publishing. I had to work according to the timeline and restrictions that Kindle Direct Publishing had in place. I had to deal with the timing that it takes to receive a physical copy of my book from Amazon. Unfortunately, due to the last minute adjustments made to my timeline, I wasn’t able to make all of these factors align in time to get my physical copy in the mail in time, but it was good experience for me to work according to the timeline of others.
This also goes hand-in-hand with being professional when working with so many other people. I had to make sure not to let my stress and frustrations get in the way of communicating with others or being too impatient and dissuading them from helping me. I had to remain calm and professional and set aside my personal problems. This is a skill I have grown very accustomed to using in the customer service jobs that I have had, so it’s not a new skill, just a new aspect of my life that I used that skill in. It was very helpful experience for me.