Prompt: Lesson learned.
What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year?
And how will you apply that lesson going forward?
This project really is turning into telling you all about the wonders of ME, isn't it? Still, I might as well forge ahead...
I'm going to take "best" as "most useful" rather than any other meaning. I learned that when given the choice between doing a few things really well, and doing a lot of things perhaps fairly well, I go for quantity over quality. I'm going to blame academia for this, because I think it's where I learned to believe that if I want to succeed, I have to do EVERYTHING there possibly is to do to make myself look good. Because if I don't, there will be another candidate out there who has done what I have and more, and that is how a future employer will distinguish us. (Seriously, I had an on-campus interview for a T-T job where I was one of two candidates, and the school honestly loved us both, and ended up hiring the other person only because zie had taught high school before becoming an academic, so had an edge in dealing with the school's secondary ed program. Which was actually completely great, because I'm so glad I didn't end up in that job, and in fact, the person who GOT the job has moved on to a better job, where, I hope, zie ie happier, because zie is a cool person.)
But that's a little unfair, because I think I've also adopted this path because I know three years isn't a very long time, and I genuinely want to be able to experience everything I possibly can while in law school.
This is an important lesson, however, because the quantity-seeking can easily get out of control and come back to bite me in the ass. I don't think I've been as stressed as I have been this year for a long time - not because of my own personal neuroses and anxieties (though they play a part!), but because I've just had so many things to DO. Which is, of course, my own fault.
So what this means is that I need to be very conscious about what I choose to do in future, and question whether quantity always outweighs quality (because I can think of any number of things that I believe I half-assed, in order to get done everything that I needed to). And also avoid taking on so much that I'm so overwhelmed I can't appreciate any of it.
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