During the junior year, high schoolers are informed vaguely about the existence of an assignment known as senior project or, more officially, VisionQuest. Students receive mixed messages about it from their wiser predecessors, the graduating class. Some profess that VisionQuest shaped their future or made their career; others complain that it was simply a waste of time. The result is that the new class of seniors steps into their literature classes with a mixture of curiosity and dread for what is to come. Then the teachers finally unload the plan on the anxious students, what they would be working on for the rest of the year, what exactly is required to complete this legendary “Quest of the Vision.” It seemed like tons of work at the time, and most did not look forward to it. Meagan Anstett shared, “I heard that it was a lot of tedious deadlines, minor assignments, and repetitive.” Once March and April arrived, senior project was mostly completed, but there are still those seniors who would support the argument that VisionQuest is a ridiculous idea. But what if I were to tell you that senior project did in fact teach me something?
    To be honest, when I began senior project, I was none too excited about the arduous task that I was about to undertake. I had already decided that what I truly wanted to do as a career, neurosurgery, was too complex for my VisionQuest; plus, even if it was not, I would become so obsessive over it that it would never be completed. Therefore, I decided on a lesser interest of mine, a career field that I had once considered and still consider minoring in: journalism. I, along with others like Brent Jones who “thought it was gonna be pretty easy”, was convinced that this assignment would do nothing for me; it was merely a grade. However, when the real work began, it seemed that I might change my mind.
    When it came to the first order of business, choosing a project facilitator, I was at a loss. I have a tendency towards overly high expectations, so instead of going for smaller publications, I immediately began seeing if anyone from Atlanta Magazine or Jezebel magazine would be willing to help me with my project. After several emails and phone calls to a variety of different places, I had received only one email back. Eventually, I gave up on my initial endeavors; it was time to network. It soon came to my knowledge that a family friend knew the brother of a woman who was the publishing editor of a local magazine for women known as Little Black Dress Little Red Wagon and was readily available to assist me. I was overjoyed! Throughout the process of the completion of my project, my project facilitator was extremely kind and helpful. There was just one problem. She was a publishing editor, which meant that she was overwhelmingly busy, especially because she had two children. She was often unable to meet with me and had to cancel our appointments. We managed to work through it, but this tendency did make tasks difficult. It taught me what it was like to have deadlines that people were not able to work with. It also demonstrated how to improvise in order to get my writers as well as my project facilitator to help me when I needed them. Future students should recognize who they are asking to help them. Think about what kind of schedules these individuals keep and how often they will be able to work with you, and keep your schedule open for them. Also, when looking for a project facilitator, always work your connections. You may not realize you have them until you start asking around.

    The real work in senior project was unquestionably the product. In creating my product, which was a magazine, I ended up working with many of my peers. Rather than write an entire magazine (because who honestly has the patience for that), I decided to recruit some friends and acquaintances to write for me. At first I was really excited about this. I knew that they could all write well, and I asked them a good amount of time ahead of the due date. I thought it would all work out beautifully. Wrong. I originally had about fifteen to twenty people that had committed to writing for me. When I completed my magazine, I had only nine, many of whom did not get their article to me until only a short time before my due date. I became stressed and frustrated. I had to learn how to deal with such situations. My solution to the problem was to persistently contact my writers until I was able to get at least some articles, and when I still came up shorter than I originally planned, I improvised with my layout to make up for the loss. It was tough to adapt to relying on others to complete what I needed, but I realized that is the real world. I took this opportunity to teach myself the patience to deal with others in such situations and the skills to be able to take last minute material and make it work. A small piece of advice: do not procrastinate. You may be able to get it done, or not, but either way, you will become increasingly stressed out, or your result will not be something that you are incredibly proud of. Since you have to do it anyways, put your time into it, and make it worth the work.
    When I undertook the task of putting together an actual magazine, I had not once considered how magazine layout actually works. It was an entirely new concept to me, but I thought it would be cool to create. So, I brought it up to my facilitator. She told me to simply use Microsoft Word. I was surprised; Word? To design? Previously Word was simply used to write essays. After I took my facilitator’s advice, however, I realized just how versatile Word really is. It was interesting to be educated as to how to use some of the Word tools and to get to know how to trick some of Word’s little mechanical rules. I learned a whole new skill set, just from VisionQuest. When you are working on senior project, you should take the opportunity to learn new skills. For instance, understanding new programs will be useful anywhere in life, whether in college or in the work field.
    The final crisis that I had to deal with for this most important of projects was the printing of my magazine. Because of prices, I decided that I would not be legitimately printing it as a magazine but instead would be printing my pages on normal paper, in sheet protectors, within a binder. My intention was to have it resemble a mockup that an actual magazine designer would put together for an editor. Everything was perfect; I had the pages completely ready the day before the product was due. However, when I went to print them in the media center and the media specialist notified me that there were margins in the print preview cutting off about a centimeter of every single one of my pages, I began hyperventilating. My mind was running through all the possible solutions to this one seemingly small, yet completely destructive, issue. Then it hit me: our graphics design teacher might know how to fix my problem. I practically ran to her room and then proceeded to stumble over my words as I told her what was going on. In the end, I was correct in assuming that she would repair the issue. She even offered to print the pages on gloss paper. The next day, I turned in my mockup, polished and finished. What I learned from this was how to handle crisis, and how to still function under extreme pressure. In the real world, when everything seems to be falling apart, you still need to have a clear head and find out how to make everything right again.
    Senior project was not merely some grade. For some students, it validated that they had made the right choice in their career. For others, this project showed them that what they thought was a grand idea for a career would no longer work for them, allowing them to change plans before they arrived at college. Meagan Anstett now feels that “it was something enjoyable and a really rewarding experience for me.” Granted, for me, it did not turn out to be a life-changing assignment like some teachers and former students advertise. It did not truly tell me that much about my future career either. In reality, it actually showed me a few tidbits about what I will need to handle in the real world. I felt much the same as Brent Jones did at the end of his project, proclaiming, “It was extremely hard and a lot of work, but I learned a lot.” I now feel more prepared to take on life after high school, all because of VisionQuest.