Reflections

The reflections unit is one that focused on the overarching question of “Who am I?”. I saw this as an opportunity to dive deep into activities that I pride myself in doing. Through this unit, I learned a lot about myself and what I value. I learned that I really enjoy creating and broadcasting things that I am passionate about, for example I made my reflections Film about running, and activity I absolutely love. Overall, I feel like this unit was prime for me to discover more about myself, and it helped me reinstall my passion for creating.

 

Personal Essay – Nick Fletcher

I wrote my Personal Essay about an experience where I gained valuable leadership and collaboration skills through soccer. The writing process for me was long, and included countless numbers of drafts before I finally finished my polished version. This was a good experience for me in terms of answering the question “Who am I?”, as I was enabled to dive deep into myself and what I valued in life.

I see Daniel sprinting across the grass, with the ball in front of him mirroring all of his movements as if it was on a string. He approaches our opponents’ final two defenders, and I immediately go on high alert. One of the opponents sticks out his leg and trips Daniel, sending him tumbling. The referee seems to think the tumble was embellished and doesn’t call the foul. I’m immediately concerned because Daniel has a tendency to have disagreements with referees. Without hesitation, I start running over to the pair to stop the altercation, but I’m too late. From 5 yards away I see Daniel hurl an expletive-filled complaint at the referee. I come into the mix, risking my spot on the field by making my way over to plead my teammate’s case and apologize on his behalf, but the referee has made his decision. To my horror, he reaches into his back pocket and produces the dreaded red card. I try to plead Daniel’s case to no avail, and Daniel trudges off the field, stating his mind by calling back at the referee multiple times. This is the worst possible outcome, as Daniel is a vital part of our team. But our team, like any team, should be able to function without one of our key players. In this case, the one player disadvantage was too much for us, and the contest ended in defeat. This was disappointing to me not just because we lost the game, but because I couldn’t do anything to help the team. I felt like I needed to find a fix so that this wouldn’t happen again.

The team’s efforts are of course always in my mind, but my primary goal is keeping unity within the squad. Yet Daniel’s decisions ended our winning efforts and brought turmoil to the team, and I knew this problem needed to be eradicated. In the following practices, my coach spoke briefly on the issue, but it left me wanting more. I was unfulfilled, and I believed that this was a lack of will by my coach to make essential changes. I felt that players who start confrontations hinder our team, and subsequently should be taken off the field. I needed more. The team needed more. I encouraged my teammates to speak up and work together to convince Daniel that he needed to find better ways to cope with his disagreements with referees and other players. He needed to realize that his actions hindered both himself and the entire team. Besides the obvious goal of winning, I valued the teamwork and becoming a seamless unit.

With the motive of finding a voice for the voiceless, I thought about how this could be resolved. Without the aspect of unity and support, the team can’t obtain the apparent goal of winning, but also lacks the deeper meaning of team cohesiveness and ability to work as one. Without unity, we fall apart, and one player acting up shouldn’t stop us. Players needed to speak up. Players that felt strongly about the issues, but wouldn’t dare to question the coach’s authority, needed to be heard.

When I play soccer, my priority is preserving the camaraderie within my team. Yet those efforts were being neutralized by our coach wanting to win at all costs. The team’s efforts come first, over any individual’s, and should be centralized around what we can do together. To me, It’s always most important to be working tirelessly for the common goal. Even if the ideal outcome for the team isn’t perfect for me individually, I find myself sacrificing for the greater good. Collaboration, to me, is the synergy that comes from encouraging everyone to state their mind and share all of their opinions. No matter the group of people, I will always work to ensure that everyone has an equal voice.

 

Perspective Piece – Nick Fletcher

 

The perspective piece was a short writing work that conisisted of speaking about something you were passionate about, a rant if you will. I wrote mine about how I went out of town for a weekend and missed some events that my friends attended, and the internal conflict of enjoying my time away with my family, whilst also being upset that I was missing out on the fun back home. We then created a slideshow type work in Adobe After Effects, with images that represented our piece.

 

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Video Essay – Nick Fletcher

 

My favorite project of this unit had to be the video essay. Film is my favorite medium, so it’s given that I would enjoy writing and directing my own film. I wrote this about one of my biggest passions, running. The piece is very close to my heart as running is a huge part of my family. This project was a grind to create, it involved a lot of drafts of the scripts, and multiple days of filming to get the perfect shot. I’m very proud of what I created in this unit, and I feel like this was a great project, especially in the sense of my portfolio.

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