This week, we wrapped taping our class’s final Mountaineer Playbook Show of the semester. It was a very bittersweet feeling because my feelings towards this class changed as the course went on. At the beginning, I was incredibly frustrated at the fact that this was the only option that we had as a capstone class. Throughout the semester, though, I learned some key lessons that I feel served me well and taught me a lot.
First, nothing is ever going to go the way you want it to and that's the way things go in life. At the beginning of the semester, my grandfather passed away, and I had to miss an entire week of class. By the time I came back to school, I had zero motivation to do anything, but I pushed myself through those first few weeks because I had no choice. The world did not stop for me, and it was certainly not going to stop for my classmates. Even though I was going through absolute turmoil, I had to pull together in order to help out my team. This is not an individual effort, this entire show, week in and out, is a culmination of teamwork.
This leads to the next lesson, which is that people are always relying on you, and you have to make sure to give feedback that helps them grow and not shrink down. When we first started doing the writing conferences on Wednesdays, they were very long and boring for me. However, it was because I was doing that to myself. Once we got into the next few conferences and I started inserting myself more, they became a lot more engaging, and I got to see my classmates grow more confident in their work. Whether that was on video or in their script writing, everyone grew. Your peers are looking at you to give feedback that isn’t sugarcoated, but it also isn’t just all negative. I can only hope that I provided that and helped at least one person fix a detail or two.
Finally, it’s so important to have fun and get to know your classmates. Next semester, I am not taking MPB or WVU News because I still have other requirements to complete to graduate. However, I do know that I am going to miss being with a lot of these people because they helped me grow as a person and a producer. I was able to get a lot of insight from them through regular conversations and class discussions. It translated outside of the classroom because we would gather after show tapings and hang out, which helped our relationships more. It helps communication flow more smoothly when you are comfortable with the people you are around.
For this last show, I was still on set and it was a pretty smooth experience again.
I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the taping, which was amplified by the fact that
the energy on-set was high. The talent did an amazing job on their first two tapings
and honestly, if we weren’t seeking technical perfection, we could have called
it a day there. I was a little sad leaving after we finished taping for the semester,
but then I realized that the class flew by super-fast, and it just means that graduation
is around the corner.