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magicalforcesau · 3 years

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Dancing With Ghosts in Your Garden~ Chapter 18 - Year 2: February

(ao3 link)

In lieu of the incident with the sleeping draught, all prefects were mandated to enroll in Professor Palpatine’s brand new weekly Potions seminars. As the misstep with the Vitamix potion along with Maul’s nearing presence showed, it was ideal that all prefects be properly trained in the event that professors were once again subdued. This, they felt, combined with Professor Fisto’s ongoing dueling club, would prepare them.

Obi-Wan’s doubts of how prepared they could possibly be for something so unpredictable grew stronger with each day. Although he was already enrolled in the advanced potions class, he would never deny the opportunity to learn more. If anything, it would at least offer more practice.

“Given that it’s February, I figured it best we start with a common favorite amongst the masses of troublemakers,” Palpatine’s shoes clicked on the ground as he paced at the front of the room.

From what Obi-Wan understood, Palpatine didn’t receive any punishment for the accidental sleeping potion brew. Yoda had, of course, received a rather scathing howler from the Ministry at his supposed flightiness, of which he took the blame for. It seemed Anakin had stepped up and claimed it was he who accidentally knocked the draught in the already brewing potion.

That all certainly added up and did not help Anakin’s reputation amongst his peers.

“Any guesses to what that would be?” Palpatine asked, eagerly taking in the small crowd of Hogwarts’ best with expectant eyes.

Because this was a class full of prefects, each were considerably decent students and wanted to learn. There were exceptions, Obi-Wan realized as he looked over to a nearly snoozing Zeb, but they were outliers.

“Love potions?” Breha Organa said rather dreamily. Obi-Wan didn’t need to turn around to know she’d been looking at Bail as she said it.

“Right you are, Breha!” Palpatine smiled, “Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world, at that. Many of you and your students are for the first time diving into the wondrous and mysterious landscape that is romance. Some of you aren’t even aware that you are.”

Did he look at Obi-Wan on purpose? No, that would be silly. Palpatine always took care to rove eye contact throughout the classroom. It was a sufficient method of maintaining focus and Obi-Wan knew this, but he still shifted his gaze immediately elsewhere like he’d been caught copying homework.

“Love and potions aren’t all that different, really.” He continued, “The right and organic combination makes a fruitful and prosperous brew. The wrong and inauthentic combination is bitter and not made to last.”

“And if you’re not careful, you could end up with a wrinkly, scrawny little creature.” Zeb added knowingly, earning a few chuckles throughout the group.

“As if you’ve got anything to worry about there.” Caleb muttered, and much to Zeb’s dismay, acquired a more popular response.

“Boys, please.” Palpatine chastised, “I don’t want word to travel that Gryffindor’s prefects lost them points.”

“Cody would have an aneurysm,” Satine whispered and Obi-Wan only nodded in response. It was no secret to either of them that their friend was less than pleased with how bleak Gryffindor’s odds of obtaining either the House or Quidditch cup were becoming. If he heard that Caleb and Zeb worsened those odds, neither would be awaiting a very pretty conversation.

The troublesome two seemed to recognize this and justly shut their traps.

The class turned back to Palpatine, who seemed rather satisfied with the change in their mood and circled around the cauldron at the center of his desk. From it, emerged a pink fog that resembled a cloud at sunset and judging by the smile its scent drew from Palpatine, it smelled as pleasant as it looked.

“A love potion manufactures the deepest desires from the person who ingests it, manifesting them all at once in an intoxicating fashion that causes them to see the intended target in a different light.” He said almost reverently, “Ironically, it’s called a love potion, when it should really be called an infatuation potion.”

“That’s because you can’t build love from a substance.” Satine muttered from beside him. “Try as some might.”

Obi-Wan stared at the cauldron. He’d heard of amortentia. Evidently, a cheap ineffective version was sold at Zonko’s in Hogsmeade, though he never took much care to notice. He didn’t know much about love, save for the fact that it seemed highly unlikely for anything to recreate something as complicated as attraction.

She raised her hand, “Professor? Aren’t love potions banned at Hogwarts?”

“That they are,” Palpatine said with crossed hands, “Though that’s not to say they haven’t been smuggled in before.”

“Why would they do that?” A familiar high pitched voice from the back called.

Despite his interest in the subject, Obi-Wan couldn’t resist snapping his neck in turning to see none other than Anakin Skywalker sitting at the back desk, looking incredibly small in stature next to Onaconda Farr. Farr, in his defense, looked just as confused by Anakin’s presence as Obi-Wan felt.

“What are you doing here?” Obi-Wan asked him, “This is supposed to be for prefects only.”

“Not to worry, Mr. Kenobi, I did grant Anakin permission to attend.” Palpatine answered before Anakin could muster up a smart response, “Anakin shows a real knack for potions and given the circumstances, I would say it’s best that he be included whenever he could be protected.”

Obi-Wan slumped back in his chair, feeling properly admonished. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Anakin was capable. It was quite the opposite, actually, but there was an order to these things and learning advanced spells before one was ready did not seem indicative of a sound idea. Anakin needed to learn the building blocks still, whether he believed it or not. Despite his talent, he knew there was an absence of maturity to handle heavy source material. Dueling was one thing, as there was an obvious precedence for it right now and it was typically taught to some degree during second year anyway. Teaching Anakin about love potions felt more like giving a dog a steak and telling him not to eat it. He could try to convince everyone that he was over his crush on Padmé all he wanted, but it simply wasn’t true.

“To answer your question, Anakin,” Palpatine continued, “When someone is too blind with desperation to see reason, they will do just about anything to acquire what they want. A love potion, while sounding frilly and fun, occludes all rational thinking from the person it's given to.”

“And typically, it’s not ingested voluntarily.” Satine added.

Obi-Wan frowned, thinking of the potentially dastardly effects such a tool could provide for a desperately lovesick person. It was no different than being under a curse, in a sense, because the poor sap trapped in such a state had no agency whatsoever.

“How does one tell if someone is suffering from the effects of a love potion?” Fenn Rau asked.

“Why, you see them every day in young and happy couples as you walk through these halls. They’re starry-eyed, flushed, unspeakably happy, practically in a trance.”

“How are we to tell the difference then?” Obi-Wan asked.

“These features tend to be a good deal more exemplified and elongated.” Palpatine said, “For instance, while the honeymoon phase is technically normal, it’s really not meant to last. There’s also known to be loss of memory in the person as the potion begins to fade. We advise that you all keep an eye and see if you notice any excessively clingy and almost controlling couples.”

Obi-Wan thought about his parents, finding it very hard to believe they ever had any semblance of a honeymoon phase. They were so professional all the time that he’d rarely seen them even smile in the other’s presence. Of course, he was always splitting up sneaky couples that tried to sneak off to snog, so he supposed he did have some experience witnessing what Palpatine was referring to. Part of him was having a difficult time reconciling with the fact that it was their ancient potions professor who was explaining to them the complexities of romance.

“Because of the dangers that this possesses,” He waved a little pink vial around for all to show, allowing the light to catch it in a way that made it sparkle, “I believe it’s important that you understand these properties quite well and that you take care not to share this information outside of this room.”

There was a warning tone to his voice that was rarely used and Obi-Wan swore everyone sat up even straighter, though he doubted that was possible for Satine, who already appeared quite alert.

“It’s okay to take notes, of course, right?” Hondo asked from the other back corner of the room opposite to Anakin.

“Yes, but-” The older man did a double take as he whipped back around, “Hondo, what are you doing here?”

Obi-Wan thought it was fairly obvious what Hondo was doing and why he was suddenly so apt to take notes. He hadn’t thought to say anything when he originally saw him, seeing as if Anakin was invited, maybe he’d thought to include another unexpected guest. Hondo was possessed for a significant amount of time, after all.”

“Just trying to perfect my recipe is all.” Hondo had the gall to shrug, “What’s so wrong about that?”

“You mean besides intruding upon a meeting where you are not welcome and admitting in advance that you intend to sell an illegal substance throughout the school?” Palpatine asked, “I suppose we could discuss your time management skills, seeing as you have plenty of potion’s homework that you could be catching up on.”

Reading the room for a change, Hondo sighed like a great disservice had just been done to him, “You can’t fault a guy for trying.”

“Actually, I can. 15 points from Slytherin.” Palpatine crossed his arms, “And I expect your essay on Felix Felicis on my desk tomorrow morning.”

“My tutor isn’t going to like that.” Hondo grumbled as he walked by Obi-Wan, “He’s not even finished my Charms presentation.”

“Why would you say that to us?” Satine hissed, knowing full well that they were now going to have to look up the legitimacy of Hondo’s new “tutor” in their dwindling free time.

“I’m honest to a fault!” He shrugged as he fully exited the room and was promptly locked out by Palpatine. He even took the effort of using two padlocks to secure the job. To be fair, Hondo was quite slippery.

“Now,” He said as he clapped his hands together once, “Why don’t we get to the important part? Brewing!”

***

This was a colossal waste of his time, skills, and resources.

While Sidious normally enjoyed when the school devolved into chaos, he did not appreciate when it stood in the way of his plans. Right now, his former apprentice was the obstacle that could feasibly destroy everything he’d worked tirelessly to achieve, all before it could truly start.

He knew he should have killed him when he had the chance, but Azkaban just seemed all the more fitting for the murder machine to waste his days away at the hand of his own failure. He would not make that mistake ever again.

So, it seemed Sidious’ own interests aligned with the rest of his colleagues: get rid of Maul. It felt peculiar- to be on the same side as the enemy, but if he wanted to defeat them, he needed this loose cannon of a pawn to be decimated before it was too late.

And through it all, the putrid “open-minded” community only served to remind him why they needed to be brought to an end. In what world would enlisting the Potions professor to teach love potions be useful? How he managed to seem convincing, he was unsure, because there was no greater waste of time than the frivolous pursuit of love. Well, unless it was being manipulated as a fulcrum for change.

Even with as little soul as he had remaining, if any, he still found the smell of amortentia to be utterly arousing. They certainly wouldn’t enjoy to know what he smelled when he breathed in amortentia: fire, ash, rubble, stained blood.

They should be barricading, sending students out in troves to hunt the demon down, and utilize the muggle-borns as bait in a trap to be sprung. Maul couldn’t resist the hunt. He knew such instincts never changed, not even from the waning sense of purpose that Azkaban reduced men to.

Instead, here he was, giving a pointless lecture on the dangers of love potions. After which, they’ll have another practice dueling session with snowballs. It was pitiful. At the very least, they should be using stones. Children needed to learn pain at an early age. They needed to become so familiar with the sensation that they found home in it. In the hearth of that home, is the power that exists from within. Only then, can they prevail.

He glanced to the back corner of the room and felt his lips twitch. Between this year and the last, Skywalker was becoming quite acquainted with pain. He grimaced as he took in the rest of the lot, noting how soft they all were as they nervously discovered what attracted them when they leaned over their brewing cauldrons. At least he’d been able to kick that waste of blood Ohnaka out. He was spared of that particular headache, especially when just looking at the boy angered him to no end when he considered how deeply that botched experiment failed. Truly, that family couldn’t do anything right- not even when under hypnosis.

He had no doubts that Maul was scoping out the land, realizing just how weak these wizards had gotten since he was in school- that his lessons from Sidious had always reigned supreme and that no one stood in his way, save for Yoda and Sidious, himself. That would be disastrous if anyone witnessed a reunion between the two. They would know instantly.

Then again, if Sidious were to capture and kill Maul, he would only further his popularity amongst the simpletons that allegedly “ran” their community. Perhaps, there could be salvaging of this wreck. Tyranus need not be the only one to pull strings in the wake of Maul’s drama. It was only fitting, since Sidious was the marionettist and this was to be his show.

Not only that, but such a feat would certainly impress the boy, who clearly had a sound reason for disliking Maul. While Sidious loathed the concept of needing to work towards the trust and approval of a child, understood that in due time, it would be worth it.

Even if such a boy nearly killed them all with his own klutziness.

Sidious breathed a steadying breath, just barely turned away from any possible lingering gazes.

He moved over to his desk and opened the top drawer. He needed a drink.

***

Satine, like many of the curious girls in her year, had done fair research on the subject of amortentia. Apparently, it had ruined its fair share of marriages as well as mental health states, making it completely illegal to produce for private or public subsidization. It seemed, curiously, only the aurors could do so with Ministry approval. That, much to Satine’s confusion, was the case for many subjects.

“Because I would hate to have a bunch of little zombies in my class, we’ll just be smelling the potions today.” Palpatine announced.

Despite her knowledge that amortentia affected everyone differently, she still wasn’t quite expecting the drunk-like sensation that filled her up from head to toe as she took a deep breath in from the fumes that emanated off the surface. Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion and her chest rose and fell with the relaxed notion of falling asleep, except she simultaneously never felt more stimulated in her life.

She’d never known that you could smell so many wonderful things at once yet still differentiate them for what they were and more importantly, how it got her flushed in a way that made her shift in her seat.

New books, homemade apple pie, crisp fall air, the lingering remnants of a minty aftershave wrapping around her like a scarf…

She started out of her reverie, blushing too mad to even consider looking to her left no matter how curious she suddenly was. Her heart was beating out of her chest and if she wasn’t absolutely certain of the potency of amortentia, she’d have the decency to be more embarrassed. Instead, she willed herself to calm down and refused to breathe through her nose any further, no matter how warm she felt when she had.

While none of what she witnessed was news to her per say, it wasn’t like she made a habit of lollygagging and daydreaming in the middle of a classroom setting. It was quite disarming to be so vulnerable yet also so close to what (or who, for that matter) was driving her crazy to begin with.

“Problem, Mr. Kenobi?” Palpatine was suddenly standing in front of them, which was at least a little bit of a distraction.

A ringing in her brain wanted desperately to ask him what he smelled, but she felt herself frown deeply when she noticed Obi-Wan was leaning with his entire face in his little cauldron, trying desperately to catch a whiff. Surely, if he got any closer, he was going to accidentally inhale the potion through his nose.

“I might have brewed it incorrectly.” He muttered, echoing a bit from still having his head in the cauldron.

“Let me see,” Palpatine urged him to lift his head and under normal circumstances, Satine might tease him for the little creases that the rim brought to his face.

The professor raised his nose to the fumes that still wafted through the air and smiled dreamily. She wondered if they would ever know what he was seeing when he inhaled the scent. It was none of their business to ask, but she really couldn’t picture Palpatine being in love with anyone.

“No, no, it’s perfectly correct,” He said with the airs of residual glee, “Why?”

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Obi-Wan turned to Satine, “I think I need you to move.”

Any previous concern, as per usual with Obi-Wan, was replaced with a scalding sort of annoyance only reserved for him, “What? Why?”

As she held her own special adverse reaction to him, he had one for her that matched. His eyebrows furrowed as he gestured to his cauldron. Sometimes, he was far too serious for his own good, “As lovely as your perfume is, you don’t need to go so heavy-handed with it! I can’t smell the potion.”

Satine, who initially believed they were going to get into an argument, found that she had no points to be made, because all that came out of her mouth was a little puff of air. Palpatine, if she had the eyes to spare him a look, was equally as surprised, even if not nearly as emotionally invested in such a rebuff.

“What?” Obi-Wan finally asked, growing more annoyed at not being in on the punchline.

Everyone else was suspiciously quiet too, much to Satine’s growing unease, but she could hardly spare a thought other than to say, “I’m out of perfume, actually. I sent Copikla home yesterday so my mum could send me a new bottle.”

Instead of being annoyed, the clouds seemed to clear, if only a little bit, and he flickered back to the potion, “But how-”

“-It smells different to everyone.” Palpatine, who looked between the two of them with his face stretched in discomfort and eyebrows raised beyond physics, clarified with a tone that was clearly meant for only them, “Based on what the individual finds attractive.”

