The Toughest Day of the Week

Hey guys, I just wanted to share a quick story of how an ideal day should end. So the Packaging midterm was supposed to be due on Friday afternoon, complete with tight presentation and display boards to go along with the gazentas (that's what my professor refers to the items included in the packaging project). It's an individual project and everyone in the class had the freedom to choose what packaging or kit they wanted to make.
I decided I'd do something simple and relatable to Art Center community: making a finals week survival kit, mostly because I'm concerned by the fact that most Art Center students are often overwhelmed with their projects approaching the finals week that they neglect their hygiene and starve ourselves. My packaging would include items that would hopefully fulfill students' needs during finals week, to support them, and to keep them healthy; stuff like: hand sanitizer, eye drop for tired eyes, snacks, tooth brush and toothpaste, snacks, and a stress ball. My professor said he was really digging into my project that he contributed a lot of ideas to my project, and he wanted me to make a pillow that also serves as compartments for the items. The pillow idea would be convenient for the students as users too, as they would need to use it to lay their heads between the breaks during the finals week or after the finals. My professor also once said that a good packaging is a packaging that is sustainable and reused; not the kind of packaging that you can quickly dispose of after use. So I was trying to apply that concept.
Anyway, making the pillow, by any means, would require me to step out of my comfort zone. I have completely 0 sewing experience and I have no advanced sewing kit, let alone sewing machine. But I dared myself to get some nice fabric, polyester to be stuffed in, and thread. I started to sew by hand, thanks to some Youtube tutorials, and help from my previous roommate, who also gave me tips how to sew by hand. Sewing by hand definitely took me forever, especially I was not just making a one-piece pillow that you see everyday, but a pillow that can be folded twice, so that essentially doubles my work time. I've been working on it for two weeks and I'm still not done by the day before the midterm, so I decided to ditch my second class on Thursday to finish up my pillow.

The process of sewing the pillow was a pain. At one point, my finger got poked with the needle. I barely felt it but it wasn't until I felt something warm and fluid seeping through the spot I poked myself on. The next thing I knew, my finger bled. It wasn't that bad, but it didn't just bleed. The blood successfully dropped on top of the pillow fabric. I panicked for a second. No one would want to see any single trace of blood in any kinds of artwork. Thankfully, the blood dripped onto the inner side of the pillow, so when I flipped the pillow to resume sewing, the splotch of blood wouldn't be seen. I just couldn't picture anyone getting horrified to see some hints of blood in my packaging project during my presentation. Glad that issue was solved quickly.

The pillow was not my sole target to finish that day, but also the gazentas to go with the packaging (I needed to refine the graphics for my snacks, toothbrush, hand sanitizer, etc, printed them out, mounted them on SBS board, scored them, folded them, glued them) as well as the display board. So to sum it up, the pillow, the gazentas, and the display boards had to be finished by Friday afternoon.

The gazentas mock-up

I worked from 12pm on Thursday non-stop until 9am on Friday. Screw sleeping, but I was getting there when the sun rose the day after. I might applaud myself for being able to stay up that long without any sip of coffee. It was at 9 am when my heart started to beat uncontrollably. Whatever it means, if I forced myself to go on, I might pass out. So I stole an hour and a half for a good short nap before waking up and finished up the entire thing. I carpooled with my friend to campus at 1pm, without having lunch beforehand.
The presentation went well! I was nervous at first because the guest critic was really thorough in her critique. She really paid attention to details. I was not thoroughly finished with the whole project, but the midterm was supposed to show the progress of the project. I still had 4 more weeks to refine the project and give it a nice finishing touch. Before the presentations started, the TA walked over to my project and noticed I still safety-pinned the pockets for the gazentas, since I didn't have enough time to sew them. She gasped slightly and said. "You haven't sewn the pockets yet?". I asked her. "Aren't we supposed to show our work in progress today?" to which she replied. "Yeah, but at least the professor and the guest crit would like to see the final form of your project."
I was like, MEGA SHIT. What if would happen if the guest crit slammed my projects for safety-pinning the pockets and not having sewn them? Where would I put my face? My professor has had high hopes on my projects and has been really digging into it. If I failed to impress the guest crit, I would be so done for. I had an initial nervous breakdown. My other nervous friends and I were just holding hands, like we were really going through some sort of life-threatening phase. Funny thing is, one of my friends said. "Will you be the shoulder for me to cry on if something happens?" I agreed, but I'm sure it wouldn't end up that badly.
However, I was glad the presentation went well. The guest crit was a bright lady full of energy and she was really trying to keep the positive energy in the room despite the tension. She paid attention to how we talked during the presentation, which added more anxiety to me, because I was never a good speaker (that's why I'm in the marketing major). However, things occurred the other way around. What was even more surprising, I didn't know what got into me but I started to talk very enthusiastically during my presentation, like a salesman trying to sell a product to the customer, or at least that's what the guest critic pointed out. She was super into my project and gave me some nice, constructive feedback.
After the class was done, and the entire class was applauded for the effort and hardwork we put into the project, I had fulfilling Korean BBQ dinner with three of my classmates. To conclude the day, I got home, took a warm shower, and fixed myself a hot glass of tea. I was going to watch a heartwarming, light comedy movie afterwards, but there was no more energy to spare: I fell asleep at 11pm (which is considered early for someone who at least spends 2 days in a week pulling an all-nighter) and decided not to set up an alarm for the day after (Saturday).
Result: I woke up early in the morning feeling super fresh and I went to play badminton with my friends afterwards. Healthy life, indeed :)