By Nick Stanley 

I recently had my first experience of the 3 am WhatsApp moment that Marc spoke about last week. That moment when your partner comes to you, buzzing with an idea, at a time when there is nothing you would less like to do.

My partner and I had submitted our work three hours previous. We went our separate ways. Fast forward three hours and I’m laid out watching a film, about to call it a day. Then my phone goes off. It was my partner, calling me on his way home from the pub. He was riled up. He had realised that we missed the mark with the copy we had submitted earlier. He now knew what it should have said. I answered his call reluctantly, knowing full well what was coming. He was on a rather sweary high horse and his trail of thought was hard to follow. But once he had converted his impassioned rambling into a coherent sentence I saw his point and knew he was right. Groaning, I reached for my laptop, switched off the film and started (re)writing. Three-and-a-half hours later we submitted the final version of our work.

I learned a lot from that experience. I learned that any future partner could count on me to do the same, a comforting realisation. I learned the value of iterating, of going again and again even when you are happy with your original work. Above all, I learned that I respect the opportunity this course has afforded me, that I respect my work and that I respect my colleagues.

School and university were about ticking other people’s boxes. I was living up to the expectation placed on me that I would have a traditional education. I coasted. I was never fully invested in what I was doing and I certainly would not have gone out of my way to rewrite an essay at stupid o’clock at night.

Before Friday, I would have told you that SCA was different, that I was fully committed to the course. While that may have been the case, I had not yet shown it or experienced it.

Friday was the first test and, on the surface, there was no pressing need to re-do our work. We were happy with the work we had submitted. The likelihood of us winning the brief was not going to be dramatically improved by the slight tweak to our copy. It was not a portfolio brief.

Yet we did it anyway and I am glad we did. What my partner was saying on the phone was unquestionably the right. If we had not then gone back and improved our work, what would we have been saying about ourselves? We would have been disrespecting this opportunity for no reason other than laziness.

Which brings me nicely to the reason for which I am writing this SCAB. I have missed three group SCABs. In the spirit of repentance and honesty, I saw that the SCABs were to be submitted and did not bother to fill them out. I didn’t see their point. Which is exactly the attitude that would have also seen me ignore my partner’s phone call on Friday. But I didn’t. I took the call and learned that lesson.

I have learned through experience and changed my attitude, for the better and for good.