All of the color seemed to wash out of Obi-Wan’s charmingly embarrassed face as his mind worked rapidly to wrap his head around that answer. Even though she hadn’t breathed in her potion again, Satine still swore she was suddenly feeling the effects of it.

“I- Well,” He tried to formulate a response, but to his credit, he had just admitted that he was at the very least attracted to her perfume (which she made the mental note to stock up on more frequently), in front of the entire class of prefects and Anakin.

“Oooooooh Obi-Wan likes perfume.” Anakin, while completely missing the point and a big teasing opportunity, shattered the tension that previously froze the entire room and everyone burst out into a fit of needed laughter. Even Obi-Wan laughed, though nervously, as he flashed Satine the occasional glance here and there through lowered lashes, as if trying to gage her reaction to this accidental admission.

She smiled. Clearly, it was to her benefit to read ahead of him.

“For what it’s worth,” She said in the midst of the uncontrollable chatter that erupted thanks to Anakin’s offhand comment, “You smell nice too.”

He blushed, which she found she quite liked the shade of pink on his face, “Thanks.”

It didn’t address the underlying implications, just as neither of them seized the moment to do so on Christmas Eve. She found it was just as frustrating trying to guess what was going on inside of his head as it was waiting for him to do something about the things she did know.

As much as she wanted the cat to be fully out of the bag, she knew the middle of Palpatine’s potions class wasn’t the time or place.

***

“I believe it’s a mistake to have any more Hogsmeade trips this year,” Qui-Gon said to his other heads of house and to Yoda, who was staring quite pensively out the window, “Not when we know what we know. It’s quite possible that Maul has an entrance to the school if he truly is behind what happened to Bultar Swan.”

“We have no real proof that he is, though.” Shaak Ti said, “It certainly doesn’t seem like his style.”

“While I know the usual term “innocent until proven guilty” is our mantra, I think we should consider being more hesitant with Maul.” Qui-Gon said.

“I agree,” Windu nodded, standing firmly next to him, “Though having more students out of the school would allow us a proper amount of time to sweep the school and see if he had any secret entrances.”

“We have that same opportunity at night.” Qui-Gon said.

“You know this school shifts and changes between night and day,” Palpatine said warily, “It is ever-moving and Bultar Swan was attacked in broad daylight in a common room.”

“Why are we not interviewing more Ravenclaws then?” Windu asked, “We’ve got to do something! Skywalker’s mother is missing and we all know that boy isn’t going to lay down and allow for speculation to simply rise without doing something foolish.”

“I don’t appreciate your assumptions of Anakin.” Qui-Gon said, “He’s a bright, even if impulsive boy, who is going through an unspeakable grief.”

“No one twice his age should have to endure what he’s going through,” Shaak Ti said kindly, “Let alone as young as he.”

“I’m not saying he has no reason to act out.” Windu raised his hands, “I’m merely stating that it is only a matter of time before he takes matters into his own hands.”

“That would make it easier for Maul, unfortunately,” Palpatine agreed, “Perhaps we should motion to shut off the Floo network?”

“Done that, I have.” Yoda spoke up, “Because used it, he did.”

“For what?” Qui-Gon asked eagerly.

“Unknown location, he accessed.” Yoda mused, “Unregistered through the network, it is. Talk to Dooku, I suspect.”

Palpatine frowned, “That can’t be good.”

“No, it can’t.” Windu agreed, “Can you extend your protective charms to Hogsmeade, Yoda?”

“Do that, I did, after we woke up from the sleeping incident.”

“Oh, so it’s safe then.” Shaak Ti shrugged, “The dementors haven’t detected Maul on the inside and he was last seen on Diagon Alley.”

“I’m sure this is quite exhausting for you, Headmaster.” Windu acknowledged.

It was true. Extending his powers over an entire settlement as well as the castle at all times would have drained any normal wizard to death. Yoda, as it were, was not a normal wizard. Even still, it was visible on his worn features that he was exhausted.

“Safe, the students should be,” He said instead, “But careful we will still be. Search the school we will for secret entrances while they are gone, we will.”

***

“Are they gone yet?” Anakin asked, ducking up from where he’d been digging furiously through his trunk. Rex who was sitting on the window sill keeping watch over the massive gates of Hogwarts nodded slowly.

“Yeah I think so,” He confirmed, stretching his arms above his head and yawning, “I dunno mate, don’t you think a nice Saturday in might be nicer than trying this again. Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

“Psh!” Anakin waved a hand, “Well we’re certainly not trying anything like that again. Although I would like to get another look at that sword.”

“I figured you’d seen enough swords in your short life,” Rex rolled his eyes, “Didn’t Dooku intend to sacrifice you with one?”

“It was still cool, but I’m not really trying to go to Hogsmeade, just give off a good impression.” Anakin shrugged before he pulled out his nicest T-Shirt, swiftly pulling the one he had been wearing off and switching them out, “Well how do I look?”

“The same but in green,” Rex deadpanned leaning his head on his hand, “If all we’re doing up here is playing dress up then I’d much rather get this show on the road.”

“Oh come on,” Anakin checked himself out in the dingy mirror on the back of the door. He was really hoping he’d run into Padmé; he thought she’d like it. He’d already seen her leave, but overheard her talking to her friends about Rabé meeting them later and taking the tunnels. His mum had bought it for him over the summer and he tried to push past the rising feeling of sadness, “We had to wait until all the prefects left anyways, I’m not really looking to be caught and dragged back here by any of them and especially not Zeb, who was eyeing us up pretty hard at breakfast.”

Rex shuddered, “Definitely don’t need him tossing us through the portrait hole again. It’s not our fault that the rest of the second years left without us!”

“I’d hate to see what happens if we’re caught alone of our own accord,” Anakin grinned, despite the true statement, such a thing wouldn’t stop them, “Well, let’s go before Windu gets here to babysit.”

“Right,” Rex grimaced, standing up and grabbing his wand. Anakin grabbed his as well, throwing it into his robe, it was much too cold to go around without it, and they headed down and out of the common room. He really hoped no one would snitch on them.

The two traversed the halls carefully. Keeping quiet for once to listen for approaching footsteps and ducking into a few empty classrooms to avoid the ghosts lurking around the otherwise empty halls. It took much longer than they’d have liked to make it down to where the tunnel’s entrance would begin. Luckily, the map showed Rabé’s little figure moving in that direction too, marking a bit of a clear path. She would lead them straight to Padmé.

Anakin’s heart rate increased for more reasons than being caught.

He thought better of it. Obi-Wan would probably kill him on the spot if he slithered out of the tunnel and into Hogsmeade. Not to mention, Maul was lurking around in the area looking for him. Maybe, if they caught up with Rabé in the tunnel, he could simply give her the necklace to give to Padmé.

It didn’t sound incredibly indicative of his house in terms of bravery, but he knew at least Obi-Wan would approve of his method.

“Almost there!” Anakin grinned at Rex, but almost had his head knocked clean from his body when Rex grabbed his robe and yanked him hard into an empty classroom, “Wha-?”

“Shh!!” Rex was very much alert and his eyes narrowed as they both heard footsteps echoing off the walls. The footsteps paused just outside of the door and Rex cursed under his breath as a shadow moved towards the entrance. Rex glared at Anakin for a few minutes before mouthing, ‘You owe me!’ and straightening.

“Mr. Fett?” Palpatine’s confused voice echoed off the stone walls, “What are you doing here? And all alone?”

“Sorry Professor,” Rex gave Palpatine a rather over the top concerned look, “It’s just, I haven’t seen Anakin since breakfast and he did mention he was thinking about coming to see you.”

“To see me?” The professor sounded a little more surprised than Anakin thought he should, but perhaps he was trying to avoid looking like he picked favorites, “Well I certainly haven’t seen him. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m going to need to escort you outside with the other second years.”

Anakin winced, of course even Palpatine wouldn’t be willing to overlook a student wandering the halls without an escort. He’d have to bring Rex back something good from Hogsmeade.

“Alright, thank you Professor,” Rex nodded, although he didn’t look very thankful in Anakin’s opinion.

Their footsteps faded away, but still Anakin waited a minute longer before darting from the classroom himself.

He wandered the empty halls, being extra careful to listen and flicker his eyes to the map. Rex was a little more perceptive than he tended to be. Anakin certainly didn’t want to get caught, but at least he knew what story to go with if he did.

Finally, he reached the entrance of the tunnel, looking around carefully, he quickly slipped inside and hurried to close the entrance, plunging him into complete darkness.

Anakin pulled his wand out, lighting it with a, “Lumos Maxima,” They’d been working to improve their maximizing skills in charms recently and Anakin felt it was paying off. The tunnels were rather boring and unremarkable. He remembered them being pretty long, though he’d never made it all the way to the end the last time.

He took his time, kicking away rocks and humming softly. He still didn’t want to give his position away if there was someone scouting the tunnel for mischievous students, but boredom without Rex crept in fast.

He paused a moment at an odd noise and listened hard. It was a soft shuffling noise and despite the echo, it sounded like it was coming from behind him. Could it be another student trying the same thing he was? Unlikely, most of the houses were pretty locked down outside. He wasn’t sure why the professors had been so insistent on a supervised snow day, but most students went for it.

That left the possibility that he was about to be caught.

Letting the fear of boring evenings in detention spur him on, he picked up the pace until he was running rather swiftly. With the way his wand was swinging, the light bounced around enough to make him motion sick so he gave it a quiet, “Nox,” not letting up on the speed of which his shoes pounded the ground.

He slowed when he nearly tripped over something lying on the ground, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid running right into someone.

Anakin fell backwards with an, “oof,” He tried to catch his breath for a moment, “Sorry, Rabé,” He said softly standing up, “While I’ve got you, I’ve got a question for you. Lumos.”

His wand tip glowed again, revealing him face to face with a student’s face frozen in a scream. This was not Rabé. Anakin stumbled back, tripping on what felt like the fabric of a scarf, before he saw the glint of eyes reflecting the light off his wand.

Yellow. Bright yellow eyes narrowing as they realized they’d been caught. Anakin felt his heart leap in his chest. Fear filling his lungs, causing him to nearly choke on a scream. He heard the eyes take a step forward and he scrambled to his feet and fell into a sprint. His wand light faded as his concentration waned and he shoved it into his robes.

He shouldn’t be running from Maul, because that’s who it was, of course. He’d vowed revenge even if Qui-Gon always gave him that sad sort of look when he said it. He should be back there giving that kidnapper a piece of his mind. He was the Chosen One, it was his job to save everyone and take down the bad guys.

Even as these thoughts played in his mind, he continued to sprint, fear pushing him into overdrive. He nearly screeched again when he ran full tilt into something human knocking them both to the ground.

“Bloody hell!”

“Rex!” Anakin was relieved to find someone he knew, but it wasn’t enough to stop the adrenaline that had him back on his feet and pulling desperately on Rex’s arm to get him to move, “We have to go now!”

“Great, I just escape Palpatine only to get caught again. Who is it? Windu?” Anakin nearly growled at the slow pace Rex was moving at.

“It’s Maul! We have to go!” That was enough to get him moving.

They didn’t stop to even breathe again until they burst from the wall and right into Professors Palpatine and Qui-Gon who nearly got bowled over.

“What-” Qui-Gon looked ready to start a lecture and Palpatine even looked like he was ready to dole out a few point reductions, but Rex cut them off quickly.

“Anakin saw him!” Rex was pointing his wand at the entrance to the tunnel like Maul was about to come out right then and there for a fight.

“Saw who?” Palpatine asked head tilting to the side in curiosity and Anakin nearly spat the name out as he joined Rex in his battle stance.

“Maul.”

***

The deafening screech that stretched from Hogwarts through Hogsmeade with painful clarity was one that very few students attributed meaning to. It wasn’t unreasonable that students, particularly younger ones, immediately leapt into disorder, running hither and yon, terrified they were about to be dive-bombed. It was a horrible sight to see, even if it didn’t make his job all the more difficult.

Designed with the vocal cords of mandrakes, the emergency siren was only used in times of utter duress and was a means of warning students and faculty to return to Hogwarts at once. Historically, it hadn’t been officially sounded since the early twentieth century. Even still, prefects were always trained on what to do in the event of hearing the siren.

All the training in the world still didn’t fully prepare Obi-Wan for the very real visceral reaction that the ear-splitting sound brought. Of course, he could not spare a single moment to think, a tough reality for a Ravenclaw, and immediately moved forward with what he’d been taught: gather his house, ensure they were all in company, and get them back to the school.

While not given a direct message with it, everyone seemed to share the same thought as he did. There was only one true reason that the archaic alarm would be used right now accompanied by the dementors that jetted across the sky: Maul was close.

Not only close, but likely in their midst.

Shop owners wasted little time in evacuating their premises and battening down the hatches, effectively snuffing the warm glow of Hogsmeade in a singular swoop. His brain was busy scanning the hysterical crowd that was amid constant motion, searching for every and any blue-robed student that he might come across. It occurred to him now that there was perhaps more meaning to the explicitly placed Hogsmeade dress code than the professors led on to. It certainly made rounding up students a lot easier when they were color-coded.

Moving around on the ice-laden stone walkways? Less easy. He’d not only had to catch his own balance in his haste, but many other wobbly students. Even Satine’s elbow was caught by him a time or two, of which she spared no time to thank him, though he knew otherwise she would. She was just as stern as him in their mission, practically grabbing students and sliding them across the way to the huddle of other students, hardly blinking in the process.

It was with this goal in mind that he was able to develop a razor focus that practically tuned out the alarm. That, or the pounding in his ears did a decent job of it. Silently, he found the space to be relieved that Anakin was safe back at the castle with the other younger students.

It couldn’t have taken more than a couple of minutes to successfully corral all of the students that lingered about. It wasn’t as though any of them truly wanted to sneak off, after all. The horror on everyone’s faces spoke volumes of their concern.

Each of the prefects did their headcounts rapidly, trying not to dawdle for a moment longer than necessary, all praying they reached the same number they started with. He felt capable of breathing again when Ravenclaw reached that quota. Gryffindor prefects, it seemed, had forgotten to include themselves for a moment, which briefly induced a panic that was quickly assuaged by an irritated Mace Windu.

Perhaps it was a bit presumptuous to be relieved that Mace Windu and Kit Fisto were the supervising professors that day, but it certainly helped their odds to have experienced fighters of dark magic alongside them. The sky grew dark above them, not from the descending sun, but from the mere presence of the dementors swarming together like an ominous storm cloud.

No one looked back as they were ushered down through the storm cellar beneath Honeydukes, which remained open only at Windu’s order.

“Move quickly, don’t linger, don’t stop, don’t pause!” He ordered in a booming voice that didn’t even need to be amplified with a charm.

While Gryffindor’s prefects had nobly volunteered to lead the charge of students down and through the tunnel, the others remained on the side, performing last-minute counts to ensure all made it safely while urging them to hurry it up. No one seemed to have a problem with performing the latter, but some were getting a little rowdy in the process.

“Hey, hey, this is not an excuse to push or shove!” Satine chastised a few overeager Slytherins, “The only way this works is if you work together!”

She was right, of course, but Obi-Wan believed it was falling on deaf ears. They were terrified and rightfully so. Perhaps they shouldn’t have allowed the Hogsmeade trip to occur in the first place with everything going on. It was almost like they were trying to lure Maul in. If that was the case, it was a very sadistic choice.

Padmé Amidala as well as her friends had been some of the last people to filter in, surprisingly, and tears stained their cheeks.

“Keep it moving, ladies!” Kit Fisto ordered.

“We can’t find Rabé!” Sabé, the girl who looked most like Padmé, cried.

“I’m sure she’s here somewhere.” Windu said, “Slytherin house reported no missing students based on their earlier count. Now GO!”

“She came later!” Padmé insisted, pushing back against the hands of Fenn Rau, who was trying to make them descend down the ladder. “We never saw her!”

“Then maybe she never came at all?” Satine tried.

