It seems I have been able to cram having 2 children and a high maintenance husband and studying an intensive course into everyday life. I am drained and exhausted but oh so slightly smug.
The last few weeks leading up to to our final exhibition and hand in date were a blur. I don't know what happened or how i managed it but come the Thursday morning of the exhibition I was happy relaxed and quite emotional. We have all become great friends and an essential support network and the thought of our weekly routine changing scares me slightly. What excuse am I going to have for sitting in Starbucks for an hour in the morning?
In terms of the work we have all achieved it really is incredible. We or I have said from the beginning it is no longer a learning curve but a whacking great big learning CLIFF. But having reached the top and survived tells my inner self the I can achieve anything and I am not just a dumb mummy.
In reality i am sure i only managed to squeeze 20 hours a week (60 hours recommended!) to study which involved a massive amount of procrastinating and online distracting(shopping). We have been tuned to be money making, garden designing landscape legends and the whole ethos of "time is money" tells me I should be able to turn anything around in a very short space of time!
I developed a very soothing mantra of "it'll have to do" It has taught me to be less critical and more objective. My work is saleable and i am pretty pleased with the outcome. It is quite something laying your work out for all to see but I stood back and watched people gathering to look at all our work with looks of pleasant surprise as opposed to the imagined disgust.
I said to a couple of my college colleagues that we are our own worst critics and the "joe public" will not see our mistakes. And it seems it worked! Shame Joe Public isn't DH our mentor/tutor/principal/slave driver/evil nasty master (chose according to mood) who most definitely can spot our mistakes like a huge gapping hole in the head. Oh well! I did manage to scrape through and never once said I regretted it.
But the massive turn of events is that my wonderful big brother has been inspired and will start the very same course in september. I am so excited to not only help but to actually be of some inspiration to him. He has been mine for as long as i can remember. (except when he hung me out of a second floor window at the age of 8!) We will make a fantastic team and cant wait for the next chapter to begin.
Now if i can get my newly retired draughtsman daddy to take up vectorworks and do my construction drawings we'll have the lot in the bag!!
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Roll on the new chapter.
