Kern Carter's Blog, page 28
September 5, 2022
My first year as a Creative Student
I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the kid who walked into a new school knowing no one. But I assure you, this story doesn’t go the way those stories go; those kids didn’t walk into an art school, sorry, those kids didn’t log in to an art school.
Hi. My name is Jett, I am a student at OCAD in Toronto Ontario and I am currently working on my undergrad in their advertising program. Being a creative student for the first time was nothing like I had expected. The people were deferred from my expectations, and so did the curriculum. I don’t necessarily mean good or bad, I just mean different, so different. If there was one word to describe my experience last year, it’d be unique. I’m sure we’ve all heard the pros and cons of online learning before, whether a concerned parent or a student experiencing it firsthand. However, the pros and cons are a little more niche when online learning at an art school.
Firstly, I’d like to say that–for the circumstances–I consider myself lucky, lucky I was in the advertising program and not studying painting or industrial design. Being in the advertising program, Google docs tends to be our studio. However, I can’t say the same for drawing and painting students who probably made a considerable amount of their decision to attend OCAD based on their access to on-campus studios and special hands-on lessons the university provides. In other words, I’m lucky I had everything I needed in the palm of my hand; or in the computer on my lap, so to speak. All I needed was my laptop and I was good to go. This made working at home easier as I didn’t have to worry about materials and my workspace.
Although many may have a differing opinion, I personally enjoyed the academics during online learning. I found the school’s focus on critical thinking and creativity to be vitalizing and refreshing; plus that handy mute button allowed me to sit back and listen more, rather than being my loquacious self. That’s not to say the professors weren’t engaging. In fact, I found certain classes to be incredibly engaging. Was it as engaging as it would’ve been if I had lectures in-person? No. But, I truly think they did the best they could.
Now enough about the troubles of online and more about the art student vibes. I personally found the social aspect of OCAD to be very disappointing, and it’s not the school’s fault. Most art students are introverted, expressing themselves through their work rather than through conversation. I personally enjoy engaging in the odd frivolous conversation about the weather or last night’s game, or even talk about one of our favorite pastimes. It seems I was one of few who felt that way. OCAD is heavily focused on politics and social justice, it seems to be the only topic of conversation. Now I don’t want to be misconstrued: I believe all those things are of the utmost importance, however, there’s a time and place for everything, and maybe that time and place isn’t when I say “Hi, my name’s Jett. Nice to meet you.” What I’m trying to say is day to day conversation is almost nonexistent in most programs. At least I get to have those conversations at the beginning of every lecture with the professors.
One benefit to being in such a niche program is the small-sized classes. Some of my classes have less than 30 kids. This allows for engaging discussion which ultimately leads to the best kind of learning: learning where you’re actually interested. This particular skill set is OCAD’s Magnum Opus. Every discussion I’ve ever had in class has led to a lesson learned or my perspective changed. I cannot stress how much more I have learned through these methods, and I am so excited to see what in-person learning has in store for me.
I think going from seeing camera-off profile pictures of anime characters and cats on Microsoft teams to seeing all new faces in a smelly old classroom will be just as visualizing and refreshing as the OCAD’s academic focus.
[image error]My first year as a Creative Student was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
September 4, 2022
September 3, 2022
September 1, 2022
August 31, 2022
Call For Submissions — Back To School
I always get a bit nostalgic at this time of year. As much as we complained about school, the anticipation around meeting your friends and starting a new year was electric.
Now that it’s that time of year again, I can’t help but think about university. My university experience was incredible and really helped shape my life and career. I found my tribe in uni and found my stride as a writer.
For this week’s writing prompt, reminisce about your time in school. It could be high school or college or anytime, really. Is there a specific story that encapsulates your experience? Can you show us the hallways you walked through? Your friends?
Same rules as always:You can submit to this or ANY of our past writing prompts. Just scroll through our previous newsletters. They’ll be marked “Call for Submissions.”If you’re already a writer for CRY, go ahead and submit.Be as creative as you want in your submissions. As long as you stick to the topic, we’ll consider it.Just because you submit doesn’t mean we’ll post. If you haven’t heard back from us in three days, consider that a pass.[image error]Call For Submissions — Back To School was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
August 30, 2022
August 29, 2022
Learning To Reinvent Thy Self
Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-and-woman-near-table-3184465/I had a conversation with a friend of mine from LinkedIn who happens to be a business consultant and coach. I even signed up for his coaching program. We had a Zoom meeting, and one of his students and I discussed a lot of things.