“She came.” Padmé looked between both of them, “I know she did! She wouldn’t flake out on us like that. What if something horrible happened to her? What if-”

“-We can explore these possibilities back at Hogwarts.” Windu said, “If she is indeed missing, I will waste no time in coming back for her. I promise you.”

“That is already a waste of time!” Sabé protested, “What if she’s hurt?”

“I cannot risk all of you, including these prefects, for one possibly lingering student. I need to get you back to safety. The tunnels will be locked behind us.” Windu said and waved his wand to provide a gust of air, sending all of the girls down the tunnel against their own will. Satine looked horrified at the choice and frankly, so did Windu for a moment, before he began insisting the prefects follow.

For Obi-Wan, time began to slow down as his brain methodically and almost mechanically traced back through that day, desperately trying to recall if he’d seen Rabé. She stood out among Padmé’s friends in that she was the only Slytherin and yet it was still odd to see them apart. Before the alarm had turned the world on its head, it had been a rather mundane and peaceful day at Hogsmeade. The weather had been nice, if not quite nippy. He’d popped into Tomes & Scrolls with Satine while Cody lingered around Spintwitches, but none of them bought anything. If they had, surely, it would have been lost in the chaos with many other student’s purchases.

He’d debated getting a box of every flavor beans, since Hondo said he had a game of Russian Roulette, but with the beans, brewing. Cody seemed interested and it sounded like less of a consequential gaming experience than Hondo’s usual ventures. He wasn’t afforded the opportunity to go into Honeydukes, but…

Obi-Wan felt his heart stop altogether in his chest. He hadn’t gone into Honeydukes, but he almost did. And who was lingering by the butterbeer stand when he was busy deliberating with Cody?

Rabé.

He’d only caught a glimpse of her for a fraction of a second before he turned around. Clear as daylight and standing at the far end of Hogsmeade. There were other Slytherins around her, but like Padmé, her hair was always intricately woven and this made her stand out.

Where did she go so that none of her friends saw her?

“She was here today,” Obi-Wan lurched forward, grabbing Satine by the arm on instinct.

“How do you know?” She began to ask, eyes searching his own with growing concern.

“I saw her.” He said and then shoved against the stream of students that were still pouring down the tunnel.

“Ben,” It was her turn to grab him, “Wait!”

He didn’t wait, though. Instead, he slipped out of her grasp, which had been firm enough to take his robe with it, and pushed through the crowd. Windu, never the slouch, noticed him instantly and his eyes widened as he realized what Obi-Wan was trying to do. Unlike Padmé and the girls, he didn’t give him the opportunity to stop him, instead lunging forward and falling into an immediate sprint out the door- the cold wind whipping his face so hard that it caused tears to freeze in their wake.

He vaguely heard his name shouted from behind him, but he could only think of finding Rabé before it was too late. It might have been impulsive and it was definitely foolish, but he wouldn’t be able to leave with a clear conscience unless he did everything in his power to bring every student back safely. He understood that the professors needed to do their duty, but Obi-Wan was to be an auror someday. Running into the line of fire was surely a requirement of such a field.

All he could think of was how he knew what it was like to be forgotten. If there was even a small chance of preventing someone else from befalling that fate, he had to try.

Running across the slick stone walkway proved itself to be even more difficult than walking had, but Obi-Wan was utilizing the forward motion that the ice provided him for acceleration. The sky above him was almost completely black- as though Hogsmeade was at risk for being sucked into outer space. Suddenly, the cold that Obi-Wan felt no longer seemed to be as a result from the climate.

He’d studied dementors a good deal over the years and objectively understood how they drained a person from their hopes and dreams, removing the parts of them that basically made them human, but he realized then that he never really knew. He wasn’t even the target for these dementors and just being in their presence made him feel like all color was depleting from the landscape.

He forced himself through it, focusing on the task at hand and what purpose that gave him. He decided to slide by the (now closed) butterbeer stand at the end, where he’d last seen Rabé. After all, it was entirely possible that he was the last person to see her alive. That certainly didn’t give him much comfort.

He turned his head from side to side, trying with a last stitch effort to see if she’d taken refuge in one of the closed shops. The keepers were kind and would more than likely house a lost student during a crisis such as this.

As dread pooled deeper in the pit of his stomach and his body struggled to fight off the shaky chill that climbed its way up his spine, he dared to look up, noticing that the dementors were no longer searching, but swarming. The snowfall only seemed to thicken, which was rather unfortunate as Obi-Wan had to swipe his arm over his eyes several times to continue seeing.

They congregated at the Three Broomsticks- in front of which, Obi-Wan did not stop, but in his haste, did meet the bloodshot amber eyes of none other than the Dathomirian known as Maul. In their midst, Obi-Wan found he would rather embark on a lengthy stay with a dementor than look another second into the killer’s eyes. He was leaning back in his seat with casual aplomb and raised his stein of butterbeer as though in cheers or celebration, selling the chilling lack of regard for life with a cruel smile curling his black and red lips.

It was if he was saying, “I’ve won.”

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly and averted his gaze immediately, understanding that this might be his final moment. If that were so, he would use it wisely.

“No, you won’t.”

Maul’s smile broadened, resembling the actual devil as he did so.

Yes, Obi-Wan was definitely about to die.

However, the moment ended as quick as it started, for once the dementors dive bombed past Obi-Wan and straight for Maul, he flipped a galleon into the air and caught it, allowing himself to disappear to whatever rock he dragged himself from before.

Obi-Wan only thundered forward until he arrived at the end of the limits of the town, sighing deeply and wincing at the wreath of frost that circled his head as he caught his breath. He was immensely cold and with nothing to do about it and worse, began to feel quite defeated. Part of him wanted to rationalize that Rabé did likely go back to the castle. However, whether it was intuition or simply an unknown magic in the air, he could practically feel the presence of another.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed something poking out of the snow- just next to an old townhome, and drew closer. His steps were heavy and without hopeful anticipation as he regarded the gray fingers breaking through the massive snowdrift.

He knelt down slowly, and raised his wand to blow away the piles of snow and ice and used his hands to remove the last remnants on his own. Attached to the outstretched hand, which served as much as a warning as it did a signal of distress, was the petrified gray face of Rabé.

***

“You have to go back for him!” Satine demanded as she was practically carried by Fisto all the way back to Hogwarts. It had been the only way they were able to prevent her from slipping after Obi-Wan in a panic-induced gut-reaction. She believed he was an idiot for running off the way he did, but that wasn’t to say she didn’t understand the feeling.

“The dementors are mobilizing, Satine!” Windu turned on her with fire in his eyes, “Had Mr. Kenobi not been so uncharacteristically impetuous, we wouldn’t be here.”

“And there would still be a lost child out there!” She growled, not usually one to ever speak to a professor so brazenly, but this was Obi-Wan they were talking about, and she would always be a bit irrational when it came to him. “It doesn’t seem like anyone really cares about that though!”

“Not care? I would lay down my life for every single one of you. Do you think it pleases me to know that not one, but two students could be suffering at the hands of that animal on my watch?” Windu said hotly, “But I cannot jeopardize the dementors potentially catching a murderous sociopath. Obi-Wan would not want me to do that!”

She knew deep in her bones that he was right, but she didn’t take to it any better, instead feeling bile rise up her throat- only subdued by the way it seemed to constrict at the wretched thought of losing her best friend. The cold weight of pure dread settled on her chest, evaporating her fury and nearly suffocating all logical thought.

Nearly.

She turned on her heels back to Ravenclaw house, who were staring at her with a mixture of sympathy and shock. Satine knew she had the capacity to lose her patience, but she tried to always do so with some semblance of professionalism.

“We’ll go find him ourselves then!” Cody, equally as heated as she had been, raged alongside Echo and Fives. All were still dressed for the winter and had their wands at the ready.

“You will do no such thing.” Professor Fisto pulled Cody back by the arm, “Headmaster Yoda is the only one who can save your friend now.”

“What was the point of teaching us all that stuff if we aren’t going to use it?” Cody fired.

“In the event that there is an inescapable situation, Cody.” Fisto said, “I commend your bravery, but there is a line between courage and stupidity.”

“So, that’s it?” Echo chimed in, “We’re just going to run and hide every time a bad guy comes knocking on our door?”

“Yeah, you’re supposed to teach us defense against the dark arts!” Fives added, “I’d say Maul qualifies.”

“Maul is much more than any of you can understand or handle.” Windu’s voice no longer spoke with anger, but from a deep place that teetered on remorse and pity. There was a defeated look in his eyes that Satine would never forget, as though Maul had already won.

“Glad you’ve all been effectively wasting our time then.” Cody snarled, “Propping us up and making us feel as though we’re really doing something all year. What has all of this been? Some show for the Ministry?”

A few other Gryffindors pooled around him and it occurred to Satine just then that if Cody hadn’t been so set on pursuing Quidditch as a career, that he’d make a mighty fine commanding officer. People rallied behind him. They believed in him.

She just wished that call to order wasn’t coming from a place of wishing to fight a dark lord.

“Cody, I highly recommend that you stand down.” Fisto said, “I get that you’re upset, but we need to remain calm. Take your brothers back to the Great Hall and wait for further instructions.”

Cody was teeming with anger- she could tell just looking at him and for a moment, she feared he was going to act brashly. Windu seemed to think the same thing judging by the appraising look he gave him.

He didn’t move, but he did send Echo and Fives back with the Gryffindor prefects and the rest of the house. The other houses and their respective prefects trickled afterwards, each going to the Great Hall for what was surely to be another lockdown.

“Great, another sleepover.” Fives huffed as he went.

“Yeah, telling ghost stories by candlelight altogether will surely keep us safe.” Echo complained under his breath.

“I thought I said-” Fisto began.

“-I’m not leaving until Kenobi is found.” Cody said, “Dead or alive.”

“Don’t you dare talk like that.” She seethed, grabbing his attention instantly and Cody, to his credit, did appear riddled with guilt at her reaction.

“Sorry.” He muttered.

“I expect this level of irrationality from Cody.” Windu said and eyed Satine, “But not you.”

“I’m not leaving either.” She said, clutching Obi-Wan’s robe tightly between clenched fists, “Consequences be damned.”

Where she thought there would be retribution or even more yelling, there was not. Fisto, of the two of them, actually appeared more upset. Windu, instead, nodded slightly. It seemed he understood that this was a battle he would not be winning today.

Satine scanned the area, remembering someone very curious to be missing from the pack. As if it were possible, more horror gnawed at her nerves, “Where’s Anakin?”

That was Maul’s whole purpose for scouting out the school, right?

Windu grimaced, “He did try to sneak out to Hogsmeade earlier.”

Her eyes widened, “But he’s alright?”

“It is to my understanding that young Skywalker is with Professor Jinn.” Palpatine swerved around the corner, dark cloaks flowing behind him dramatically as he reconvened with the professors, “Any update on Maul?”

“No,” Windu said tartly, “But seeing as our students have been debating on staging a coup, it might have been useful to have your presence, Professor.”

The tension, as it was, seemed unbreakable.

“My apologies, Professor Windu, but I will say these students have the right to be upset. All of our efforts to protect the school have thus far failed.” Palpatine said.

Satine also couldn’t blame everyone for being upset. In their effort to make everyone feel safe, they only propped them up with delusions of grandeur. There was a fine line to walk between keeping the student body informed and propagating debilitating fear- at least in this predicament.

“You’re here now.” Fisto said, “That’s what counts.”

Satine wasn’t so sure, but then again, Maul hadn’t broken in yet.

“Surely, it’s not wise to have students so close to the entrance.” Palpatine said.

“Yes, well, it also wasn’t wise to allow Anakin so close to your Vitamix potion.” Windu countered, “I guess we’re all doing things a bit differently right now.”

Palpatine seemed properly slapped by that, because there was little argument that could be brought up to counter the comment. That was, indeed, what happened and it left the school wide open for possible attack.

“Yoda should be back any minute.” Fisto paced the floor, his wet boots making a squeaking noise as he did so, “And hopefully, he has good news.”

“If not?” Cody asked.

“If not, we might have to help him and if that’s the case, you two will stay back.” Windu ordered.

Even Cody didn’t argue with that logic.

Not but a moment later, erratic banging came from the metal door, growing more desperate as the seconds went on. Palpatine leaned forward as if to open it and Fisto grabbed his wrist before he could perform the charm.

“There’s a password.” Fisto said.

“And why would Maul just come knocking on the front door?” Palpatine scoffed.

“Maul is anything but conventional.” Windu reasoned.

Cody and Satine looked between each other as the three professors deliberated. They were beginning to understand why it sometimes felt like it took forever for anything to get done. No one could agree on the simplest things.

“What if it’s Ben?” Satine stepped forward, “You’ve said it yourself that the tunnels are blocked off now.”

“Yoda would have found him and brought him back by apparition.” Fisto said.

“And if he didn’t?”

Windu opened his mouth to respond, but then from a familiar voice, “HELLO THERE? IS ANYONE THERE?”

She glared between the three professors, who were all a bit dumbstruck as they hastily moved to open the door. As it swung open unceremoniously, her heart resumed beating as Obi-Wan Kenobi, pale, drenched and speckled with snowflakes, practically fell through the entryway.

She moved on instinct rather than thought and caught him in a tight hug, combatting the sharp chill that traveled up her spine at his frigid body with the warm relief that he was alive. She only removed herself enough to tightly wrap his robe around his shoulders before pulling him closer.

“Get him some blankets!” Windu ordered while Palpatine was simultaneously brewing a warm beverage from thin air. Satine, for her part, could not let go.

“N-nice t-to see you t-too.” He shivered and did not reject the warm contact.

“You’re an idiot, Obi-Wan Kenobi.” She muttered into his shoulder, but it really didn’t have as much fire as she would have liked it to- not when he looked so pitiful with wet hair in his face, teeth chattering, and a nose and cheeks red from the cold.

“I’m aware.” He said.

“You could have been killed!”

“I know.”

“And you really couldn’t have at least brought your robe with you if you were going to go running off on a deadly mission?”

“You’re right.”

“Stop agreeing with me!” She leaned back and glared at him.

“My apologies,” He smiled ruefully, but it faded almost instantly, “All the trouble I’ve caused, I’m afraid it was for nothing.”

“What do you mean?” Fisto cut in.

“I saw him.” Obi-Wan’s voice was hollow when he said it. His eyes became downcast as he reminisced, “And Rabé. I couldn’t move her on my own… She was frozen in carbonite.”

Windu cursed, scrubbing a hand over his bald head, “And Maul?”

“Gone.” Obi-Wan said, “He used a portkey before the dementors could get to him.”

***

The dementors separated like parting clouds, allowing for remnants of dwindling sunlight to cast a yellow beam onto Hogsmeade. Even with the sunset behind it, the usually buzzing and quaint town looked barren without the lively folk that inhabited it. It was to their best interest to hide, of course, and he knew that once this awful storm passed, they would return again. Yoda moved slowly through the snow, feet unbothered by the crunch of the ice beneath him.

He had no doubt that Maul was here, but held equal assurance that he no longer was. His protective charms were supposed to stop people from getting in, not out.

He grimaced as he knelt to the Slytherin girl’s motionless body- frozen in time with a horrific expression painting her features. She would need to join the growing group that took up beds in Madame Nema’s hospital wing. He just hoped with everything in him that they could make this right.

It tugged at his heart that children always seemed to be the ones to suffer for the choices of adults. This one was not excluded as Yoda and the other professors deemed that it would be safe.

It should have been safe.

He cursed as he thought back to the extensive lengths he’d gone to in protecting the school. He was exhausted, constantly firing off on all cylinders to keep this place safe. Even Hogsmeade hadn’t been exempt from his reach.

Well it had, but it seemed the small window of Maul’s murder in Diagon Alley to Yoda waking up from the botched Vitamix potion was the hole he’d crawled through. The dementors hadn’t detected him, which was a whole other concern that he would need to investigate at a later time.

There were so many ways that they failed.

