Habits of Mind

 Describe a long term project that you have undertaken outside of the traditional classroom environment. What was the origin of the project? How did you set and achieve your goal? What was your planning process like? How did you decide what to prioritize and when? Did you stick to your own timeline? Why/why not?

When I moved over from an apartment in Shanghai to a suburban house in Massachusetts at 10 years old, I discovered that actual houses need a lot of maintenance and work. Unlike the apartment where the responsibility of any structural issues fell on the apartment complex, in America it fell on us instead. Because the house had been unused for a while, we had to start from scratch and rebuild so many systems that I had once taken for granted in Shanghai. In our household, these responsibilities fell onto my father, and he enlisted my help. We had to rebuild the rainwater drainage system, wifi and internet system, and even the water filtration system. While my father was very experienced with house maintenance projects, he wasn't as good at researching specific details for them, and I became the person responsible for the research and details for them. Throughout these projects, I learnt a lot about planning and research. 

I learnt the most through the first project, the rain water drainage project. I did some research on drainage systems and compiled a document of information before bringing it up to my father, and then we discussed it. We went out and took measurements, and it was my first experience of applied physics as the angle of the drainage system had to be at least a specific amount for the water to flow correctly. I found that a very careful discussion before starting this project was very helpful, as my father was someone with a lot of experience, and it showed me that before starting any big project it's always good to discuss the details and research you've procured with someone who's gone through similar projects. 

However, one mistake that I discovered with this first project was that being too obstinate and trying to stick too close to a schedule isn't always a good thing. When all the preparations were made and we had begun digging through the back of the yard to lay the pipes for the drainage, I didn't realize how difficult removing the brick road we were supposed to run a pipe through was. We spent that entire day working, and despite my original expectations, it wasn't finished even by night, at around 9pm. My father said that we would continue tomorrow, but I was really worried about the chance of rain tomorrow that could lead to the path being too muddy and delay the finishing until it dried up, so against his wishes I stayed and tried to finish it. Despite my best efforts, I emerged exhausted and mud-covered with an unfinished drainage system. Coming out of that experience, I pulled a muscle and couldn't work on the project for a while, leaving my father to do the work. Worse of all, it didn't even end up raining the next day. 

So, coming out of that experience, I learnt that in large projects, something is bound to throw a wrench into your plans. I learned to be more flexible and be able to factor in the problems and adapt to them, instead of just trying to force through the original schedule. I learnt a lot from this first project and applied to the next two projects, setting up the wifi and internet system and water filtration system successfully.