![]() Welcome back to another week of my blog! I know that I promised a reveal of my final product this week, but I was fairly busy this week and couldn't find the time to make it the best that I could. It's looking pretty good so far, and it's taking me on a walk down memory lane. Once I add a bit more detail, it will be ready to be revealed to the world. Next week it should be ready, but until then, I will be sharing my highs and lows of my blog so far. After making this blog, I have found that there are many highs and a few lows of the process. I have found some things that I enjoyed and some that I didn't. I wasn't the best at some aspects and good at others. I have learned a lot over the course of a few months, and I want to show this through this blog post. I'm going to take away a lot of things from my blog, and this won't only be the perfect parts. Since my blog will come to an end soon, I thought that this would be perfect timing to write this post. I definitely have more highs than lows, but today, I will be sharing an equal amount of both. High #1: Learning New Things Out of all of the highs, this will have to be my number one. I came into this blog not really knowing anything about maps except what every country on the map is. Although you could say that is a big feat, it wouldn't exactly qualify as an advanced knowledge of the topic. Moreover, I remember searching for my topic when I had no idea what I wanted to do. Then, one of my friends suggested that I do maps, and it has stuck ever since. The first week of real research, I listened to a podcast, and when I listened to that podcast, I learned that this was going to be a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. Through this process, I have learned loads of things, including but not limited to different types of maps, famous and historical maps, how to make a map, mapping technology, and much more. Furthermore, I'm so glad that I found something that I am genuinely interested in because I actually have a drive to learn more about that subject. Additionally, I have learned new ways to learn things. When you think about research, you immediately think to look at an article, but I have learned that there are so many other beneficial methods of researching that you can use, such as podcasts, videos, or books. Learning so much new and interesting information about maps have made this project ten times better. Low #1: Coming up with Ideas I have found that it can be quite difficult to come up with ideas. Consequently, I have experienced this slump multiple times. This problem first arose when I was deciding what my topic would be. Most people didn't have a difficult time, but I decided early on that I wanted something that I both didn't know much about and was interesting. This proved to be a challenge for me, and once I came up with my current idea, the struggle didn't end. Accordingly, I experienced this problem at least every two weeks. Now, I'm not saying my ideas were necessarily bad, but they were just sometimes difficult to come by. Luckily, over the course of the semester, I have learned some tricks to creating ideas. First, I try to think of something original that I haven't thought of before. Second, I think about what would be most interesting to me and the reader. Third, I think about what I have done in the past and try to build off of that. Last, I look at other blogs to discover some new concepts that they used. Hence, I found that doing these things have made it easier to constantly come up with new ideas. Also, I have discovered a new-found respect for people who make videos or articles multiple times a week. I don't know how somebody can constantly be that creative. High #2: My Journey/ Growth All of the time, we hear the quote, "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey" but I have never truly understood it until now. Warning, this might sound a bit cheesy, but I have grown and experienced so much through this blog. As a result, I am going to take away so much from this path that I have taken. Sure, my goal was to make a map, but I was mainly focusing on learning about maps. Nevertheless, the end-product is important, but what I learned is so much more important. Here are some things that I will take away from my blog. One: it's okay to have different ideas than everybody else. When everyone was announcing there ideas, I found that most people's topics were fairly similar. This worried me because I was afraid that my idea was a little too out there, but I quickly learned that they were the ones at fault because I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Low #2: Time Management I fully admit and accept responsibility for my lack of time management skills. Although you might not be able to tell from my blogs, I tend to write my blogs on the last two days before they are do. However, I'm not the kind of person who likes to go 50% on anything I do, so I eat up much of my work days writing and perfecting my blog. Each week, it has been one of my goals to get a little bit better with time management, and I will say that it is going pretty well. Unfortunately, no vast changes have been made, but I am making sure to do my research throughout the week. For me, I like to do all of my writing at the same time because I get into a flow, so I do the research prior to writing. I have found that this works well for me, but I'm sure that every person has a different style. Regardless of my lack of time management skills, I think I am doing pretty well with my blog so far. High #3: WRITING! As many of you may know, I love to write, so anytime I can put pen to paper, (or fingers to keys) is going to be a good time for me. This year, I have been focusing on growing as a writer, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to do just that. I have put a lot into each of my blog posts. Thus, I have gotten so much out of each of them as well. I have worked on writing in different styles than I am used and stepping out of my writing comfort zone. I am the type of person who likes to write a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean more than I really need to. Personally, it's not really a thing I can control. I start, and I can't stop until I've written as much as I can. I have used this to my advantage by writing about a lot of different things each week, as I am doing today. I like this form of writing because I am allowed to explore and express myself. When I used to do things like weekly writings or boring reports, I didn't show my full potential. Further, I wasn't passionate about my writings either because I wasn't interested in the topic. I have found that it is one hundred time easier to write when you actually want to write about that thing, and I will admit, I do actually want to write about maps. I have gotten so much more out of this blog than just information, I have gotten writing experience that I can use in the future. Low#3: Not Enough Time I have found that only having half of a school year to do this project is just not enough for me. Some people might think that would be plenty if not too much, but for me to learn as much as possible, I would have loved to have a whole year. With this time, I could've learned twice as much, write twice as much, create twice as many maps, and more. Comparatively, you can't expect a tree to grow to its complete beauty in half a year. I can't grow fully in half a year. Considering this, I decided to put in twice as much effort to make up for this lost time because I do want to be able to grow as much as I can in this time period. I never really get tired of this because I enjoy it, so I could do it every year if I really had to. I know this isn't exactly realistic because I would eventually run out of things to write about, but I'm going to keep on exploring until I do. Currently, if I had to relate to a quote, it would have to be, "Why do you write like you're running out of time?" from Hamilton. All-in-all, I have experienced many highs and lows through this journey, but these things are inevitable. I have learned how to manage the lows and how to embrace the highs, and that is something that I will definitely be taking with me after my blog is over. Moreover, I will continue to use these things in my future writings and research. It has been so interesting to learn about maps, and I will forever have a superior cartographic knowledge that I can count on.
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