Yes, well, this girl’s parents will not enjoy a meager response like that, so he ought to think of something better. Either way, he would not be sleeping well for his hubris. Maul might not storm the castle with his being there, but he was not above dancing around it. He was boxed out for now, but there was only so much that could be done. He had managed to convince them to disallow apparition for the time being without Ministry approval. This combined with the monitorization of the Floo network, limited Maul significantly.

However, there were always portkeys, which was the most secure way for a person in hiding to quickly transport. You didn’t need a license for it and you didn’t even leave a trace on your wand in the process.

It seemed Maul was getting significant joy from toying with them by instilling fear. It was just like a dark wizard to play on people’s emotions as such.

And yet…

He looked back down at the girl with a different sort of befuddlement. Not that he was complaining, but why hadn’t he killed her? Was it because it would have drawn too much attention for his liking? That didn’t seem right, though, because he had no problem murdering the guards at Azkaban or that store owner on Diagon Alley. Why utilize this mysterious alternative method now?

It hadn’t been the first time, obviously. There was the first official occurrence in December, not to mention the carbon remnants found in Shmi Skywalker’s flat, and Obi-Wan and Satine’s discovery at the Shrieking Shack.

Maul had certainly developed a predilection for the long con in his time locked away in Azkaban. Yoda would say it was out of character if he didn’t understand how much a man could change from trauma. He’d seen it in his own face and he’d seen it in many other’s. Maul didn’t want to mess up this time. He wanted his target and he wanted it done right.

But why Anakin Skywalker? Surely, Maul didn’t buy into the Chosen One prophecy. And if he did, why the sudden malevolence towards the boy? Nothing from the ancient texts seemed to make any reference to Maul in the slightest. It wouldn’t have affected him in Azkaban.

Would it?

As Yoda waved his wand once to lift the casket of carbon from the ground to float aimlessly behind him, he turned back towards the castle, realizing not for the first time that the more he learned, the more he had to ask.

***

“We were worried you became a popsicle out there,” Cody said as he took off his own robe and coat to also wrap around Obi-Wan. They all sat in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body, each positioned on their own sleeping bag as they faced each other. Despite having been inside for over an hour, Obi-Wan still clutched the blankets that were given to him tightly and didn’t reject Cody’s addition to the pile.

“I’m sure he was more concerned about seeing Maul.” Satine said.

“I’m sure he was.” Ventress sauntered by with her trademark smirk painted on her black-stained lips.

“Come off it, Ventress,” Cody scowled, “Kenobi wouldn’t lie about such a thing. Dementors were there too.”

“They’ve been here the entire time, Fett.” Ventress said, “How many false scares have there been? I’m beginning to believe it’s all conspiracy, myself.”

“It’s that level of thinking that’s going to get someone seriously injured.” Satine said, “Or worse.”

“Maybe then someone will start to take legitimate action,” She sighed almost dreamily, like she was fantasizing about the possibility.

“And I suppose Rabé basically turning to stone was just nothing.” Cody barked.

“A pity, truly.” She inspected her fingernails, which were actually quite noticeably jagged and cracked with chipped black polish, “Have we not noticed that every victim has been pureblood? You don’t hear the Ministry talking about that, of course.”

“What are you getting at?” Satine growled.

“I’m just saying, Duchess,” Ventress displayed her best pout, which coming from her, still had all the appearances of a cat ready to pounce, “I would hate to see a group marginalized by their blood type.”

“Listen here, Ventress-” She clutched his sleeping bag tightly and was surely ready to fire off on a meaningful tangent of her own, but was interrupted by the sound of barreling footsteps coming their way.

Anakin and Rex came sprinting down the aisle and slid onto their knees towards where they sat. Anakin, for his part, skidded right into Obi-Wan and nearly knocked him over by the velocity at which he traveled.

“Where have you two been?” Cody asked.

“We were with Qui-Gon!” Anakin said and looked around to Obi-Wan, “Fives just told us about what happened at Hogsmeade and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Obi-Wan’s heart melted at the thought of Anakin’s concern and ruffled his hair, “Not a scratch on me.”

Anakin nodded in relief, “That’s good. It’s crazy that we both saw Maul today and he didn’t even do anything to either of us!”

Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and the briefly forgotten Ventress all snapped their attention towards Anakin in surprise.

“I’m sorry, what?” Satine was the first to speak.

“When and where did you see Maul?” Cody followed shortly behind.

“And you lived?” It was unclear whether Ventress was surprised or disappointed.

Obi-Wan, in all fairness, was still processing the small twelve year old boy, who presumably alone, faced the bloodthirsty killer that had it out for him. He knew he must have looked horrified, because Anakin’s own worry seemed to grow by just looking at Obi-Wan.

“I’m okay!” He said first, knowing that this was the most important thing, “And for the record, it wasn’t my fault.”

“It was a little your fault.” Rex winced.

“Rex! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Anakin whined.

“What did you do?” Obi-Wan pinched his brow.

“I already told Qui-Gon and he promised me immunity and while I don’t know for sure what that means, I’m pretty sure it means you’re not allowed to get mad.”

“That’s not what it means.” He said.

“Well, then, who’s got a decent ghost story to share?” He tried, looking around to each of them, “Ventress? I’m sure you’ve got some just by looking in a mirror every day.”

“Anakin…”

“Fine…” He sighed, “I… Might have sort of tried to go give Padmé her Valentine.”

“Of all the foolish and impulsive things to do!” Obi-Wan roared instantly.

“You said you wouldn’t get mad!”

“No I did not!” He snapped, “Do you not realize how incredibly dangerous that was? And the kind of risk you were putting yourself at? What would have happened if he had gotten you? I swear, I know you’re young but you need to think in terms of the long-”

“-Mate, not sure you are in the best position to be giving that lecture today.” Cody said, “Seeing as you also ran right into Maul’s clutches.”

“Yeah, really!” Anakin defended, “I heard all about what you did!”

“To save someone!” Obi-Wan rounded on his friend, “Not to retrieve a pretty trinket for a girl I fancy!”

“Based on your taste that’s a good thing.” Ventress scoffed.

Satine, who was admittedly calmer than Obi-Wan, frowned and looked at Anakin, “What happened?”

“If I’m allowed to continue.” He said pointedly before going on, “I wasn’t actually going to go to Hogsmeade. Believe it or not, I’m not completely stupid.”

“You just said-” Obi-Wan’s voice cracked.

“-Ben, let him finish.” Satine admonished.

“Thank you,” Anakin nodded and the kid really had the nerve to look smug, “I wasn’t going to Hogsmeade, but Rabé was and believe it or not, I get nervous too sometimes. I wasn’t sure I would have the nerve to give it to her in person, so I was going to ask Rabé if she could give it to Padmé for me. So, I used the map to follow her, obviously, and was never going to leave the tunnel system. But then about halfway through, I saw him.”

“Maul?” Cody asked in awe.

“No, the boogeyman. Yes, Maul.” Rex rolled his eyes.

“Seems like the same thing to me,” Ventress yawned, clearly unimpressed, “Seeing as Maul can’t be in two places at once, I would say one of you is lying.”

“I’m not lying!” Anakin asserted and looked to Obi-Wan, “And he’s not either.”

“Rabé didn’t just turn to carbonite on her own.” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin’s eyes widened, “He got Rabé too?”

“What do you mean too?” Satine asked.

“I mean, Tiplee was also frozen in carbonite down in the tunnels. I only managed to get away because I must have caught him off guard. I ran as fast as I could.” He patted his pockets, “Dang! I think I dropped the map in the process. Again.”

“Seriously, no more of those for you.” Satine said.

“Not like it’ll be of much use now that Yoda is closing the tunnels again.” Cody said.

“That’s horrible.” Obi-Wan frowned and stroked his chin thoughtfully, “But I wonder why he wouldn’t have come into the school.”

“He’s afraid of Yoda.” Ventress scowled, “Everyone knows that, but clearly, he’s a fool to be leaving all of these little clues around.”

“There’s got to be a bigger plan at play here.” Satine said.

“Like what? Two Maul’s?” Ventress rolled her eyes, “I could see the creep going after Skywalker as that is clearly his primary intent, but Kenobi? Who would bother to go after someone who cowered at his own shadow at one point?”

The particular incident that Ventress was alluding to happened when they were only five years old, he might add, but even in his head it didn’t pack the same impact that she wanted it to. Instead, Obi-Wan flashed her a disapproving look.

“Rabé is a member of your house.” He pointed out, “I didn’t see you running back to save her.”

“Actually, I didn’t see you at all.” Satine added.

Ventress, nonplussed, rolled her eyes dramatically, “Good to know the two of you are still conjuring nonsense that would rival The Quibbler, but if you must know, I was tutoring in the library.”

“Wait a second,” Obi-Wan allowed some of the blanket to slide off of him when he sat up straighter, trying his best to suppress a shiver that immediately followed. He was grateful that Satine set it back into place, “Don’t tell me you’re Hondo’s tutor.”

Ventress furrowed her brow, “Be wary of the tone, Kenobi. My marks often rival your own.”

She wasn’t wrong. Horrible personality aside, Ventress was an exemplary student. Like him, she sort of had to be, given the reputation their respective families upheld.

“I wasn’t underestimating your intelligence,” He said, because he wasn’t a total fool, “But I never took you for a good samaritan.”

“Surely, he’s paying her.” Satine groaned as she leaned back on her hands.

“I don’t need the money, muggle-born.” She hissed.

“Since when has galleons been his only form of currency?” Satine shrugged, “Everyone has a price, is all I’m saying.”

“Fools,” Ventress shook her head as she walked away, “All of you.”

“Yeah, well, when you turn to stone, it’ll match your heart.” Anakin said and stood up, “I’m going to go apologize to Padmé.”

Obi-Wan watched him sadly as he walked over to where the crestfallen group of usually chipper girls huddled together. At least they were able to comfort each other in this trying time. Obi-Wan looked to Cody and Satine, who were both wearing a considerable amount of concern on their features.

He knew their responsibilities as older students and prefects, alike, were only going to rise as the fear and sense of danger increased. Anakin had nearly come to his end if he hadn’t been so quick on his feet. He supposed those dueling classes did have their uses if implemented properly. As it were, Maul would likely not make the same mistake twice.

***

The atmosphere was much more subdued than most Quidditch mornings. Even Cody found himself sitting quietly across from where Obi-Wan was falling asleep over a plate of pancakes. Ventress was the only one not subdued, she was glaring around at her team, snarling at anyone not paying attention to her. He didn’t think she’d get very far with an attitude like that. As captain, sometimes the best thing you could do was read the mood of your teammates.

Obi-Wan’s head dropped forwards almost landing in the syrup before Satine managed to pull him back without even a glance over. He blinked, looking around like he hadn’t even been aware they were in the Great Hall in the first place.

“Might want to eat something, mate,” Cody suggested, gesturing to his plate that he seemed surprised was loaded even if he had done it himself.

“Right,” He did so without another word. Satine looked fairly volatile this morning, having woken up extremely early for a morning patrol so there wasn’t much conversation for them to be had. He was tired too, having been picking up a few patrols of his own. Palpatine’s accidental sleeping potion may have been an unfortunate idea, but a few extra hands that could take on prefect duties were still welcomed. It’s not like Cody could say no after watching his friends be run ragged.

“You sure you’re going to be awake enough to stay on a broom?” Cody asked as they both watched a piece of pancake fall slowly off his fork. Obi-Wan just nodded looking up with a sigh.

“We’re all tired,” He nodded towards where Koth had passed out at the breakfast table. Aayla and Cin were awake enough to doodle on his face so it maybe wasn’t the entire team, “Hopefully this will make for a short game.”

“Hopefully,” He nodded, but he wasn’t sure he was honest in his statement. Ventress was looking especially poisonous this morning and wouldn’t take anything sitting down, “Maybe we shouldn’t be playing anyways.”

Obi-Wan and Satine both looked at him like he’d just grown a second head and he met their looks with a glare.

“Who are you and what have you done with Cody?” Kenobi squinted at him as if checking to make sure he hadn’t been cursed.

“I think hell must have frozen over,” Satine added with a nod, “I never thought I’d hear Cody Fett, not want anything to do with Quidditch.”

“Hey! Woah!” He shook his head quickly, “I never said that.”

They both raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes.

“Even I am not enough of a sports fan to look past the elephant in the room,” He jabbed his fork at them, “Maul’s close and we’re just going to take the whole school outside? Again? Plus, morale is down,” Instead of gesturing to the two obvious examples in front of him, he pointed to Koth, who had just woken up and hadn’t figured out why everyone was laughing at him yet.

“When you put it that way...” Obi-Wan flicked his eyes to the professors, who were desperately trying to keep warm inviting facades. He took a sip of pumpkin juice.

“Why go through all this trouble for such a barbaric game anyways,” Satine glowered, “We need a break from potential violence not more.”

Cody knew explaining the dynamics of Quidditch would not change her mind any so he kept his own thoughts to himself on the matter. He thought of Quidditch as a much needed break most of the time. But it was hard to deny the fact that only a few people would be having a good time today and that wasn’t how he felt a healthy Quidditch environment should be.

The screech of an owl alerted everyone to the arrival of the morning mail. It was always a little hectic, but it didn’t stop them from being able to spot one of their three owls if it chose to show up. The only owl Cody could recognize was a large tawny one. Well manicured and, if memory served, sharp talons. Obi-Wan barely avoided getting his letter dropped on his head, his hand flicked up to catch the falling parchment with deft precision. As most letters from his parents, he was careful to shield it so Satine couldn’t see, something that always had her frustrated despite knowing that it was fair given the nature of these letters.

Obi-Wan read the whole thing in lightning speed, eyebrows furrowing the further he got, although he nodded before swiftly depositing it on the table next to his plate. His owl swooped down again landing on his head causing him to wince.

“Alright message received,” He tried to pick up the pesky owl, but it looked rather indignant to be manhandled. Still because he was gentle and fed him a bit of breakfast, the owl allowed itself to be set on his arm, “Tell them they’re early,” He tried saying it quietly enough so neither of them would hear, unfortunately they were both rather intune to his voice. If an owl could show emotions, which Cody had, up until this moment thought untrue, Obi-Wan’s owl would look almost melancholic for a moment. A hard thing to do for a bird that had permanent angry eyebrows colored into its feathers.

It took off in a hurry, nearly taking off a few heads as it went and disappeared back into the flock it had arrived with.

“What did they say?” Satine asked, as she usually did, but he just shrugged.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” He gave her a smile, but she frowned.

“That never makes me feel better,” She told him sternly. He just shrugged.

There was a loud pop and they all looked up to see Palpatine and Qui-Gon standing at the head of the Great Hall, the two of them would be escorting both teams outside and to the pitch. It was best to have an experienced teacher at the helm and who better than those who had earned their titles as Heads of House.

Obi-Wan stood swiftly, accepting their well wishes and good lucks, before falling into line behind Eeth. Satine was watching them leave with narrowed eyes and Cody wasn’t sure what was going on, but she certainly looked much more focused than earlier. She slid her hand across the table, snatching the note from where he’d left it, clearly for the trash pile, and spread it open.

“Should you do that?” He asked even if he was curious himself, he wasn’t about to get accused of reading other people’s mail.

“It’s a suspicious piece of parchment I found unattended,” She lied as she peered down at it. Her nose scrunched up in disgust as she read it just loud enough for him to hear.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,

As you are about to turn 17, we remind you once again of your duties and expectations. In one year you will turn 18 and we’ll discuss then your future. Despite your best attempts to undermine our plans we will do what we can to work around your failure.

Don’t expect a gift this year, you received one last year and we’ll be happy to give you one when you turn 20. Consider continuing to go to school despite your constant disappointments gift enough.

-Mother”

Cody felt the grip on his fork tighten as he stared a hole through the paper. A correspondence with Obi-Wan’s family really was never pleasant, but did they have to be so outwardly despicable? What surprised him most was the excitement lighting up Satine’s eyes as she read the letter over again.

