So following my other Hopes, Fears and Opportunities post, here is my progress and thoughts from that and my recommendations for next semester. My hopes were to get a good grade at the end of my degree, get a job somewhere within the art world and be happy and confident within my work. Id say confidence has been my biggest hinderance all the way through this course (though its gotten better now). I know everyone is critical about their own work but it really gets the better of me sometimes! I suppose its something that will probably take years to be really happy with my work but id like to come out of this feeling proud (and thats another hope, to be truly proud of my work). I think so far, like I said, my confidence has definitely improved. I'm starting to like some of the things I'm doing, though they still are not quite there yet, but with the help of feedback from each project I can hopefully start getting better and believe that not everything I do is totally terrible! 

Id say next semester will definitely help with those 3 hopes I have talked about. Confidence wise, getting a portfolio together and going down to London will definitely take some confidence, so I hope that will give me a boost and make me strive to do better. 

I want to try really hard in this last year so at the end, even if i don't come out with an amazing grade, Id be content with the fact that I tried my best anyway, the worst thing would be to come out at the end of this with a rubbish grade, kicking myself saying "why didn't I just do this or more of this" and knowing it was cuz I was just being lazy. 

Another fear was that my work wouldn't be up to standard. If I'm honest, most of the time I think it isn't. I think thats to do with the fact I compare myself with everyone else, I know everyone does that as well but when I see amazing work, instead of feeling inspired, I usually just feel a little deflated and all "mine will never look as good as that!". I need to let go of that, because theres always going to be someone better than you, but you've just got to believe in yourself and not get bogged down with how well everyone else is doing. Having said that, I do still think that my work genuinely just doesn't look very professional. I know I'm only still a student but some of the other work in the class looks so well done and professional!? I don't know, maybe it will all come together in my major project (it better anyway!) or maybe its just the way I work, maybe its meant to look a little messy?! 

Speaking of the final major project, Im not sure where to go with that yet really. Its the biggest project of the whole 3 years at uni (probably shouldn't approach it like that, it sounds even scarier when its put that way!) and I want to make sure that I pick something I'm fully happy with. I think I'm going to go for the 2 different projects as well, as I think I can get bored when iv got a long amount of time to focus on one thing, then again, when I have a proper think about what Im going to do, this could change! It will take a lot of thinking and no doubt a lot of mind changing, but by the end of Christmas I will have an idea that is hopefully do able!