Podcast Take 2, Picture Book, What's Next?

So I tried the podcast again, and it's still something RadioLab would cringe at but I think I've shown some improvement. I won't go into full analysis mode since this was more of a secondary SDA but essentially, I took the same idea from my first podcast (explaining humans vs. C. elegans) and tried to recreate that in a more engaging manner. This podcast was far shorter but what I realized is that even though I might not have the best podcasting voice, that doesn't mean I can't use other resources. Within this 4 and 1/2 minute sound clip, I brought in small snippets of a Nature podcast done last November and some contributions from Dr. Norman as well as other people's voices. Of course, I had to do some narration but I kind of liked piecing together this story with all of these other small pieces, it was certainly an interesting experience.

The other SDA I've finally completed is the C. elegans picture book, "Not All Worms are Gross!". Although I chose to use the narrative as my official SDA for submission, I was most privileged to have Mikayla and Silma illustrate the narrative for me. After they drew the illustrations, I combined those images with real microscopy images I had taken of my own worm strains and that way, I feel the picture book really characterizes something special and particular to this project.

If you recall from a couple goal posts back, I mentioned that I wanted to have small ongoing SDAs in order to maintain and improve my creativity skills. I think these two products definitely fit the bill, although that did make them take longer than usual and that was a little frustration but we'll discuss that shortly. I don't know if it was bad timing on my part that I chose to work on these SDAs from right after my last committee meeting, throughout my data collecting marathon over December break, and through January Day also but I will certainly admit that it was overwhelming. If you think about it, I was working on communication, collaboration, and creativity all at the same time that I was doing some heavy duty worm work. I don't say this because I consider myself to have overcome much, but I just found it maybe a little too ambitious that I was working on all of my weak areas at the same time. Now, in retrospect, it feels like it would have been more wise to work on one thing at a time.

These two SDAs, they might be "mini-SDAs" but they were probably two of the most difficult SDA mediums I have tried in the past three years. Well, I already knew that the podcast would be a challenge, but as I'm sitting here writing this mini-reflection, I'm feeling quite exhausted. At the same time though, I think I could have been more proactive when completing these projects. You know, Mr. Bott was discussing creativity with me the other day and when I kept on remarking the usual "I'm not creative," he said something along the lines of, "You can be creative, you're just not trying hard enough." The reason I think this is true is that I believe I was avoiding, maybe even a little afraid of, finding out what I was capable of because this would also show me what I was not capable of. In my mind, once I "finish" an SDA, that becomes me. It becomes one of the defining factors of my work. So in knowing that I struggle with the C of creativity, I was not willing to go out on a limb and learn something from the experience.

Throughout the experience, however, I also came to understand that these things have to be terminal. It would do no good if I was constantly leaving something unfinished because it wasn't perfect, that's just a never-ending rabbit hole. There must come a point when we stop, assess the work, learn something from it, and move on to the next challenge. Understanding this was probably the most significant factor in finally finishing both the podcast and the picture book.

It would be kind of awkward at this point if I didn't talk about the things I learned from this experience right about now. The biggest thing I learned is probably that overcoming any weakness or obstacle doesn't always mean "big-time" success. The important thing to keep before your eyes is growth. Sure, I'm probably never going to be able to do a professional podcast, no matter how many times I try, but between every attempt, there should be some kind of change. In my first one, I relied heavily on my own narration. But after conceding the fact that my voice isn't exactly suitable for a podcast, I started to utilize other resources. Something else I gained is that collaborating with others doesn't take anything away from one's own work. Asking Silma and Mikayla to illustrate the picture book narrative didn't mean I was any less capable of a student but that art isn't my strong suit and I'm tapping into the strengths of others, just as they ask me for advice on something like writing. The community of learners that we have in EMC is to be used as such. We all have something to offer and also something that we may need to get help on and that's a good thing.

There are so many lessons to be had from the past month and a half, but the most important thing is that I find a way to move forward. In the next week, I hope to complete my results, discussion, and conclusion sections and hold an approval meeting for that section either at the end of this month or right at the beginning of February. I'm not sure yet what I want to do for the next SDA but I'm leaning towards a writing piece to perhaps focus a little more attention on critical thinking and questioning as creativity, collaboration, and communication have been in the spotlight for a while now. I'm glad I was able to finish these two pieces but I think this struggle was a really important one for me to work through.

Once again, a HUGE thanks to Mikayla and Silma for their picture book illustrations - check 'em out if you didn't yet, they're pretty awesome!