“Brilliant!” She grinned and he practically snapped his fork in half.

“What’s so brilliant about those two bastards continuing to tighten the noose around his neck?” Cody growled and Satine looked up, having the decency to look aghast.

“Oh heavens no,” She looked sick at the thought, “That’s not what I was referring to at all. How could you think-?”

“-How could I not? Maybe hell is freezing over,” He ran a hand down his face as she rummaged around in her bag before shoving plates and goblets out of the way, nearly toppling a few over. She set down a massive book-like object with a white exterior and silver rings. It was full to the brim with pages and she opened it up excitedly.

“It’s a binder,” She told him at his look before moving on to what must have been the important thing at hand, “You know how Ben’s rather dodgy about his birthday?” Cody nodded, “Well I’ve been tracking him ever since 2nd year,” She flipped around in the binder and Cody could see so many color-coded graphs it made his head spin.

“You did this? For what?”

“If he won’t tell us, I’ll find out on my own,” She glared sternly at a picture of Ben that blinked up at her from the page, “That’s what I told him,” She flipped through it, pointing at various sections, “I was able to surmise that his parents tend to have a letter pattern. They only send him mail on major holidays or if he’s done something they disapprove of.”

“When is that not the case,” He muttered.

“I was able to narrow it down after a few years to February or March,” She was in the back of the book now where a calendar full of crossed out dates sat, “It was confusing, sometimes they sent him a letter end of February like this one,” She waved the letter at him, “Sometimes it was in March. This is the first time I’ve been able to read one,” She grinned proudly tucking the letter into the back pocket for evidence purposes.

“What good does that do? They didn’t say what day it was,” Cody studied the calendar in interest.

“It does a lot of good!” She pulled a fancy highlighter from her bag, “He said they were early, meaning it can’t be any of these dates,” She ran her finger through most of the month. They only had a few days left until March though, maybe she’d figured out the month, “Most importantly!” She looked at him face as serious as it was when she was taking her OWLs, “They said they got him a gift last year-”

“Yeah a ruddy gift,” Cody frowned, “What good is an antique quill if it doesn’t even work?”

“I agree,” She said impatiently, “That’s not the point. They said they’d get him another one when he turned 20. He turned 16 last year-”

“Your point?” Cody was beginning to get lost and would rather she hurry up her point than leave him thinking.

“He doesn’t have a birthday this year at all!” She announced and Cody straightened, staring at her in shock.

“Well that’s not possible!” He declared, “Everyone has a birthday once a year! Even those who don’t care much like Kenobi.”

“It is possible!” She grinned proudly drawing a line on her calendar right between the 28th of February and the 1st of March, “He was born on February 29th! A leap year!”

Cody blinked. That actually made a lot of sense. Kenobi wasn’t a liar and he was sure he’d asked about specific days and been told he was wrong. He’d only seen Kenobi get a birthday present their first year (a pack of gobstones) and their fifth year (the aforementioned broken antique quill). Cody had just figured they wouldn’t ever figure it out unless he told them himself, so he usually just tried to get him a good Christmas present every year. He had noticed Satine had started to give him a present around this time of year, but now they had the exact day.

“Does this mean his parents use that as an excuse to never get him anything?” He frowned and Satine angered instantly.

“I’m almost shocked they haven’t forgotten the date themselves.”

“So,” Cody looked at the little highlighted line indicating the fruition of 5 years of work, “What are we doing about it?”

***

“I still say we should have gone with March 1st,” Cody said from where he was balanced rather precariously on a ladder taping the end of a streamer, “Then we’d be celebrating him having turned 17.”

Satine, who was holding onto the ladder to make sure she didn’t have to take anyone to the hospital wing today, glared up at him, “Absolutely not! He has a February birthday, we’re celebrating it in February. Otherwise he’s going to assume we’ve forgotten it!”

“He doesn’t even know we know it,” Cody rationalized, but came down from the ladder anyways to admire his work with her.

“Alright,” She looked down reading her list. She’d had years to plan this event, he’d never had a party before that she knew of and she wanted it to be perfect, “We’ve got the streamers and the balloons. The guests have been told what time to arrive...” She checked off the boxes as she went, “Can I trust you to go and get the cake without dropping it?” She looked up at her friend and he grinned giving her a thumbs up.

“Oh yeah definitely,” It didn’t instill in her a lot of hope, but he was at least eager to do it.

“Alright go, but hurry!” She checked the time off the clock in the corner. “They’ll be here soon.”

“On it!” He saluted her and raced out the door.

Satine observed her surroundings once more. They’d chosen an empty classroom rather than something elaborate like the Great Hall or too intimate like Qui-Gon’s office. She’d gotten approval, Qui-Gon was to arrive any minute now to supervise. He’d been the only professor she could think of that would understand how important this was to do. She was sure if she’d talked to Windu or even Headmaster Yoda, she’d have gotten shot down before she even began. Qui-Gon knew about Ben’s family though and like her, seemed to want to give him the best experience he could.

There was a spot for the cake on the teacher’s desk as well as plates, utensils, and napkins. The ceiling was practically drowning in streamers of all different colors and balloons were floating around aimlessly. Her and Cody’s presents to him were sitting in a neat pile on a couple of tables pushed together. She hoped he’d get a few more, but hadn’t explicitly said anything on the invitations. It was rather short notice after all.

“You’ve done a wonderful job,” She turned to see Qui-Gon in the doorway. He was holding a colorfully wrapped package which she gratefully took from him placing it on the table next to the other.

“Do you think it’s too much?” The last thing she wanted to do was overwhelm him, but she’d learned over the years it was hard to figure out what would.

“I’m sure we could all do with a little cheeriness,” He said in lieu of answering. Maybe he didn’t know any better than she did.

It didn’t take much more time before the students she’d invited began to arrive. The entirety of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team poured in along with Stass. They’d been a little downtrodden at being beat so terribly by Slytherin, but seemed happy enough to be there. The clones were the next to arrive with Anakin in tow. Anakin proudly added his gift to the stack before going back over to Rex.

Cody arrived again, loudly kicking in the door gingerly holding the cake. It hadn’t gotten squashed which she was thankful for. Behind him was Breha and Bail, both levitating trays of food and a bowl of punch, letting them settle into place on a row of desks.

More prefects appeared as well as a few other students. Hondo had seemed rather pleased to have been invited, but Satine was a little worried about what he had possibly brought as a present. Soon the room was pretty full and Satine shushed everyone as well as she could without shouting.

“Alright I’m going to get Ben,” She announced, “Be ready.”

“Yes ma’am!” The Fett’s all saluted her and the others in the room nodded keeping their chatter to a minimum.

***

Obi-Wan was growing a little concerned. Satine had been the one to ask him to meet her in the library, but she had yet to appear. He’d kept himself occupied with his textbooks, but he was tempted to go out and look for her. It was no sooner than he closed his textbook and stood that she rounded the corner looking rather flustered.

“Sorry I’m late,” She panted as she flipped her hair back and out of her face. It was down today, which was becoming a bit of a rarity and he smiled.

“It’s no trouble,” He said sitting back down, “Was there something in particular you wanted to work on? I’ve already finished my essays, but I can help you with yours.”

“Actually,” She was fidgeting nervously and he gazed up at her in concern, “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we went on a walk first.”

“A walk?” That was an unusual request.

“Yes I- I just think it would be nice, don’t you?” Well, he was hard pressed to deny her anything. Especially something as simple as a walk around the castle.

“Alright,” He agreed, sliding his text book back into his bag. She was scrutinizing him and he looked down to make sure his clothes were straightened, because the last time he’d gotten that look his fly had been undone. Rather embarrassing.

He looked up again, starting in surprise, when he felt a hand in his hair. She gave him an apologetic look as she stepped back.

“Sorry, your hair was messed up,” She told him and he felt his face warm slightly, but she just coughed awkwardly and started walking. He ran to catch up.

He couldn’t help, but to run his own hands through his hair, just to ensure that it wasn’t still a mess, “It’s fine Ben,” She told him as she walked just far enough ahead to force him to follow her path.

“I didn’t think you minded much if it was messy,” He said instead of removing his hands.

“I don’t, I just-” Satine cut herself off with a shake of her head. Obi-Wan was confused, but let his hands finally drop to his sides.

“Well alright?” He wasn’t sure what else to say. She was acting off and he couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe she was upset? But she didn’t look it. Even if she was, the library was perfectly quiet that evening. His heart beat a little faster in his chest as he remembered another time the two of them had been alone, the Christmas party. Did she- were they going to talk about it? He wasn’t sure he knew what to say about such things.

“Ben?” He looked up at his name and she was frowning at him, “Are you alright? You look pale.”

“I’m completely fine,” He confirmed, “Are you?”

“Yes?” Maybe they were both acting a little off this evening.

“Good,” He smiled at her and she returned it easily.

She turned then and walked towards the door of an empty classroom, disappearing inside. What on earth could she want with him in an empty classroom?

He refused to lose her though and quickened his pace until he was pulling the door open only to be assaulted by many loud cheers. It took him a moment to register what they were saying in the first place.

“Happy Birthday!”

His birthday? He blinked, taking in the scene. Many of his close friends were there, his Quidditch team, Anakin, Qui-Gon. All of them were standing there watching him which made him more than a little nervous. The ceiling was decorated in nearly every color of the rainbow and it was complete with balloons. He gripped the strap of his bag, unsure what was expected of him. He certainly had never had a party for himself before.

“Happy Birthday, mate!” Cody appeared in front of him practically dragging him into the room and pushing him towards the professor’s desk. It broke the tension in the room and chatter resumed much to his relief. There were less eyes on him.

“Uhm, thank you,” He managed a smile.

“Look at your cake! We had it made special.”

He looked down in surprise at a white cake decorated with 17 silver candles. Written in delicate blue icing was, “Happy Birthday Obi-Wan!” He’d never had his own birthday cake before, but he’d seen them when Satine or Cody had celebrated theirs. It was kind of them to think of him, he just wished he knew the proper way to respond. The parties he attended usually had scripts to follow and he had never been instructed for one like this.

“It’s chocolate,” Satine’s hand landed right next to his on the desk and he looked up catching her eyes, “I know it’s your favorite.”

“It is,” he agreed almost solemnly.

“Do you like it?” She asked and he nodded quickly, his face heating up, how rude that he hadn’t immediately offered them a thank you.

“Yes of course! I- Thank you,” He told them both seriously, “I’m sorry, I’m just not at all sure how I’m supposed to react.” Satine’s eyes flashed sadly at him for a moment before it was gone and she smiled at him softly, bumping her fingers into his.

“You can react however you’d like,” She assured him, “Yell at me that you hate it for all I care,” He took a step back and nearly tripped over Cody at the insinuation.

“Absolutely not, I’ll treasure it!” He vowed with a stern expression and she laughed a little, it was a sound he quite liked.

“Don’t treasure it too long,” Cody warned him, “Because after we sing to you we’re all going to eat it.”

“Sing?”

Neither of them answered, but he found himself pushed into the professor’s chair and everyone seemed to gather all around him. He felt his face get warm and he hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. Both Cody and Satine were lighting the candles on the cake and right when they were done a rather off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday” was sung and shouted at him. There wasn’t much for him to do except sit there and try to look less uncomfortable. When Fives and Echo finally finished drawing out the last “you” Satine told him to make a wish and gestured for him to blow out the candles. It took him two attempts and he wondered if he looked as foolish as he felt.

Soon, however, everyone was preoccupied with their slices of cake and mingling with one another. Obi-Wan had to admit despite his embarrassment of having so many eyes on him, the cake was rather good. It was certainly his favorite kind from the Great Hall and he was quietly delighted when Satine offered him another piece.

“You know today’s not my birthday,” He told Satine as she sat down next to him cutting into her own slice.

“I know,” She smirked, “I know that your birthday isn’t today or tomorrow, but is actually February 29th. Despite what anyone else may say about this though, is that it’s still worth celebrating even if the day won’t appear again for a few more years.”

He blinked at her, shocked. He knew she’d been interested in figuring out his birthday, but he had assumed she’d dropped it by now, “How did you find out?”

“Years of observation,” It wasn’t a helpful answer, but he had to admire her intelligence in getting this far, “So am I right?” She leaned in close to him, her eyes searching his for the answer.

“Yes,” He answered quietly.

“Kenobi!” Hondo nearly knocked him into his cake when he slapped him on the back, “Why have you not shared your birthday with me before! Hondo gives fabulous presents that one would not wish for in their wildest dreams!”

“Ah thank you Hondo,” He peeled Hondo’s arm off his shoulders. He was fairly sure Hondo was correct in his assumption that he definitely wouldn’t have wished for whatever lurked in Hondo’s present in any of his dreams.

“You’re welcome, my friend! Only the best for one of my closest associates,” He winked at him before waltzing away back into the crowd. Obi-Wan watched him go as Satine stifled her laughter.

“I assumed you’d want to open your presents later?” She asked.

“I have presents?” He looked around the room until he spotted them and blanched. There had to be at least 10 sitting there in a pile just for him, “I can’t accept that,” He looked at her with wide eyes and she narrowed her eyes.

“It would be ruder for you to reject them,” He looked between her and the presents. A catch 22.

“I’m not opening Hondo’s in front of anyone,” He decided and she laughed again.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and they both looked up to see Anakin sprawled out on the floor. Obi-Wan’s heart flew into his throat thinking of a similar event at the last party he’d gone to at this school. Before he could run over there though, Anakin was sitting up with a dopey smile on his face. He giggled.

Obi-Wan let out a sigh of relief, but something still didn’t seem right. Anakin had Qui-Gon’s help to stand up, but he wobbled. He looked a little bit like he was drunk, but he doubted Satine or Cody would spike the punch at his birthday party. Cody seemed to have a similar guess because he took a sip of his own punch and frowned.

“Don’t you think,” Anakin giggled so hard he almost fell down again, “Don’t you think that Miraj Scintel is the most beautiful girl you’ve ever met?”

The room went silent.

“She’s really beautiful,” He said again giggling wildly. He tripped and Qui-Gon just barely managed to catch him.

Half the room broke out into laughter, it was a ridiculous sight, but Obi-Wan was more worried about what the cause of this was. Qui-Gon was too and immediately slapped a cookie out of Hondo’s hand.

“Someone’s snuck a love potion in,” Satine said standing up, looking particularly mad.

“Miraj Scintel by the sound of it,” Cin Drallig raised an eyebrow as they all quietly set their food down.

“Must have been after you Kenobi,” Fives pointed out, “After all this is technically your party.”

“Me?” He barely talked to the girl and found her quite detestable, they were as different as they came.

“It’s possible any of you were the target,” Qui-Gon frowned as he picked up Anakin to keep him from getting anywhere.

“Hey put me down! I need to go tell Miraj Scintel that I love her!” Anakin cried, “Rex, do you think she’ll like me back.”

Rex was looking at Anakin as if he were contagious, but he just gave him an awkward nod and a, “Sure mate.”

“I’ll take him to Madam Nema,” He told everyone and gave a steady gaze at Obi-Wan, “He’ll be fine. In the meantime I’m sorry, but it looks like we’ll have to cut this party short.”

Before long the room had thinned out leaving just Obi-Wan, Satine, Cody, and a mess to clean up.

“You don’t have to help, Ben,” Satine said with a sigh as she pulled out her wand, “It’s your birthday after all.”

“And leave you to do all the work? I don’t think so,” He stood beside her as they both pulled the streamers off the ceiling with their wands. Cody made short work of sending all their food back down to the kitchens. The three of them moved the desks back to where they were meant to before collapsing together at a section of desks in the center of the room.

“Who knew a party would be so much work?” Cody complained as he picked a bit of streamer out of his hair.

“I did,” Obi-Wan answered quietly, “I really appreciate the thought, but I’m not sure I like having all the attention on me.”

