Sarah

STICK IT had a call with Pete this week, and he asked us how it feels to be back. The word chaotic came up, more than once. One of those times was me. Or maybe I just said it a few times.

The first weeks of term two very conveniently coincided with me moving house, and then I decided to get a virus to top it all off. I naively thought I could fit two briefs around all of this chaos without losing my mind. I may not have completely succeeded; my brain went to a lot of strange places and I was met time and time again with dead-ends. Once my idea got killed off by mentors for the third time in three days, I thought I must have lost the rhythm of things and that I was just flailing around like some nutter. But then just as I thought this week was definite write-off, today we presented a two-day brief, and I suddenly felt at home again. It was great to see our cohort’s work together in the Google deck once more after a summer apart, and it lifted me up. Our work is improving, our creativity is coming through and we’re making better work than we did before. And that’s really exciting. Onwards and upwards!

Louise

We’re two weeks into term 2 and I’ve already experienced the entire spectrum of emotions. I’ve loved going to classes again, picking the brains of the amazing mentors, and, of course, meeting some lovely people from the new intake. That being said, these two weeks have also been the hardest by far. Dwell time isn’t a thing at SCA, and we’ve wasted no time picking up right where we left off in July. The intensity of it all combined with me being ill for the better part of week 1 and some unfortunate events outside of school threw me completely off course. But as it turns out, this adversity has been a blessing in disguise. It’s forced me to reflect on lots of things – more than anything, the pressure I put on myself. Now, I feel like I’m back on track and ready to give it all I’ve got. To chime in with Sarah: onwards and upwards from here!

Sam

Term two has hit hard! The first two weeks have definitely woke me up. I feel like I’ve got back into the groove really quickly which is good. Week one was so exciting for me as I was happy to be back and was so up for thinking about new ideas. I know it’s going to be a big step up from term one but that’s what we are here for. To be pushed to our limits to make us not good but great at what we do which is being creative. 

I’m going to get better with my case study editing skills this term. I’m going to really drop myself in it and get stuck into premiere pro and after effects. I’ve got the vision, I just need the elite skills now. Let’s get it STICK IT! 

Ellie

Not quite sure where the summer went or where the first term went for that matter. It all seems to have flown by. I have to keep reminding myself that however hard this course is, the whole SCA experience is bound to fly by, so take each week as it comes and get the most out of it. Every day counts. 

Picking up the pace again after a 2 month break hasn’t been easy, but I am happy to be back and growing in the SCA “pressure cooker” conditions again. This term is the first one where we have a greener intake than ourselves. This is an interesting addition and perhaps an added pressure to feel like we are producing work that shows that we’ve had a whole term’s head start on them!

Agatha

It’s interesting when reading everyone’s posts above, how run down, overwhelmed, ill and stressed a few of us are already feeling this term (and it’s only week 2 argh!) – yet the positivity shines through: we want this more than anything, and we’re ready to do the work, turn up, by even amidst adversity that normal life sadly sometimes brings, and yeah, I feel so privileged, so, so, lucky to be surrounded by such a bunch of resilient bad asses. 

Over the summer we caught up a few times and it became a bit of a joke that I regularly mention that ‘I live in kent’ (Tunbridge Wells I’ll have you know), and ‘I work full-time’ and that erm, ‘I’m a single mum’ (read previous SCABs where I repeatedly mention these facts also – there is a pattern and a point here.) 

It got me thinking. 

We all have things holding us back, we all have stories to share about our experience of SCA, of life, of relationships – but it’s the stories we tell ourselves that affect us the most. And maybe that influences the outcome of who we are and what we become. So I want to let all that shit go, (kent, mum, work) and just enjoy what we have and who we are as a group. We are STICK IT! We may be small – but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I cannot wait to show the world what we can do.

Charlie

The first two weeks back have underlined the often-bizarre nature of the industry that we’re training to enter. There is a point where you are 150 brownies into baking a set of 200 on a Wednesday evening for a two-day brief that you begin to wonder when life became so surreal. The ability to think creatively always requires the connection of more unusual dots, and the joy of coming up with uniquely strange solutions to an increasingly wide range of problems has always been my favourite aspect of the SCA. Where else could you sit at a desk having a heated discussion about the practical use of subway footlongs as a unit of measurement one day and be contemplating the movie henchmen-heavy marketing strategy of Range Rover the next?

Having to explain to friends why I was lugging around an alarm clock or moving from researching developing green micro-generation strategies to rewriting potato waffle ads from the 80s has become increasingly a matter of a shoulder shrug and a smiling raise of the eyebrows. The main point that has been continuously underlined for me throughout the last two weeks is that no matter how strenuous, rewarding, challenging, or educational this course may be, it will never be, in any aspect, boring.   

Tope 

After the long and needed summer break I was back a SCA. It was challenging to get back into the SCA mindset, but rest assured after getting set a couple of briefs and hearing the words SMP strategy I knew I was back. 

With the new intake joining this term the stakes are definitely higher and bring a whole new aspect to the busy non stopping, feedback receiving and  SMP solving that is SCA schooling. 

Hailee

Echo Chamber, blockage,  a bit detached and definitely overwhelmed, all of these senses have hit me one after another till they eventually collide and become a horrible flu which I regrettably let it, getting the better part of me.  

This term I made a switch from being monogamous to poly(with SCA of course), supposed to be exciting, but it sure is not easy. Converting online from going into Brixton, meant that I chose to exile from the capital to a far-off corner of the world where there was merely any sunshine, only some residual heat. I need to build myself a big giant generator, I realised, but not soon enough. The only reason that I allowed myself for this expedition is because I came across a project which allows me to apply what I have been learning from the SCA with everything else I’ve done in the past. I hoped by working simultaneously, bigger motive power could be generated. I can be wrong, but, usually in the plot, I will find something worthwhile out there. 

The initial impact was big, I felt my Ideation space was like an echo chamber and it gets narrower;thoughts weren’t progressing into ideas, it was just there, floating in the back of my head, without much sparks or strength, it was weak and very killable.

It only makes me appreciate how much we have to fight (mostly with our own self) to make an idea to have the flesh and blood, and become real. And yea, it is always done betting while riffing and jamming. The tune is sounding pretty shit at the moment, but as Pete said, you are shit till you are good. 

Magda

It feels good to be back at SCA.

Even though the second term is meant to be more intense (and likely more stressful) than the first one, I can’t help but feel excited. It was great seeing new and familiar faces, and the way everyone is so motived is really inspiring to me. Meeting the new intake was especially good, as it reminded me of how I felt coming into the school for the first time. We truly are a part of something special!

It also really helps that this time I know how the school works. I realised that most of the stress I felt in term one was self-inflicted, so coming into the new term I really want to remember to take things easier.

My main goals for this term are to go in deeper with my work and take it to the next level with the help of the mentors. I also want to stop limiting myself and get rid of the belief that there’s things I can’t do – it’s better to try and fail than to not try at all.