September 6th, 2018. The start of my new journey. The first time in my life (other than kindergarten) where I was in a school setting that I couldn’t find comfort in my already established friends, and the familiar classrooms I had spent my days in during the previous 2 years of my high school career. Of course, I had a slight advantage having Nelson McIntyre already being my home school. I knew the teachers and how to get to the bathrooms, library, and cafeteria, but that didn’t make the butterflies I had on the very first day any less existent. I walked into the Propel room at 9:00 and saw 2 familiar students and 22 other students who I would soon call my classmates, and even more, my friends.
Throughout the days that followed, I allowed myself to become engrossed in the lessons, stories of past Propel iterations, and bad dad jokes told multiple times a day by Mr. Patrician. Each day I walked into the Propel room I knew that that day we would be doing something different than the day before, and the day before that. Throughout these days, I have felt a roller-coaster of different emotions. There have been days where nerves have taken control of my body and there were other days where I felt accomplished and felt like I could control how everything was going.
Now we are 3 weeks in, and after different tasks (make this blog, send a joke, etc.), deliverables (sending in a power point by the end of the day, writing an introduction letter, etc.), Purposeful Play (playing around with you project ideas), and presentations (a 3-5 minute presentation about anything, I chose to present about my summer). I can say that these 3 weeks have been so different from anything I have ever done. In the best way. There is something about walls that makes the majority of high school students feel confined in their schools. That feeling doesn’t exist when I’m in the walls of Propel. I have the freedom here to be who I want to be and not have to follow the strict curriculum of the previously defined school system.
As of right now, I am beginning to work on my Proof of Concept. The Proof of Concept is basically just a mini version of the project you want to do, so that you can prove that you’re capable of doing and completing your final project. For my project, I will be creating a blog to talk about mental health, well-being and lifestyle and so for my Proof of Concept I’m going to be completing a lean canvas for my blog, working on creating a logo, launching my blog, posting my first post and a few other small things. These tasks will not only prove that I am capable of doing this project but will hopefully help me to gain knowledge of what I’m getting myself into.
By January, I hope that my project can reach people everywhere and that they find comfort in my words.
I hope that you’re one of them.
-Jenna