We had a meeting and he gave us practical assignments. The assignments were designed to hold his students accountable and also to force us out of our comfort zones to make decisions that would push us to a certain point.
During our conversation, I mentioned my indecision over my career and life in general. I have been struggling with this for years. How many of you deal with this same problem?
In my case, I relied way too heavily on my mother and siblings to do the heavy lifting for me because I feared failure. It gets to the point that my family would snap at me and mock me for my indecision. I was scared of the unknown. I told my friend this and he listened and suggested that I call him after our meeting.
I also sent him my old CV so that he could see what I was talking about. I had worked at two media-related companies, one a well-known Nigerian newspaper, as an Intern (did that twice), and Lagos state’s traffic-based radio station as an Editorial Intern, of sorts.
I did all that whilst I was still in school. I was the one that even told my mother I wanted to do that. Why? I always wanted to do something media-related. People like Mo Abudu, Oprah Winfrey, and Betty Irabor inspire me. I wanted to do something like them and at the same time, inspire young African women.
He went through my CV and came to the same conclusion I did; the CV was badly written and poorly edited. The worst part? It was written by one of my sisters. I even told my mum about this prior to the meeting, but she said that I should not say a word to that sister, and for good reason.
Either way, I later called him via WhatsApp and we had a great heart-to-heart conversation. I told him about my mental health battles and the bullshit I went through growing up.
Do you know what he told me? He said, “Dami first and foremost, you do not sound like a bipolar person. If anything, stop calling yourself a bipolar person. That is what people are telling you and they are weaponizing it against you. From what I can see, you are a smart, beautiful woman with so much to give this world.”
He then followed up by asking me this, “What do you want people to remember you for?” For the first time in my life, I had a question I had no answer for. I had a lot of dreams and yet none of them made sense or added up. Why? Because I did not know what my life purpose was.
How many of you have gone through that kind of situation? Imagine going through the cycles, almost as though you were acting on autopilot. That question made me realize that. It also brought to mind something one of my sisters said, which was, “Why do you keep acting like you are sleepwalking or a zombie?”
Harsh, right?
Instead, my LinkedIn friend asked me which things I could talk to people about comfortably and also that I know well. This ties in with that question. I could not come up with something concrete.
When I told him that I did not know, he told me to list out what I am interested in, and then pray. After the prayers, begin crossing out what does not make sense or what I am not feeling until I come down to the career choice or choices that make sense.
I did just that and I smiled, because guess what I settled on? Digital Marketer, Writer, Social Media Manager (possibly xD), Content Writer, and Copywriter. Yes, those were fields I have always been interested in but scared to go down that path or change my LinkedIn profile.
Usually, if you keep changing your job description, people would think you have an identity crisis. The truth is, that some of us need to go through trial and error before something sticks. That is something Africans do not understand. Nigerians are not the most patient individuals and think social media marketing is just b.s. It is not. A lot of people are reaping the benefits of it.
However, it took them weeks, months even years to build a visible brand. That was what my friend also told me. He told me to slowly work on rebuilding my brand. In order to do that, I must now train myself in the fields that I am interested in and push out as much content as possible, basically establishing myself as an authority figure of sorts.
He also told me to be patient and take it one step at a time. So advice to all you newbies out there; don’t rush. Just because others are doing things a certain way does not mean that you too must follow them.
We are all unique individuals. Even if we are pursuing the same job, our goals would be different.
Set SMART goals. I gave my boyfriend that advice today. What does SMART mean? It can be boiled down to the following:
S — Specific
M- Measurable
A- Achievable
R- Realistic
T- Timely
Think about that before you set any goal.
If you enter a new career, you have to come up with a career path. First, consider your current situation and age, and then draw up the plan.
I am glad that he told me all this. He even encouraged me to take more pictures and put myself out there and basically show off. I am a shy person s hearing that makes me terrified. But I guess I will take his advice when next I braid my hair that is.
Hope you all learned something new from this today.
[image error]Learning To Reinvent Thy Self was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