“The point of a birthday party is just to be around those that love you,” She told him, “Yeah it’s a little embarrassing being sung too or opening presents, but there are some things in life you just have to accept.”

“I’m not sure,” He would really rather not make such a big fuss about something as mundane as the day he was born. Satine gave him a rather scathing look for a moment before sighing deeply and reaching into her bag.

“Do you remember when I was late coming back to school?” She asked them.

“Only every day,” He complained and Cody just nodded. She sized them both up before pulling out her wallet and, as if it was physically painful for her she pulled out a thin white card.

“I was late because I was getting my driver’s license,” She set the card down in front of them, revealing Satine in rather bad lighting. On the right was a list of identifying information and quite interested, Obi-Wan picked it up to look at it.

Cody immediately had broken into a fit of laughter, catching the end of Satine’s fiery glare, “It looks like a mug shot!”

“That’s why I wasn’t too interested in telling anyone!” She snatched the card out of his hands and Obi-Wan just blinked looking over at her.

“What’s wrong with it? You look lovely,” That comment just made Cody laugh harder and earned him Satine’s glare as well.

“It’s a bloody terrible photo!” She shouted shoving the thing far back in her wallet and stashing it back where it belonged, “The point is,” She emphasized, “Sometimes you have to suffer through some embarrassment in life, I doubt having a birthday party is as terrible as having that as an identifying picture.”

“I don’t see what’s so bad about it,” He looked between Cody and Satine. It showcased her hair and although she wasn’t smiling, in it he could see the softness in her eyes.

“You are unbelievable, Obi-Wan Kenobi!” Satine’s face had gone red, “I show you the worst picture of me forced to exist and you still think being sung too is worse?”

“Let’s open presents!” Cody changed the subject quickly, shoving a shoddily wrapped gift into his hands and trying to whisper, “Come on mate, open it! She already has a mugshot, what’s going to stop her from murdering us.”

“Cody!”

#anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #obitine #anidala #the clone wars #star wars #hpau #magical forces au

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flowerslut · 5 years

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1/2: hiii, i was wondering if you have the time (and/or patience), could you please explain further about vampire age vs. human age when turned and how that effects how they act and what teenage tendencies the vampires will be prone to? like i get the whole child development frozen. can't be taught. but for like the cullens physical age (17-20s?) you're telling me their 50+ years won't affect them at all? like they won't mature mentally at all? learn? does this make sense? it confuses me too tbh

I always have time to procrastinate my real life responsibilities to talk about twilight are you joking

this is going to be long. so uh, apologies, I guess.

I'm no neuroscientist or anything (fucking duh) and I feel like smeyer makes all of her science-esque explanations vague enough to be left up to some sort of interpretation, but with my understanding it all has to do with what the brain can actually do. so, again, while I’m not a neuroscientist, I am a teacher. I did study child development pretty thoroughly back in school and I work with kids that range from infants to 12 year olds. so I’m going to start with an example on child vampires before I answer your question about teen vamps.

here’s the way I see it:

say you’ve got a two year old. alriiiight, lets make that baby a vampire! now, two year olds are basically large babies who are just beginning to function as people. words are there because vocabularies are being built. fine and gross motor skills are lacking but still being actively improved upon. their understanding of the world as a whole is also pretty basic because they can’t grasp larger concepts. sitting down a vampire toddler—even one who has been a vampire for 5 or 10 years—and saying “hey. you’re illegal. which means we have to keep this on the down-low, meaning you have to like, listen, or both you and I are going to to be straight-up murdered by our immortal lawmakers.” isn’t going to get you any results. your little abomination is just going to ignore you after the first 6 words and start to wonder why you’re making such a funny face.

in the words of Piaget, children aren’t “little adults” and literally cannot function as such because their young brains prevent that. they just don’t have the tools.

I know smeyer took all sorts of “it’s supernatural!!” liberties with Advanced-Functioning-and-Brain-Development Renesmee but the way I make her existence work in my head canons is by headcanoning the opposite with her: I want to see the vampire side of her show in more realistic (and less idealistic) ways. where her parents are frozen vampires, I want to see her slowly developing, as opposed to the weird hyper-developing thing smeyer had going in order to age her faster to get her with Jacob quicker, but uh *coughs* we won’t go into that nasty fact. I want to see a Renesmee at her 2 year old birthday party and she’s still the size of a 6 month old. (Emmett blows a noisemaker too close to her head and she bursts in to tears; he’s subsequently banned from the cottage for a month but it’s not like he misses out on anything. Next time he’s over Renesmee has barely grown anyways.)

so while we have Renesmee’s frankly disturbing case, let’s go back to the actual topic:

the thing is, vampire children’s brains aren’t developing. they’re learning, as all children do, but what makes (human) kids wild from a general standpoint is how fast they do it. but again, with the rate at which their brains develop and their bodies grow, of course they’d pick up things so quickly. they sort of have to in order to help them navigate this world around them in which most pieces of information they’re introduced to are 100% new concepts to them.

now, the real question: can vampire children learn. yeah, to an extent, they probably can. but they’re not learning the way you and I do, or the way a normal kid might. let’s go back to our hypothetical two year old baby vamp for a second. so this kid is frozen in time, right? so that means that while they might practice or perfect skills that are usually developed as they grow, they won’t be able to build off of those learned skills and advance them into something more or something better.

for example, a two year old who has learned to catch and throw a ball with someone else will eventually learn how to throw and catch the ball by themselves because their motor skills and hand-eye coordination will improve as they develop.

not with our vampire baby, though. imagine anything you can teach a two-year old with one full day of practice: catching a ball. hopping with two feet instead of just one. putting on a hat by themselves. now, imagine anything you can teach a five-year old in the same period of time. how to tie a knot. how to do a cartwheel. how to recognize specific words. so, with a two-year old vamp who is technically 5 years old, they wouldn’t be able to further their skills like a human 5 year old because they don’t have the tools to build their skills. so while you may have a 2 year old who can catch a ball from a literal half-mile away, they aren’t going to figure out how to tie their shoes even if you worked on it for 6 months. it aint going to work. they’re going to be figuratively left in the dust developmentally and they’re going to stay that way because, you know, the unchanging nature of the vampire deems it so........

now with our poor, unfortunate immortal teenagers. oof. I really feel for them. I mean, as a grown woman I think back to seventeen year old me and cringe sometimes. all people do, but then I imagine if her development had been stunted and she’d been trapped in that body and mindset for an eternity. it really gives a gal some fucking goosebumps, that’s for sure.

I know everyone likes to joke about how Esme is the only person with braincells in the family because she’s the only one with a fully developed pre-frontal cortex, but when you think about the fact that developmentally she really is the only one who should be calling any shots for that family it makes you wonder why smeyer didn’t make the Cullens a matriarchal family (I mean, we know why, but I digress...)

since the Cullens are written by an adult (and Bella, too, for that matter) that’s why when we read the books when we were younger we all most likely thought “oh! they’re all so level-headed and mature!” and they are a little bit. but that’s because they’re written like that. if the Cullens were as developmentally stunted as smeyer claims they are then they’d be every bit as chaotic as the fandom likes to head canon them as. poor impulse control. bad decisions nearly every step of the way. and sure, they’d learn from mistakes. but when faced with a split-second to make a decision it doesn’t matter if you have 50 years of lived experience behind you. that 17-year old brain in that head of yours is going to act and react. ain’t nothing you can do to stop it.

that’s why Edward being like “alright. fuck it. I'm killing myself” in new moon makes sense to me. and it’s why Rosalie being angry and jaded for nearly the entirety of the series makes sense to me. combine their ages and their last human moments and look back on where there development was stunted: a lot of the shit that people complain about their characters will feel like it makes a shitload of sense. it doesn’t matter if they’ve been ‘alive’ for 100 years.

(this whole thing is also why I made Esme the head of ‘the family’ in CotN, for all intents in purposes. bc of fucking course she would be.)

but think about how frustrating it would be, even with the super-vampire-memory, to look back at every single time you gave into the same impulses. sure, you’ll tell yourself you’ll do better next time. and maybe you will. but the brain calls the shots y'all. and while you might think you’re fully in charge of what it has to do or say, you really are only a passenger in this thing. along for the ride.

to finally answer your question: I think, yes. you are going to have teenage vampires who give off an air of maturity to them because of all of their lived experiences. but I still believe having even a 23 year old in charge (because now I look back on 23 and I’m like, hm, yeah. still a baby.) of a coven of vampires is fucking foolish as shit. but I mean, if Carlisle were as ‘smart’ as his medical degrees say he is, with him at the helm of the family the Cullens wouldn’t get into half the shenanigans they do. that pre-frontal cortex development is vital in making sure someone doesn’t give into impulse, can make thoroughly thought-out decisions, and has proper judgement in a variety of ways. without that, it’s a recipe for disaster (i.e. see: the entirety of The Twilight Saga.)

#the twilight saga #now that what I call a proper waste of time #time to get back to errands before work lmaoooo #mine

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doodledialogue · 5 years

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Interview series - What after B.Arch? #16

Interviewee: Ar. Valentin Gheorghian Post-graduation: Masters in Architecture | Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași, Romania

What prompted you to take up Architecture? I wanted to become an Architect ever since we had a school assignment in 4th grade at a subject called “technology” when we had to draw our “ideal house” for us and our family. I loved that assignment so much, took a long time to do it properly, and with excellent results – that then and there I decided this is what I would like to do for a living and started to buy architecture magazines/ magazines with houses.

Tell us about studying Master of Architecture at TUIASI. In Romania architecture studies comprise of 6 years and result in gaining both degrees: Bachelor’s and Master’s. One cannot do just the first one – the first one is meaningless. You are not considered a graduate before you finish year 6, pass all your exams and pass the Graduation/ Degree project (final project, 6 month long).

After graduating Year 4, you continue with Year 5 – which is – in theory – already “Master” level – but nothing changes – it’s a continuous 6 year study cycle, no interruptions, same school, same teachers, same colleagues – only different subjects (more advanced), more projects and more complex projects.

Tell us about the application process. There is no “application process” in the way it’s understood in the UK – one has to pass a gruelling admission exam at one of only 6 universities in the country that have Architecture departments. For that 5-6 hour exam, students train – via private tutoring – for at least a year – because the examination requires excellent hand drafting skills, technical drafting skills and advance descriptive geometry – none of which is being taught in high-schools; in that lies the need to take on private tutoring.

One should start with the application process for 2 years in advance.

What preparation did you do before starting the program? There were 10 days of intensive drawing courses – both technical and hand drafting – organised by the university just before the admission’s exam. These were good and useful for someone who already knew what they were doing – but pointless for someone who didn’t have a clue. Students take a minimum of 1 year of difficult private tutoring (with a lot of homework) to get to the drawing (both technical and freehand) skill level required to pass the admission examination.

In terms of pre-reading for the program– I’ve always enjoyed reading about architecture and buildings – but especially about historical buildings/ cities and the history of architecture.

Did you speak to any alumni/professors of the program? I hadn’t met any architecture students or young architects before joining the program – and it would have been extremely useful to gain some insights and tips & tricks and the subtleties of the university. Had only met old architects/ teachers – the ones with whom I did private tutoring to prepare for my admission exam.

Did you have to give any entrance tests? How did you plan for them? The 6 years integrated study program has a 5/6h entry examination testing freehand drawing, technical drawing and mathematical/ geometry skills. One trains in private for at least 1 year for these.

How long was your program? 6 years – October 1st 2007 – October 2013. There is no flexibility regarding fall/spring semesters.

Did you have post-study plans in mind when you took it up? Just went with the flow. Now, however, I am planning to do a PhD in a related field and go into teaching at an Architecture University - because I am astonished about the low wages in the Architecture field - as opposed to other skilled careers - and I would do this as a way to supplement my income. I love teaching as well and I think it would be an excellent for for me - but the main reason is the financial one.

Did you have to apply for a visa? Non-applicable – neither in my home country of Romania (where the bulk of the program took place) – nor during the time spent abroad – which was all spent inside the EU – thus not requiring visa.

How was the experience at the school? Very difficult yet very rewarding at the same time. Longer hours, more courses, more seminars, more projects and more time spent on projects – than any other university that I know of. Less time for socializing and leisure activities than any other students. Longer academic year: from the 1st of October – start of the academic year – until mid-July (end of “practical training” week/ weeks)

How was the teaching and learning environment at your school? Every class (year of study) had their own classroom - 6 years of study – 6 classrooms. There were roughly 50 people per year of study/ class – but never would everyone show up (except perhaps some exams) – so everyone could fit in. Apart from these 6 classrooms – there were 2 multi-function rooms/ projection rooms, amphitheatre type (although not sloped) for projections and special presentations, and an IT lab with computers. That’s it – those were all the available spaces (small school, intimate, student-oriented).

Classical style of teaching – you go in class – just like during high-school – and the teacher teaches for 2h their subject – with either a 10min break between classes, or a small 5min cigarette break mid-way. Most difficult or practical subjects also had “seminars” same duration, same location – during which we would do exercises and problem solving

The frequency of the classes depended on the year of study. The busiest teaching schedule was in year 1 – and decreased progressively towards year 6 – when there are no taught classes at all (only non-supervised individual work on the final project, “degree project” and on the Dissertation – at the same time). Year 1: 6-8hours of classes per day, every day. Year 5: about 3-4hours per day. Year 6: 0. The decrease in number of taught hours was compensated by an increase in number of projects (like “homework”): in year 1 students only had to work on projects in the main school subject, “architectural design” (counting for half of all study credits). This grew up to year 5 – when there were projects to be worked on at home for at least 10 school subjects, such as: urban planning, interior design, special structures, construction materials, and so on.

There was no time for other things – not even a shade of social life. Architecture life occupies ALL your time, at least during uni.

Tell us more about the mentors. One would meet mentors/ teachers/ assistants whenever one could find them around the school or in their office – in years 1-5. There was no formality in the method used to meet with them, no “appointments”, nothing like that. In year 6 – final year – it would be even easier – one would have personal contacts for one’s degree/ final project mentor, as well as a few others with whom one would have a close collaboration for their final project – such as a structural engineer/ structures professor. These meetings would either take place somewhere in the university – or at that teacher’s private practice – most if not all of them also had their private practices and would be project architects on their own. Despite this ease in meeting and approaching – there was and is a much higher degree of formality in addressing/ interacting with teachers – as compared to the

UK or the west. One would NEVER address a teacher/ tutor/ assistant by their first name, for example; that would be a sign of huge disrespect.

Did your institute have any support system for international students? Any incoming international students would come through the Erasmus program, and would stay for half a year, usually in years 3 or 4. There were very few of these – maybe 2-3 per academic year – due to the fact that Romanian architecture and architecture education is completely unknown internationally.

As a general rule – these internationals would live like princes – would enjoy a much easier life than locals/ regulars. The teachers were way more lenient towards them – on one hand – so they would get high marks regardless of their academic performance, and on the other hand – they always had money. Erasmus scholarships barely cover half of one’s living costs in a country such as France (where I had studied as an Erasmus student) – but are way more than needed in a cheap country such as Romania – so sweet life!

Were you involved in research projects while studying? I was involved in all research projects, volunteering activities, publications, work camps and anything related to the subject, both internally and abroad – as visible from my CV. Those abroad were taking place in either English or French. I’ve never seen/met any students from the UK taking part in any of these – thus gaining the impression that UK students are very inward-looking – as opposed to EU students who are very open-minded and open and international and love foreign exchange programs and so on.

Tell us about your time abroad? My 6 month Erasmus program was spent in ENSAP [École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture et de Paysage] Lille, France - and I lived on campus through the duration of the exchange.

It was a brutally difficult program - not because of the academic level, which wasn’t any higher than back in Romania - but because of the density of classes, amount of project work outside of hours spent in uni, and the (lack of) dedication of my teammates (all projects were done in teams). I regret not having more fun and a social life during my Eramsus - such as most of my friends had - those who went to different countries and destinations - but there was nothing I could do about it.

