By Katie Burrell

Lessons I’ve learnt since starting SCA 

It’ll be our February half term soon so I thought I’d reflect on what I’ve learnt so far since starting in September…

1) I’m not very good at advertising yet. You start off thinking that you might be, then you quickly realise you’re not and get frustrated about it because you really want to be. The sooner you realise you’re not very good yet the better.

2) Get used to making mistakes. This is difficult if you’ve spent your whole life trying to avoid them. But mistakes are great because they lead to opportunities.

3) If you’re a bit of a perfectionist, realise when that’s a good thing and when it isn’t. There are times when you need to harness it and times when you need to push it aside.

4) Having a dog is awesome. Unconditional love, they make you feel instantly happy and I seem to get most of my ideas on dog walks. Thanks Molly. 

5) It’s ok to have a day off. Days off are good for you.

6) Listen to your head and your body and what they’re telling you. Tune into it. The intense nature of the course can make you feel quite disconnected from what’s going on inside sometimes.

7) Exercise. I’m still not doing very well at this. It’s so important though.

8) Allow yourself to walk to Herne Hill with friends and buy the best tuna toastie ever. Melt in your mouth, buttery loveliness.

9) Try and eat lunch on a Friday. It often gets to the point where you feel like you have no time but then you end up feeling rubbish so just eat something.

10) On that note, make sure you keeping drinking water as well!

11) Choose who you want to listen to and who you don’t.

12) The blue coffee truck is really good but it’s not good for your bank balance.

13) Even though you can’t always be bothered in the evenings, try and cook food that can double up as lunches.

14) You think about food a lot at SCA.

15) Mmm. Food.

16) Keep talking to people about ideas, get people’s opinions. Share stuff.

17) Sometimes you feel like you’re alone in how you feel, guaranteed you won’t be.

18) Learn from other people and the things they’re skilled at.

19) Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re not progressing and just going around in circles.

20) The journey doesn’t end in July.

21) Get out of school! You CAN do that.

22) It really does help to have a plan of action for the day.

23) If you’re a person who’s used to working on one thing until you’ve finished it, try mixing it up a bit by doing other things and then coming back to it. It feels strange if you’re not used to that but it helps.

24) Try and stick to a sleeping routine. If you’re used to getting up at 6am and then at the weekends you get up at 8am – know that you’re going to feel really tired. Be consistent.

25) Have fun. If you’re not having fun, try to address it.

26) Using your train journeys to work is a good idea.

27) When your head feels full, take a step back, breathe and put things into perspective.