I’m going to warn you before you start reading; this is not your typical story of hope. Sorry!
There will be no documentary, TEDTalk, or branded merchandise after this story of hope. This story of hope is unique, individual, and hard to explain. And so, we will start from the beginning.
We were launched on this project, Stories of Hope, on April 3rd, 2023. On April 27th, 17 of us PLP 11 and 12 students left on a 11 day trip across the Southern United States. On our trip, we were focusing around stories of hope that we could find in the new places that we were going to, and compile those into one narrative video with an answer to our driving question:
What lessons and inspiration can we draw from the stories of individuals and communities that have faced tragedy and overcome adversity?
Now that is a lot of work! Not a simple question, not a simple task, and not a simple topic by any means.
Prior to leaving on out trip, we were tasked with planning as much as we could for our video. We knew where we were going on our trip, and so we could figure out which pieces of evidence we wanted to focus on. I definitely struggled with this, as I was so stuck in the fact that we hadn’t been to any of the places that we were supposed to be filming!
How in the world was I supposed to storyboard places that I had never been too? How was I supposed to write a script when I didn’t know who I would be interviewing, if anyone? How was I supposed to have an answer to a question that I simply didn’t know?
I found myself getting more and more frustrated with this entire project. I didn’t understand what was going on, what I was supposed to be doing, and how I was supposed to plan out my video when I had nothing to base it on. In the midst of everything that was going on in my life, I was the most bothered by the fact that I simply couldn’t figure out this project.
I so desperately wanted to wrap my head around my answer to the driving question that I let the planning for my actual video fall to the last minute, and suddenly I was in Texas with no plan for my video. ZERO PLAN!!!!!!
Through talks with Ms. Willemse, late-night planning sessions, and lots of random notes taken down that I am still struggling to decipher, I came up with an answer. Great! Wonderful! Now what?
I had the advantage of taking a lot of B-Roll and having some incredible interview footage from the trip, and when we got back to Vancouver, I got started on my video right away. I had a solid 1:45 seconds done that I was honestly really happy with, and I left it at that. I left it at that for too long.
I left it at 1:45 seconds for weeks. WEEKS!!!! I didn’t know what else to say, what else to add, what else to do. I was stuck in a state of limbo with a video, and it was killing me. I let a video get the best of me, and I am still trying to allow myself to be okay with it.
I am not happy with my final video. Not in the slightest. I needed more time, and also less. I would kill to go back to Texas and talk to more people, and gather more information. There are so many things that I wish I planned for, but I just didn’t. And that is okay.
I couldn’t have predicted the future. I didn’t know that one video would take over my life for a month and a half. I didn’t know that I would be the student who had to be nagged for a month and a half to get a video done. And yet, here I am!!
I learn more every single day, and the lessons that I have learned from this are:
- Sometimes you just need to start fully from the beginning, and that is okay.
- Don’t celebrate too early!
- Asking for help and explaining your situation shows self advocacy, and that is incredibly important.
- Everything will get eventually get done.
Thank you Ms. Willemse, for your patience. Always.