Proposals, Clients, and Meetings, oh my!

Hello readers, it is currently 11:32pm 2-22-18. Its my mother’s birthday today but unfortunately I worked until 7pm and then had my section of my group’s proposal to finish up so I could only spare a 20 minute “celebration” for my mom. We made root-beer floats and sipped away as we looked at all the funny birthday cards she received in the mail from family and friends.

Anyway, this week’s assignment was to prepare proposals for our clients regarding our respective projects. It wasn’t the proposal writing itself that caused me some grief l, but rather I was lost on the chronological order of what steps needed to happen first in my group’s project. I was also unaware of the technological barriers that my team’s project is apparently faced with, unknown to me until this past Wednesday. In light of these obstacles, I obviously needed to adjust the proposal for my client. I think I will feel better about revising the proposal after I receive my client’s input because she will provide me with further opinions and clarity of what she wants to see out of our finished project. A second in person meeting with her after she’s read the proposal wouldn’t hurt either now that I think about it.

It is hard to figure out where this project starts and stops for us. How much can we truly get done in the remaining 9 weeks? Sure we can have multiple client meetings and discuss what needs to happen, but can those clients give me an honest idea of the amount of time required to complete their tasks? It is hard to decide what to enclose in the proposal when you aren’t sure what can be completed in a timely manner and what may require more effort and more contacts.

Last class we spent a good deal of time talking about the differences between political parties. The video we watched about the man destroying his semi-automatic weapon was pretty inspirational. I also thought it was interesting that we read the actual 2nd amendment to The Constitution only to find out that people misinterpret it all the time. Then we spent a good deal of time discussing the differences between political parties and how strongly people can appose one another. The video we watched at the end of class that showed groups from both sides of the political spectrum talk about their feelings and thoughts about political topics was pretty neat to see. The members got a little heated at certain parts but overall the members showed respect for one another throughout the discussion. The saddest thing about political conversations in today’s time is that you have to walk on egg shells with your friends who may think differently than me. For example, I have friends telling me how great they think it is that the NFL players were kneeling during the national anthem before games. They said it was such a good demonstration of a peaceful protest. I found it offensive. I have had more than a few family members who were/are part of the military and I think the kneeling is a direct action of disrespect for those who fought for their freedom. Its almost paradoxical. NFL players kneeling during the national anthem which is disrespectful to the men who fought for our country which is ironic considering those men fought so those NFL players could actually HAVE THE RIGHT for peaceful protest and then it comes full circle to unintentionally disrespect the veterans who gave them that right. I understand that the intentions of those players were not to disrespect veterans but they have to realize that the flag stands for much more than the racial inequality that they were supposedly protesting against. It is easy to misconstrue what their motives were.

And speaking of military I have a friend who is on tinder trying to find dates. When I was with her, one girl’s picture and biography stood out as very appealing to my friend and she was about to swipe right when she noticed near the bottom that the girl is in the Army ROTC. My friend said “Ugh!” and immediately swiped left after ogling this profile for a good bit of time. I said “Why did you do that? I thought she seemed good for you.” She replied, “I could never date someone in the military.” I asked her why. She said, “I don’t like what they do.” I was done talking about it at that point. A big part of me wanted to ask her what she even meant by that. Because my understanding of what the military “does” is protect her judgmental butt and protects her right to even be allowed to MAKE these judgments. And this is the same friend who wouldn’t talk to me for over three months because she thought I was a “conservative freak” and wouldn’t accept her when she came out as lesbian, despite the fact that one of my other closest friends had come out as gay a year prior to that and I was actually the first person he felt comfortable enough to come out to. I don’t keep up with politics as much as most people. My friends think they are experts because they follow celebrities on social media and simply seem to agree with everything their idols say. I don’t make judgments about people based on their political affiliations, I make my judgments based on character. If Trump had ran for the Democratic party I still wouldn’t have voted for him, I don’t like him as a person, but I’m not going to dislike every Republican I come across just because he ran as a Republican. And just because I liked Hillary and some of the things she stood for like pushing for women’s equality in the workplace does not mean I’m going to like every Democrat I meet. I don’t like talking about politics with my friends because they think the fact that I haven’t “chosen a side” indicates that I am ignorant and/or easily manipulated. My dad’s wisdom shines through yet again, “Don’t do what everybody else does.” I’m not going to pick a political party just because all my friends seem to be leaning towards that side. I’m content to be an Independent and if I have friends who can’t respect that then maybe I need new friends.

On Monday we are being assigned our second paper. I’ll be getting assigned another paper for a different class the following day. A similar thing happened with this class’ first paper and another one of my class’ first paper. I had trouble deciding which paper needed my most immediate attention. The stress of both of those assignments looming over my head made me feel discombobulated; I’d sit down to write for my one paper but then get a brilliant idea for the other paper and I’d switch over which assignment i was thinking about. Obviously, in a nut shell, this is just about balancing school work. But I find myself procrastinating my school work more than ever before. I have to be more strict with myself when it comes to study time. I’ve already canceled social plans this weekend in order to catch up on my readings and study for an essay exam on Monday. Although my course load seems to be at its heaviest this semester, I’ve been getting lower hours at work this week and last week. 18 hours seems low to me because I used to work over 30 hours consistently during the semester. But with the low hours at work I know that work is not to blame for my lack of time spent on my assignments but in fact it is my own procrastination and lack of drive.