So far, I have finished all the group cooperation projects during the LCC MA service design, and I am ready to start my own major project. Before starting, we were asked to do a Self assessment exercise to identity our strengths, weaknesses, passions, future plans and network. After that, we commented on other classmates‘ forms which be called peer assessment. This exercise has played a very good link between the past and the next. I began to recall the eight months of my study and life in London, and thought about what my preferred future would look like.
Self Assessment: Aprocess of getting to know myself
This MA has made me reflect on myself more than just my profession and projects. I learnt to be honest with myself about all my positive and negative thoughts and how to explore the reasons behind a problem instead of blaming it.
While doing the self-assessment exercise, I couldn’t help but think back to filling out the user manual in the first unit. I remember at that moment I was racking my brain to find my strengths and writing them down without confidence, and I had a deep sense of inferiority as I browsed through my classmates’ user manual. I didn’t know if some of my qualities could be called skills or strengths, what I could bring to the team, or what my values were.
After going through four units of study and reflection, I re-examined myself in the face of re-writing down my strengths and weaknesses. Compared to user manual, I can now be firm and unquestioning about the strengths I have written down, and I can also be honest and upfront about my weaknesses.
Peer Assessment: See myself through the eyes of others
The encouraging atmosphere I experienced after coming to the UK was something I had never felt before in China. In my growing environment, my parents and teachers were always stingy about praise. As a result, when others recognized my ability, my first reaction was always shy and panic, worried that I was not as good as the other person said. Through this MA, in this encouraging atmosphere, I found that finding the strengths of myself or others is also a kind of ability. There may be huge potential behind these small strengths.
When looking at my classmates’ comments for me, I found it very sweet to see everyone’s recognition of my strengths and encouragement of my shortcomings. At the same time, I also realized one thing, more people feel these characteristics of me from getting along with me in life rather than working in a group. Because of my weak adaptability to unfamiliar environments, I did not contribute well to the group cooperation of the first two units. This is something I feel very sorry for.
Future: Let’s see what happen
After reading the blogs of my classmates, I felt a deep sense of shame, or rather a sense of confused loneliness. Unlike many of my classmates, I did not firmly choose service design as my subsequent career path before I enrolled. I envied most of my classmates for having a firm career choice and direction for their development. Service design is a profession that I would like to learn about and study, and studying it is more like a process of exploring myself and understanding the world.
When writing my passions, I wrote down all the points of interest and found myself more interested in exploring myself and human relationships. Facing the future, although I am not sure about this either, I know that I am always curious and open to the idea of making a small positive change in the world through design. I’m always waiting for an “Aha!” moment, I don’t know when I’ll find it but I’m always looking forward to it.
