Journal Post 5.29.20

Journal Post 5.29.20

Mari Pokorny

Oh snickerdoodles. It's our last journal post ):

  1. I thought that my final project turned out well. At first, I had no faith that I would be able to learn Unity in such a short amount of time to create my world, but somehow I managed to get my Unity to work. I was able to accomplish most of my design goals. If I had more time, I would love to work on creating a giant wave for Mavericks. Is it possible to create waves? One piece of feedback was to try and get the wave off the ground (which I totally agree with. My wave is non-existent).
  2. I honestly loved all the studios. I think my favorite is Studio 1, where I created Frisco in a Box. If we had finished the studio about Play, that probably would've been my favorite. I just loved working with all the different tools in the shop. It's fun to do hands-on projects-- especially with a group.
  3. My greatest success was allowing myself to become more confident in my own ideas. And to be more open to all sorts of feedback. Achieving this has definitely opened more doors and more ideas. I wouldn't have achieved this if I was in normal school, so I'm grateful for this new learning space. Another success was learning all the different software. I remember the days when we were introduced to Rhino, Unity, and Photoshop. I wrote in my personal journal that I'll never be able to learn how to do this. And I did!
  4. I learned that the design process can be applied to anything. I also learned that the design process definitely leads to many bumps in your path that you have to problem-solve to work around/with that bump you had earlier. Practicing being a good problem solver is definitely an important skill that will help me for school and for adulting life ahead.
  5. Immersing myself into the design process/world this semester has taught me that education doesn't have to be textbooks, essays, and tests but that you can actually learn so much more from being immersed in a different type of learning. Yes, math, English, science, and history are important to know, but NuVu has given me more valuable lessons that'll help me in the future. I see myself as a more confident person in my ideas and self in general. I have also learned to put myself out there, to make more friends, to be open to learning new, scary, and sometimes intimidating skills. It has changed my approach to how I see tasks.
  6. I would tell this 9th grader that this NuVu experience is a once in a lifetime thing full of self-discovery, valuable life lessons, fun times, new friendships, and designing skills. Once you learn about the design processes, you can embed this knowledge and these experiences into your life- even life outside of school. 
    1. At first, I felt like I couldn't do anything that was assigned, and I felt like I didn't belong. I was a fish out of water. But once I stopped holding a wall between my ideas and other people's judgment, I learned to collaborate with others, build off of other's ideas, accept failure and bumps in the process. You will prototype, test, and fail, but in the end, you will always succeed when you have the determination. You may think that you aren't creative enough (I still think that sometimes), but you just need to let down some walls you're holding up. The creativity is always in you, you just have to find the spark.


Lastly, I want to give a huge thank you to this NuVuX group and to our amazing coaches and guest coaches. Shaunta, I learned so many valuable life lessons and wisdom from you. Thank you for sharing and exposing us to the design world. You opened up more doors for me and it was so cool to see the potential of where my design life can go. When we were at school, thank you for staying after to help me cut my Frisco in a Box. I love how passionate you are about what you do and teaching us everything. I really hope I'll be able to visit and maybe come in and help out in the studio during my frees.