Weekly Reflection #1

How surreal it is that a week of Senior Project has already passed! I am in awe at how quickly time flies, especially when we’re having as much fun as Erin and I had this week. Throughout each day, Erin and I were able to remain focused on the overall time consuming goals of our project while also maintaining the right positive attitude. Thus, no matter what we were doing, we enjoyed every minute of it!

I am entirely confident that Erin and I chose the right project to pursue. I felt like a professional as I entered restaurant after restaurant, explaining our project and asking for permission to take photographs and business cards. Erin and I are both very self motivated individuals and we want out project to be the best and most impressive it can be, making this a challenging and great learning experience. Even choosing the perfect Top 20 list took longer than we expected, for we went back and forth between deciding which restaurants were best suited for Proctor families. I am honored to have the opportunity to create such a lasting asset for the Admissions office and want the finished product to be of the best quality.

I love how I am so incredibly focused on this project now that I don’t have to worry about other academics. This allows me to delve deeper into my project and really think through how to schedule my time most wisely. However, even with this lengthy allotted time, there are still aspects of the project that I need help with and that is why having Margaret, as Sponsor is such a blessing. She brings innovative ideas to our discussions and has great input on what should be included in our binder. I’ve already learned so much from her, and in the upcoming weeks there will be even more of an opportunity to really take advantage of her experience because this week is when Erin and I will really work hard on our binder.

I found it surprising and interesting how each restaurant responded differently to our Senior Project. After requesting to take pictures of their dining rooms or pub areas, the hostess would either immediately respond that taking pictures would be fine or the hostess would ask us to wait a moment while they went and asked the manager. Despite this variation in responses, one reaction was always the same; each restaurant we visited was happy and honored to have a place on our list. At a few restaurants the managers would even jokingly say, “Well our restaurant will, of course, be at the number one ranking on your list – correct?”

I am very pleased with how Erin and I chose to spend our time this past week. The both of us make a great team! We worked methodically and logically through the week, choosing to spend the entire 30 hours on visiting restaurants, taking pictures, collecting important information, beginning our reviews, editing the pictures, and discussing all of it with our sponsor. Because we worked the way we did, and took the steps we did, Erin and I are now fully prepared to sit down and put in long hours for our Top 20 Restaurants for Proctor Families binder. We have all the material and information needed for our book so that we don’t have to interrupt our workflow to go find information we would be missing; we have everything we need! Furthermore, all of the visits and gathered information is fresh in my mind, ready to be put to paper. It’s also a wonderful feeling to know that everything gathered this past week is neatly organized, ready to use when we need it.

Week One of Senior Project was a Success! Week two starts tomorrow!
Until then -

Becca