As I enter my second year of college classes, I have been feeling a bit frustrated with a strong desire to “move on with my life”.  It feels like I am spinning my wheels at school and accomplishing very little.   Turning down full time work on two different occassions over the past month added to that burned out cloud hovering above.

At one point during week one I wanted to share the words of a song (that I owned) with some of my friends.  All I wanted to do was to say “I love you” and I found the perfect song for it, but no YouTube available.  That motivated me to spend some extra time playing around with Windows Movie Maker.  It is very simple, but I was motivated:

That intense motivation for something so “simple” made me decide to do a quick review / inventory of the past 4 quarters to put things in perspective.  In the process, things in general began to look more promising! 

Things that don’t work so well for me in the classroom (thus, probably not in a job either):

• Designing logos that I can’t make interesting to myself such as the bag clip, a restaurant, or an industry
• Advertising for products that don’t inspire me like Therma Care
• Programming games (even for kids)
• Websites for topics I don’t care about
• Projects that are centered around movies, tv shows, the gaming industry, etc.

Things that are working for me:

• Writing and designing projects that centered around charities. 
  It did not matter which class or media I was working in, these projects motivated me and they were covered in a myriad of classes such as Script Writing, Marketing, Typography, various software classes, as well as some Design courses. 
  (Examples: Compassion International, Indiana Sheltie Rescue, and website for a friend’s passion.) 
• Creating communications that promote relationship building.
  Basically… being able to share and relate are very important to me. 
  (Examples: the cd case for my family, videos about my family, and photography class projects that allowed me to incorporate my family, nostalgia, or my vacation time.) 
• Topics that send a message.
  (Examples include the video about the Human Footprint, the video about animal rescue,  a poster with a call to action for animal rescue, or the Christmas one for Food for the Hungry.)
• Anything that has to do with kids, fun, and just pure enjoyment.
  (Such as the snowmen USPS stamps, the diety interactive book I made in Design Concepts, or the newspaper page that was all about cats.)
• Helpful projects business-wise.
  I have to say the Eiteljorg wayfinder logos and standards manual was one of the most helpful projects I have worked on in regards to my career.   It opened the door to creative possibilities by combining the skills I already possess with new ones I am learning.
• Hands-on, get messy, physical creating.
  When I thought of my favorite classes, by far it would be those that incorporate a lot of drawing and creating on a more tactile level.  Design Fundamentals is at the top of the list, although photography ranks up there as well.  I also enjoyed putting the diety book together.  Software is ok… but I want it to enhance my creations, not be the sum total of them.  That was interesting to learn.

What I will do with all this information is only to be guessed at.  However, I am hoping that I can find ways to use it as I continue down the college path in the upcoming quarters.  It certainly picked up my spirits and has me ready to get back into the “fray”.  I hope all this thinking has given me hints on how to motivate myself and keep my interest up even on dull projects.