Now if you would have given me this task as homework a year ago, it probably would have taken me no longer than 30 minutes to put together. Nonetheless, I'm honest when I say that it took me two hours to just come up with the idea, and another hour and a half to practice and put a 5 slide presentation together. I admit that I'm quite the perfectionist, so I'm not usually the girl I recommend you asking how long a homework assignment will take, but this time, it wasn't just me who took this long. Hines, who had come over to my house that afternoon, took over two hours to come up with her idea as well and Pedro, who is probably one of the fastest workers I know, and almost never asks for my help, messaged me that afternoon saying "Gisella, I can't come up with ideas for the pitch, help."
The next day, after we had finished hearing all of the pitches--and I'm going to sound like a mom when I say this--I could have never felt more proud. The time all thirteen of us had dedicated to doing what most people would consider a menial homework assignment was evident. We were all extremely passionate about the ideas we were "selling", and this passion came across through our tones and our presentation. Usually, after seeing a group of thirteen people present, you would be able to come up with your favorite presentation, and you favorite solution, but to be completely, the pitches were so good and so thought through that it's going to be one hard decision.
As we were giving feedback to each person regarding their solution and presentation, I kept thinking to myself how much people in the IA have grown. Seeing Stefan go from being shy when presenting, to being convincing and confident was AWESOME. Seeing Drew, who claims to be a "terrible public speaker" look like she was born to dominate the stage was equally as AWESOME. So I began to think to myself, why have we all grown so much after a year in the IA when I've never witnessed such growth in any of my other classes? My answer came down to this. In the IA we have a drive to create beautiful work because we are passionate about the work we are creating.
Not once were we told or did we ask whether or not this assignment was graded, we simply did our best because we cared. And when I think about it, whether it's with a presentation, our blogs, or our documentary, we're always pushing ourselves to create beautiful work, not for the grade, or to be the "best" amongst the rest, but because we care, because we are passionate about learning. As a result, we're always pushing ourselves and each other towards improvement. We have established a CULTURE where we want to EXCEL for each other, and that, is pretty *** cool if you ask me.