By Ben Golding

Today I am a Spitfire Pilot

This week we have had some seriously interesting mentors come in to talk and blow our tiny minds. David Pearl came in on Tuesday, and was brilliant. He talked to us about our motivation for the course and for life, he showed us ways to unlock our inner truths and find the answers to questions just by roaming the streets. In the afternoon we talked about the 10,000 different versions of ourselves and which ones we have come to rely on most heavily at SCA. Were we always bringing the voice of the student, or the worker, or the introvert? These definitely have their place, but David was keen for us to think about the other facets of ourselves and which ones would be good to bring to SCA.

I for one, very much stay in the same mode most of the day, even when I know there’s other parts of me I could bring to the party. Actively recognising when your approach isn’t working and knowing to switch to a different ‘voice’, ‘mode’ or facet of yourself in those situations was revelatory for me. So here follows a list that I made when I got home that evening, they are a few versions of myself that I wish to embrace in different situations.

• The Magician
• The Writer
• The Technologist
• The Artist
• The Confident Schmoozer
• The Humble Man
• The Chess Thinker
• The Game Changer
• The Entrepreneur
• The Explorer
• The Outlaw

Later in the week we had a past student from the Busk intake come and speak to us, his name is Jack Moolark (MOO). Even just from Marc’s introduction I could tell that I was going to enjoy this masterclass. He was weird. At his interview he brought a newspaper full of dicks, that he had made. Excellent. I like weird. Weird makes me feel like I can take off my ‘normal’ mask for a bit too.

I took two main things from his masterclass, and I think they are so potent that they are worth reiterating here.

1. Stay weird. Stay wonderful. – Normal is boring, bring yourself to everything you do and be interesting.
2. Turn your prison into your passion. – Whatever you are doing try to find a way to love it, learn to love the process and not the product because that is all you have after all is said and done.
3. Find the REAL. – Jack loved the concept of creative synergy and finding people and places that have what many people might call ‘vibes’. I want to find the 3rd person in the room.

Finally, the typography in his presentation was on point, especially because it also had spelling mistakes in it. So yes, lots to think about so far this week and its only Thursday night. Stay weird people. Golding out.