Could you tell us in brief what your thesis/dissertation/final project was about? My thesis/ dissertation was about gentrification and urban regeneration – with case studies of several post-industrial global cities: Paris, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Detroit; contemporary urban challenges – in very different political/ social/ economical contexts. Differences, similarities, solutions. My final project was an Immigrants Integration Centre in central Paris – combining urban regeneration of a brownfield (urban planning part) with architectural design of 9 individual buildings – a small “city within a city”

The dialogue with my supervisor went smooth and on friendly terms – one chooses their supervisor based on one’s previous grades – and as I finished years 1-5 3rd in my generation (3rd highest score) I could obviously choose whichever tutor I wanted – and chose the one that I had the best relationship with.

What were the frequency, duration and structure of the meetings with supervisor?

All of this was flexible and down to our own (me and the tutor’s) preferences, schedules and available times. Usually we would meet either in my tutor’s practice or at university, for a couple of hours, every 2 weeks or so, and go through the work. Sometimes I would send the latest over email the day before – just to give them the chance to take a look and make some notes – but this wasn’t always possible.

What challenges did you encounter?

The scale of my project and complexity and limited time. I practically managed to finish a volume of work 5 times greater than most of my peers. Practically in 6 months’ time, I did my urban planning dissertation project (a 65-page theoretical analysis, on the subject mentioned above), the urban design of my site, and the full architectural design of 9 large buildings, plus the presentations and graphics of all the aforementioned.

How did you manage the finances? There is NO tuition fee – Education is completely free in Romania – for all levels all the way up to PhD. One only needs to cover for living expenses. My parents covered my living expenses – which – in Iasi, Romania – amounted to less than 200GBP/ month. For example: monthly rent in student dorm: about 50 GBP- all expenses included (heating, electricity, broadband, and so on); local transport card – unlimited travel – 1 month – about 5GBP (yes, five, I am not missing a zero or two J). Some people worked part time/ full time to cover for some/ all of their living expenses. Given the fact that school work required at least 70 hours per week (total - both “home” and “in class”) meant that those who worked were not very good students, and usually missed/ skipped class.

Did you volunteer/work part-time job/intern while studying?

I did only a short stint just before year 6 in a small architectural practice in a small city. It is compulsory to work for 3 months in a supervised way in a practice – and submit reports of what exactly you have been doing there – to be accepted to begin your final/ graduation project and dissertation. I got the job through an older friend’s recommendation – she had already been working there.

How did you choose your accommodation?

I chose a student residence on the university campus. In year 1 nobody is allowed to choose – one is simply allocated a place in a student residence in the campus – if one doesn’t wish to live elsewhere (rent out) – but after graduating year 1 – places are given based on the student’s past performance and grades – and one is allowed to choose. Based on my marks – I always finished among the top 5 people from my class – I always chose what I wanted….though there wasn’t much difference between residences. The ”commute” was a 20min walk – from campus to the Architecture School (all classes and exams took place in the same building – the architecture school building – up to year 5; in years 5 and 6 one might have to do some assignments in a few other buildings – all actually closer than the architecture building)

I considered several factors such as campus student life, proximity and contact with colleagues, proximity to the university, proximity to the shopping mall (there was 1 shopping mall in the city – right there next to campus), social contacts, costs – much lower than renting out while choosing my accommodation.

Did you travel while studying? I had never visited another country before university. By the end of university, I had travelled to over 20 European countries, mostly for studying their culture, architecture and history. Did a 6 month long Erasmus exchange program in France (at ENSAP Lille), an international volunteer restoration work camp in St. Tropez (France) as well as summer universities and specialization courses every summer during my studies – such as at the Bauhaus Architecture school in Dessau, Germany.

How do you think the Master’s degree helped you? By allowing me to be a registered Architect in the UK, EU and RO. Without it I could have only worked as a “draftsperson”

Did the city you studied in play a major role during your study? Yes it did – Iași is a great city to study in – perfect size for a university city (a third of the city is student-population), cheap, interesting, cultural, laid-back: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ia%C8%99i

Could you tell us about your current work and future plans? I’m working as an Architect and BIM specialist in central London. Depending on the economic prospects in Britain after Brexit – I might move back to France. It was a gamble moving here – having to choose between Paris and London – between the Euro and the Pound Stirling – and the balance tipped in favour of the UK because the GBP was a more valuable currency at the time. Right after the Brexit vote, the Pound dropped by 20% in value – on international markets. What can I say? Very bad timing…my reasons for being here (and not elsewhere) keep disappearing.

Looking back was there anything you would have done differently? I really wish I had worked less and had more fun. I could have had a similar result by working smarter but less – and having more fun. I’d always been afraid to not be a workaholic and go above and beyond. Too bad.

What message would you like to give those planning their post-graduate studies? Think about actual job prospects and the career you want to pursue – and study the market; plan accordingly. Work smart, don’t work more! Have fun – in a smart way – these years are never coming back! Social interaction will never be as easy and with so many opportunities ever again – take full advantage of this! It’s all downhill after graduation – in terms of social life ☺ Seriously, no kidding…

Presenting our team's project at EBEC [European Best Engineering Competition] Romania & Republic of Moldova - National Stage

Presenting our team's project - and winning first place - at SUC 12 [Summer University Carinthia] - Villach, Austria

Architect's chat at Bauhaus Summer University, Dessau, Germany

Presenting a school project in front of the Dean of Harvard Universty - Graduate School of Architecture and Design

Specialization course in Kosice, Slovakia - international team

Year 1 - working in the studio - hand drafting

Year 1 or 2: working in the university student dorm

With colleagues from uni

Exploring Luxembourg's contemporary architecture - European Quarter

Study trip in Venice for the Architecture Biennale

#Architecture #architecture students #romania #masters in architecture #iași #whatafterbarch #architect #Architects

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moonbelt · 7 years

Text

»whiplash | 01

↳ fake dating au | college au

⇢ pairing: chanyeol | reader

⇢ genre: soft angst + fluff + sexual themes

⇢ word count: 8.059

⇢ description: as an aspiring big-shot photographer in a slump, you’re looking for something that inspires you and unfortunately — or maybe not — it comes in the form of a guy named Chanyeol.

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

There was nothing particularly fascinating about love — in your opinion. To be frank, you thought the whole experience of butterflies in your stomach, fire in your veins as you fell in love was one of the most ridiculous clichés ever created. The idea of love, at first sight, was amusing to the say the least. Everyone wants to believe in things written between starry nights and coffee dates. But at this point in life, you'd resigned yourself to think that kind of love only existed through the confines of recorded videos and fabled literature. Why build yourself up only to have it ripped apart?

However, the minute your camera lens catches a glimpse of him, against your own will and everything you know, the only thing your eyes can focus on is him.

There are two kinds of people in this world: people that love and appreciate art and the people who just don't. And as you stand with the spring heat beating down hard on your neck, the fabric of your t-shirt relentlessly sticking to your skin, you're glad that you fall into the first category. If you weren't, there was a high chance you'd be more irritated by the lack of quality in the photos you had spent all afternoon trying to capture.

Taking deep breaths, you continue to snap away. You aren't sure what exactly in the world you're looking for, but you know something is missing. You'd hoped that coming to a more languid environment would push you to find it but, it was proving to be futile. In particular what you are searching for is something with a bang! effect. Something that immediately makes you think this is the one.

Mindlessly, you fiddle with angles as you take snips of rolling waves across the beach's shore. It's early April, and although technically it's still spring, it feels like summer. The beach is, for the most part, abandoned except for the few tourists loitering about and for the umpteenth time that day you wonder why you decided to camp out here. The park, or anywhere with relatively more people, would've been better.

There's a smile on your face though as you stop to check the photos you've recently taken. Most of them come out better than you expect; you're lucky the light reflecting on the surface water makes it appear to be crystalline. Damn, these are good ones, you think to yourself in accomplishment. You'd only taken up photography a few years ago and compared to the people in your advanced class in college, you were far behind regarding skill. But you aren't going to allow that deter you. That's why you had come to the beach in the first place because you were determined to find something — someone — it didn't matter what, that ignited a fire within you.

Although at this point, you're willing to put a higher bet on getting sunburnt than finding anything useful.

Your professor had held you back after class days ago to discuss your artistic rut. Specifically, she'd asked you to find a muse that “inspired" you. You hadn't realized it, but your work was beginning to come out as mundane and without feeling, or maybe you had realized but didn't bother too much with it. She'd suggested you take the time to figure out what exactly you wanted to portray with your art. The most obvious answer would be pictures that makes one feel at ease. You might be cynical towards to the love epidemic, but you did realize that love came in different forms. For instance, the love you held for photography.

Raising your camera back to your eye level, you scan your immediate surroundings. Click. You capture a little girl in a yellow floral-patterned shirt and matching pants — typical tourist attire. She looks about six, laughing at something her father, you assume, says. You chuckle to yourself as you swing your camera away to take a picture of something else. And that is the moment your lens finally rests upon him.

The sensation that feathers through your body is nothing short of unexpected as your eyes rake over his dark chestnut hair, the single piercings on each earlobe and his relaxed posture as he sits placated to the ground. He reminds you of that one Greek mythology class you took last semester. Precisely, he reminds you of a modern-day Adonis. He doesn't look any different from any of the other tourists around except maybe the fact he's not wearing a bright orange shirt and sandals. Instead, he's fully clothed in denim jeans and a loose-fitting gray sweater. In other words, he is completely out of place, and yet he seems to blend in seamlessly. Before you can stop yourself, you take a picture of him. And then a set of others for reasons you're still unsure of.

In the back of your mind though, you are wary of this feeling. It feels comparable to the how you always imagined walking on clouds must be. Something intangible and exquisite that needs to be held with utmost care. Nonetheless, that does nothing to hinder the impression of emotions on your chest.

With your face still flaccid against your camera's body, you don't take your view from him. Strong winds billow through his hair, and you watch transfixed as his eyes crinkle around the corners. You don't know why but your heart starts to pound faster than you'd ever thought possible. He is beautiful. No, it's more than that. You'd never tried to believe in the something as vain as love at first sight, and this most certainly isn't love per se but it sure as hell is something. He isn't paying attention to you at all — his sights are set farther ahead on the crashing crystal waves, and still, you find out that you can't pull yours away from him.

Your fingers pry the camera away from your face, and you quickly flip through taken photos until you find the first one of him. He looks beyond breathtaking, and you can tell there's a kind of appeal to him. You came here searching for something that you felt had been absent from your art, and the inner feeling in your gut is pointing with blazing neon lights that he might be it.

Hesitantly, you start to make your way towards him but not even a moment in, his eyes flutter up and hook on you. Wow, if I had eyes that gleamed like that, I'd never blink again, the thought fleets through your mind as you halt your steps. The craving to take a snapshot of him looking directly at you is compelling. But at the same time, you have enough rationality to think it to be against his privacy. Instead, you force your legs forward and come to a stop only when you're a pace away from him.

Clearing your throat, you say. "Hey, I was wondering if you'd allow me to take a few pictures of you?" You wave your camera lightly at your side.

There's a beat of silence as he looks you up and down; in your khaki shorts and a loose blue t-shirt, you scream more tourist! than an aspiring photographer. Still, it is one of the comfiest outfits you own, and you figure you'd rather be comfortable than sluggish in this hellish weather.

"Are you studying photography or is it just a hobby?" His voice comes out smooth and tranquil. Now that you're closer to him, you notice his ears. They’re big and they frame his face. It's cute.

"I'm majoring in it," your voice falters a bit, so you quickly add. "I need some good shots for my portfolio."

A small smirk quickly adorns his lips. "And I'm a good shot?"

With more eagerness than he can swallow, you practically throw your camera closer to his face. "Look. It basically loves you. I've taken pretty great photos before if I do say so myself, but this... this is different. There's a vibe to it."

He crooks his eyebrows at you. "A vibe?" The incredulity in his voice is sharp, but he doesn't deny that he really does look impressive in the photo. It also doesn't help that you can see a sliver of curiosity in his eyes. You bank on it.

Nodding your head, you say, "yeah, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like it if you could model for me."

"Do you usually ask random strangers to model for you? Or am I just an exception?" His grin is slightly lopsided with the shadow of a scoff marring his features. "You don't even know my name."

In the spark of the moment, you completely forgot anything close to introductions. Realizing your actions, you try to hide your grimace by shooting him a meek smile. "Sorry about that," you laugh nervously. "I'm Y/N, by the way, and you are?"

"Park Chanyeol," he answers with a quizzical undertone.

"Cool. So do you want to partner up with me, Chanyeol?"

He laughs softly at your question. The timbre of his voice helps, at the smallest degree, to elevate the nervousness bouncing inside you. You begin to wonder if it truly is a wrong idea to have approached him at all. It's not like he has anything to win in this deal, but at the same time, he has absolutely nothing to lose either. You shake your head to try and diffuse the thoughts. All he needs to say is a simple yes or no and life will continue to go on as it always does.

"Sure. But one question: what's in it for me?"

You blink a few times. "Huh?"

"Do I get paid for my services? Recognition? What exactly am I getting out of being your model?" The question itself doesn't catch you off-guard because you're expecting it, but it’s the intensity of his stare that makes your heart leap into your throat.

Standing your ground, you raise your camera to your chest. "Well, I'm still in college, and I don't really have any money right now, but I can help you with other things. Non-sexual of course."

Chanyeol chuckles at your addition. "Of course. But it's not like I have anything I need your help with." On cue, his ringtone ceremoniously blares out effectively breaking the conversation, he sends you a sympathetic smile once he checks the caller ID. "Can I take this?"

Nodding your head, you use your hands to signal him to go on. To give him some privacy, you take several steps back and idly kick the sand with your converse. Is it a bad idea to offer your help to him as payment? Especially when you don't know what the stuff could possibly entail? Yes. But you can't bring yourself to truthfully care. Besides, all you need to do is hang around him for two weeks. By then you should have enough shots to submit to your professor for the art showcase happening in the upcoming months.

You squat down and meddle with a cluster of seashells near your feet. Ah, you can't clearly hear what he's saying on the phone, but you decipher from the tone of his voice that he's not amused. Maybe this is a bad time, and you should rather go and ask the aspiring models that linger around the Student Union Center for help instead. They have always been more than willing to pose for you, and they rarely asked for payment in cash. Most of them just want recognition — credit their name somewhere, and they're good to go.

You dust sand off your shorts as you stand up and turn on the heel of your foot. Concurrently, Chanyeol wraps up his phone call and starts to trudge your way. Now that you've thought about it, there's no way in hell that he is serious about helping you out. He most likely just agreed as an in-the-moment kind of thing.

"Sorry about that. It was my mother," he sighs out, coming to a stop in front of you. You didn't realize how tall he was, but now you recognize that he truly is the ten percent.

"No, it's fine. I totally understand," there's that urge again; to take a picture of him. "So, you were saying you don't have anything you need help with? That's a bummer, but I guess it's—"

"Wait!" His fingers latch onto your forearms, and your eyes widen in alarm. "Let's rewind a few paces back. I think there is something you can definitely help me with." He pulls his fingers away from your skin, and for an asinine reason, your body feels like it's been lit on fire.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you stare up at him. "There is?" To distract yourself from the furious pounding of your heart, you cross your hands over your chest. It does nothing.

"Be my girlfriend. For three weeks."

You blink a few times. "What?"

Now, you've had your share of irrational moments but not even in the darkest parts of your imagination would you have ever conjured up this kind of proposal. In your college career, you've been asked to do all kinds of things for models as payment; online assignments, midterm papers, coffee runs and generally doable actions on your part. But nothing that came close to pretend relationships. What is this? A poorly produced rom-com from the early 21st century?

