By Elisa Czerwenka

Who am I?

Before I started SCA, I asked a couple of previous students about their experience. What stood out to me is that a lot of them said that you find out who you are when you are at SCA. I always believed it but wasn’t sure what they meant exactly.

In the past weeks, however, I have realised that that’s precisely what is happening to me right now. I am not sure if it’s the environment at SCA, Marc’s teaching, the high pressure or all three that start to bring out the best or the worst in our personalities. And subsequently, we realise what these things are, that form our character and make us us. Here are some things that I have learned about myself at SCA in term one that I might not have seen in me before.

-I get motivated when somebody yells at me. Not sure if that’s because I have already interned in agencies where that was a daily occurrence or because my family tends to shout at each other a lot. Either way, a teacher, creative director, my sister, or whoever is screaming at me, they will find me incredibly calm afterwards. And if it’s about my work, I will be inspired and motivated.

-I don’t dwell on failure. And there was quite a few at my time at SCA. I surprised myself how quickly I can move on and try and make it better the next time. I used to be caught up in things that went wrong, but because the pace of SCA is so intense, I am learning to let things go quickly. I have to.

-I am confident but not confident enough in my ideas sometimes. I am actively trying to work on that because I believe that my best work happens when I believe in them.

-I am more organised than I thought. I always thought I was chaotic and creative, just because I happened to be unorganised as a teenager. What I have learned now is that I am pretty structured. That goes for how I tackle briefs or any hurdles in my life. It can be positive and helpful to get things done, but at the same time, I need to make sure to switch off my logical side when required.

-My schedule is insane and possibly incompatible with most people. There has been more than a few nights where I worked through the night or didn’t go to bed at all. And it wasn’t even necessary. Although that might work for me, when I am in a team, I have to respect that someone else might want to be done at healthier times than 4 AM.

-I am an extrovert. That was clear to me all along, but SCA brings it out even more. I love connecting with the mentors, the students or anyone that walks into our church. It gives me energy. I try to get to know everyone and learn from them as much as I can. I thrive on it, and if we have too many days off, I miss that immediately.

While I was thinking about my character, I remembered something that Alfie recommended to me a couple of weeks ago. A personality test (you can do that online, for example on 16personalities.com). I am a protagonist personality type, described as ENFJ-A.
https://www.16personalities.com/profiles/8e85dd6032aa4

If you want to apply to SCA and have any questions feel free to drop me an email:

hello@elisaczerwenka

Or tweet me:

@elisaczerwenka