I think I've learned and grown more than I ever have in this project. This was also probably the hardest project for me as it really pushed me as not only a student, but as a human being. The two big things I learned this project were communication and stress management. These were the two things that I feel that if I did these things better I would have had a much more successful and tranquil experience.
Communication
A big part of the reason I struggled in this project was because of a poor relationship with my group. It took me a long time to realize that it was also my fault that I was so frustrated with them. In general, the survive to thrive project was a very turbulent time in my life. Not only was I stressed out by school, but I was stressed out everywhere. I made the first mistake by dragging this into the classroom. My second mistake was me not communicating this with my group. The entire project I am sure that I never once told my group that I was stressed. I would show all the signs and lash out onto them but not let them know that I needed support. I assumed that they understood and would get even more upset at the fact that they didn't care I was stressed when chances are, they probably didn't think I was that stressed.
The other place I lacked in communication was with my teachers. I was extremely frustrated with my group, the project, the class, and life in general but, until the very end, I never let my teachers know that I needed that extra support. This project I did something I'd never done in my whole life. I let go. I reached a point where I mentally could not continue taking on work and just broke down. I finally let it out to my teachers and told them that I had nothing left to give other than negativity and I didn't want to give that to my group. My teachers without a second thought agreed that I needed to let myself calm down and told me I no longer needed to do anything I didn't feel excited and ready to do. I trusted in my group to finish the project on their own and they didn't let me down. The biggest thing I learned from this project is you can't expect things from people because chances are, they won't be able to live up to these expectations you dreamt up for them. All you can do is encourage and work together for a final product you can all be proud of.
Stress Management
Survive to Thrive has been one of the most stressful things I've dealt with. The reason was that I didn't know how to deal with it. I don't know what it was about this project specifically but I had a really hard time and I wasn't able to deal this this stress. All I would do is complain about things and never do anything that would change anything. I kept on doing the same thing and expected a different outcome. Not only did I stress myself out academically, but I stopped doing the things that I knew decreased my stress at home because I dragged my work home as well and my life turned into only work and sleep. I don't believe I improved on this during the project, but afterwards I began to take care of myself and my mental health again and felt my mood improve drastically. I was happy again and this also helped my school work and every aspect of my life.
Takeaways
I learned from this project that while it's important to talk about how you feel to people you feel comfortable with, it won't be nearly as helpful as talking to people who can enact change and help you do something about the situation you're in. The other thing I learned is that no matter what, you need to be selfish every once in a while and do something for yourself simply because it makes you happy.