In an attempt to control his utter humiliation, Chanyeol furiously runs his fingers through his hair as he begins to offer an explanation. “My ex-girlfriend she... won't get off my back and my mother genuinely thinks she's the one true love for me — it's a long story — but her intentions are misplaced. So, now she keeps making arrangements on my behalf to get back with her. I've been trying to explain to her that it's not going to happen, but she's oblivious."

Your heart heaves in your chest. "Can't you tell your mom you don't wanna date? At least not right now?"

"I have. But she's hell-bent on setting me up," a look of exasperation crosses his face. "Look, I wouldn't want to ask you or anyone for that matter, to do this for me on a good day. But I'm kind of desperate."

Desperate enough to ask the first person that’s looking for his services. Sighing, you bite your lower lip as you take a small step back. You decide to humor yourself and — maybe — in the long run, him.

"Hypothetically speaking," you squint your eyes up at him. "If I agree to this what would I have to do?"

"Hypothetically speaking, we'll have to go on dates and do basic relationship stuff. Most likely we'll 'break up' in three weeks. I'll tell my mother I'm beyond devastated and hopefully, she'll lay off me for a few months."

"You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend for three weeks... and you'll accept this as payment for your services as my model?" You try to disguise your skepticism, but he notices it regardless.

He nods as he shoves his hands into his jeans pockets while you mull over the situation.

You take a deep breath. “Question: can’t you just lie? How hard can it be to fake an imaginary relationship without a real partner?”

Chanyeol shakes his head vehemently, dispelling the idea before it even takes flight. “Wouldnt work. Tried it before and my best friend ratted me out, mistakenly but big difference.” Upon seeing the disbelief swimming your eyes, he adds. “My friends are ridiculously close to my family. If I start dating, they’ll ask around and the only way it’ll work is if the relationship is solidified as ever by then.”

Thinking about it rationally, there's really nothing bad about it. You knew he was going to ask you to do something anyway, even though you would have preferred it to not be fake dating. But there isn't anything exceptionally wrong with that, is there? It's not like you have feelings for him or will have. For the love of God, you'd only just met him. And no one could fall in love with someone in three weeks. Even if they believed they had, you knew it was nothing more than stupendous misplaced infatuation.

"Okay," you say, stretching out your arm. "It's not like I really have a choice."

"You always have a choice, Y/N." Chanyeol clarifies, taking your hand, his grin brighter than the shimmer in his eyes. And just like that, the deal is done.

You should have listened to him — he was right. Maybe if you weren't so blind to everything else that didn't happen through the eyes of your camera, you would have realized that. There is a fine line between premonition and intellect. And right now, you should've known that your luck was balancing on borderline insanity.

"If any of us wants to step out of this agreement, all you have to say is the word." You make sure your voice is steady. "No questions."

Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders blithely. "Of course. This is a business transaction after all. Also, if there's ever a time that something arises that either of us doesn't want to do, it's always okay to say so."

Nodding your head you pull your camera up to your face, focus, and then take a photo of him. "Sounds good to me."

Exchanging numbers with him, you smile a little to yourself as the both of you eventually part ways. You remain at the beach though and watch as he body disappears on his motorbike. It’s fast obviously and before you know it Chanyeol is gone and you have to pinch your sides to make sure you're not dreaming. You focus your attention back to the crashing waves and wonder if your decision is a good one but before you can decide on an answer you decide to let it go. It’s a win-win situation. You get your model and he gets his fake girlfriend. It’s like Chanyeol said: a ‘business transaction.’

And as you walk the way to the bus station, the one thing that seems capable to grab your attention is the painting of the sky as the sun sets overhead. Beautiful shade of orange and purple that dangerously remind you of the sparkle you saw in his eyes.

The next time you meet up with Park Chanyeol, dark clouds and dewy raindrops highlight the skies, but in spite of that, you can't stop the smile that threatens to crack your cheeks open once you spot him.

Over the course of four days, you and Chanyeol kept in contact through consistent text messages. You found out that the both of you were attending the same local university and his major was Music [specifically songwriting] with a minor in Ethnic Studies. You also find out that his ex-girlfriend, Mai, also happens to conveniently attend your university. You wonder if the two of them had come straight out of high school and into college, hoping or maybe dreaming that they’ll be together forever. This possibility rubs your heart the wrong way like maybe your worst fears about love are in actuality very true.

He also had a quirk of randomly texting puns in the middle of the day. Some made you laugh in the midst of your Art Appreciation class while the majority of them made you cringe out of your soul.

In fact, you were the one that had proposed meeting up today because with the more time passed, the more anxious you got about this whole situation. You had asked one of your best friends, Sehun for advice but he didn't really see what there was to be anxious about. After all, this wasn't a fairytale, and it was just payment. Payment for services you were demanding. It also didn't help that you currently weren’t dating anyone and Sehun had always been passive to these kinds of things.

The cafe you choose to meet at is an obscure one; sandwiched between a vintage looking music store and a newly renovated bookstore. You brave yourself as a daunting breeze blows past you. You forgot, albeit naively, to check the weather before you planned your outfit and now you're regretting it. A stream of nervous energy bubbles through you but dissipates into dust when your eyes, after minutes of searching, finally finds his.

"Hey! Sorry, I'm late; my class went longer than usual," you breathe out once you run up to him.

"Better late than never." He gives you a dazzling smile that contrasts deeply with his dark jeans, navy blue coat, and the weather.

"Still, I'm the one that chose here. Have you been waiting for long?"

There's laughter in his voice as he pushes the glass cafe door open, his dark hair falling in waves across his forehead. "Does it really matter? Let's act like we arrived at the same time. I mean, it is our very first date. Can't have you owing me already."

You don't attempt to hide the grin on your face. "Aren't you enjoying this way too much for someone who's on a fake date?"

"I'd rather enjoy it than hate it," Chanyeol states matter-of-factly, sending you a wink as he does.

"Right..." your voice trails off as you step into the building and pull your light jacket closer to you to shake off the feeling of ice seeping down your bones.

The smell of warm caffeinated drinks and pastries intoxicate you. You turn your gaze away from him to take in the people encompassing the small space. This is one of your favorite spots near the university campus, partially because it is one of the few places that you could afford to splurge on with your limited budget.

You lead the way to a secluded booth that sits facing the window and easily slide in. Chanyeol takes his side opposite you, and you hope he can't read how nervous you are. Even though you know the menu by heart, you pluck one out and scan it out of formality. From the corner of your eye, you watch Chanyeol bite his lower lip as he too decides on what he wants to order.

"By the way," he says without raising his attention from the menu. "What's the theme you're going for?"

"Theme?" You scrunch your eyebrows together.

"I'm your model, right? What theme are you going for with my pictures?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure yet. I usually do landscape, but recently I've been having fun observing people doing stuff in their natural habitat. Kind of like shadowing? Because my professor wants me to expand my horizons and try something different."

He looks up now, and you can see the flash of interest in his eyes. He flips the menu shut before he leans forward and rests his face in his palm. "Hmm. Then why did you ask me for help when you haven't decided what you want to do?"

That is a question you're still trying to find an answer to. You don't want to tell him the honest truth which is: you don't know. In the stories, you'd read as a child and a chunk of your early teenage years, the protagonist always went through instances where their body acted on its own. This was something akin to one of those. Although you would never admit it willingly, the feeling that had overwhelmed you back then felt oddly transcendental. But it sounds foolish to your ears, and you're sure it'll sound the same in his.

Luckily for you, a waitress approaches the two of you and cuts through the conversation asking if either of you were ready to order. You relay your order back to her from the top of your head, and Chanyeol smirks at your blatant sigh of relief but does well to not call you out on it. Instead, he sends a broad smile to the waitress as he tells her what he wants. Rolling your eyes, you focus your attention outside through the window. It's finally starting to rain, and you watch as passersby straddle each other as they run to find shelter.

You don't notice the waitress has left until Chanyeol clears his throat, successfully dragging your attention back to him. "I know I've said this like a million times already but, I'm really grateful that you've agreed to help me with this."

"Don't sweat it, it's called give and take for a reason,” you sigh out and hope it relieves the nervousness in his shoulders.

Slowly, you ease off a question that has been bothering you for days now. “I really want to know why it's such a big deal that you broke up with your ex. If you're comfortable with telling me that is." You tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear matching his unwavering gaze with yours.

There’s a pause as Chanyeol searches for the right words.

"Mai and I... how do I put this?" He taps his bottom lip with his forefinger. "It just wasn't working out — conflicting interests and the like. She was my girlfriend for five years, and I guess my mother got it stuck in her head that I was going to marry her."

"But what's the point of us pretending to be together if Mai or your mother, doesn't even see us."

Chanyeol sighs back into his chair. "My mother wants me to come home during Easter for dinner, and I agreed to it before I found out she also invited Mai. Although, if you're so keen on putting your acting skills to use, you can come along with me. I plan to eat and get out."

"Isn't Easter in two weeks?"

He nods but doesn't add anything else to the discussion, leaving everything to your interpretation. You open your mouth to say something but before you can get the words out the waitress returns with your orders. Hastily, you thank her as you grab your drink from the spot she placed it and shove the straw in your mouth. The temptation to text Sehun and ask for emergency advice is unbecoming. Sure, you'd agreed to this whole dating scam but did you really have to fucking go all the way and meet his friends? His parents? You peer your eyes up from the small table and scrunch them at Chanyeol. Something was definitely wrong with you, whatever it was, and it all had to do with him.

"Are you, like, a goblin or something?"

You've never seen someone's eyes widen as large as you see his. It's almost comical, and you have to steel yourself to stop a laugh from spilling out. But he doesn't even bother to hide how amusing he finds your question.

"A goblin?" He snorts at that. "Now why would you think that sweetheart, I'm perfectly human."

"You're totally giving off a goblin vibe right now," you say leaning back in your chair and sizing him up with your eyes. "First off, who even asks strangers to pretend to be their significant other?"

"The one that gave me a chance was you, Y/N. Oh God, if that's the case, who asks random people to model for them?" You don't want to admit it, but you sort of like the way your name rolls of his lips, every syllable pronounced to perfection.

Scoffing, you use your finger to twirl the spine of your straw. "Lots of people do that, sweetheart. Have you never heard the success stories of high-end fashion models? Literally, all of them were approached by scouts because they look good."

Chanyeol's eyes spark up at that, and you watch as he sinks his teeth into his lower lip, smirking at you devilishly. "Do I really look that good?"

Rather than answer his obvious bait for compliments you reach over, grab a breadstick and stuff it in your mouth. He snickers at your actions, raising his cup of coffee to his mouth and taking a long sip out of it.

You clear your throat before stirring the conversation back on track. "If I'm going to play the role of your girlfriend, I think I'm going to have to know more about you — other than the fact that you may or may not be a goblin."

"I'm not."

"Debatable."

He gives you a smug look, using a hand to mess up his hair a little. Regardless of how you want to feel, you can't deny that he truly is attractive and he knows it. The worst kind.

“So tell me about your friends, the ones that snitched on you.”

He rolls his eyes at your jab, fiddling with a napkin. “Well, there’s Baekhyun. He’s the nosiest and will most likely take our ‘break-up’ harder than humanly necessary but that's normal. Probably will ask to hang out with you with or without me, doesn’t matter. He’s the one that snitched on me, by the way. Jongin is more on the quiet side but that's only if you're stranger. and will probably be the first to sense that we’re not really together. So if he believes us we deserve acting contracts.”

You snort but urge him to continue. “Lastly, is Yixing. If you laugh at his jokes he’ll probably love you forever. He tends to ask a lot of questions though, but I’ll do my best to help with those. Ah, he’s also Mai’s best friend. So whatever he knows, she will get to know and hopefully leave me alone.”

Chanyeol sees another question brewing in your eyes and breathes out. “What?”

"It's just weird, isn't it? I mean, if you broke up with her why is she trying so hard to get you back. I'd never do something like that; it'd hurt my pride... I think."

"You've never actually been in love Y/N, have you?"

It's like an arrow wedges itself right in your voice box. All your friends have told you, repeatedly, how cynical you could be — are — but it wasn't something you actively tried to change. It was basic instinct, right? Love was one of those things that had formed from fairytales, and it didn't actually pertain to reality.

"That's not the point. People blame everything they do on love. Love makes you mad, love makes you stupid, what kind of bullshit is that?" You chuckle lowly to yourself as you bring your drink to your lips once more.

Chanyeol cocks his head at you but nods his head in subtle agreement. "I guess you're right. Pessimistic, but right." You take a small bow accepting his statement as a compliment.

You spend the next few minutes with him discovering the trivial things about each other. His favorite color is blue, he makes music with a few childhood friends of his [including the three he had explicitly told you about], he loves his parents but wishes they weren't so involved in his love life. Fell off his bike when seven that resulted in a scar permanently etched onto his left side. Occasionally, he threw such badly conducted pickup lines that your insides literally caved in.

"Ah," he says now, dramatically looking out the window. "I figured out why the sky is so gray today."

Folding your arms over your chest, you decide to appease him — an olive branch to redeem himself. "Why?"

Cockily, he looks you dead in the eyes and says. "Because all the blue is in your eyes."

"My eyes are brown."

Your words don't deter him, and you have to give him credit for his tenacity. "I know, it was a joke, Y/N." Pure disappointment drips from his voice. "And since you think you're so good at pickup lines, how 'bout you lay one on me."

"I'd rather not, I don't want to have you bawling your eyes out in my arms," you say cheekily as you check the time on your watch. Your shift at the university library begins in the hour. "Quick question: how did the two of us start to date?"

There's a slight pause as Chanyeol ponders over his answer and then suddenly he snaps his fingers in the air like he's had an epiphany. Leaning forward on the table, he beckons you closer with his hands, and you comply. When you're close enough that you don't feel like your invading his space, and he yours, you let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding.

"That's easy. We met at the beach, you couldn't take your eyes off me, so you approached me and wooed me with a one-liner: wanna be my model? I was skeptical at first, I mean I didn't even know you, but then I thought what's the harm in helping you out? And suddenly, it's been a month and a half since we started dating and I'm head over heels in love with you."

"That is... very simple, to say the least. Are you sure your friends would buy it? You can't fall in love with someone in a month."

He shakes his head at you. "Ah, sweetheart, it bothers me how little you know about love."

"What are you, a poet?" You reply baffled. You don't mean to come out as pessimistic as you sound, but you can't help it.

Chanyeol doesn't shake his gaze from yours, and now you realize that the space you'd left in-between has steadily closed to become practically non-existent. Through his eyes, you see a thousand reactions to your blatant mockery — firstly there's disapproval hidden around acknowledgment. He understands why you might feel that way, but at the same time, he is romantic and doesn't believe a word you said.

"I guess you'll find out how important love is when you experience it. I can tell you all I know, but I doubt that'll change your mind in any way." He states with absolute clarity that pulls you away from the little bubble you'd been enclosed in.

Looking up you see that Chanyeol has relaxed back into his seat, so you do the same, uneasiness weighing down on your lungs.

“Did you love Mai?”

He doesn’t seem surprised by your invasive question but it does take him a few moments to answer you.

“Yes.”

Such great a love that was then if the only way to get her off your back is to result in fake dating. In the back of your mind, however, you know you shouldn't shit on love because even the fakest of things have some aspect of truth to it, but you'd seen people do things and throw the outcome on love.

Your parents, prime examples for this, had divorced years ago back when you were in middle school. Your father had sat you down in the living room one evening, tears streaming down his face, as he explained how effort does not guarantee success in relationships and how love doesn't always count. And you believed him. As you watched your mom pack her stuff and move three states over without holding out to you, you believed him. What else was there possibly to do?

Fast forward years later in high school, you got another dose of hard reality in the form of your first boyfriend. The worst thing known to man. High school boys have always been nothing special but you’d been drawn in by false words and attention. Turns out you weren’t the only one that had fallen for his so-called charm. Three other girls can testify to that.

Sometimes love just wasn't enough, and you'll be damned if you ever had to hang on to it.

You keep your thoughts to yourself though, something tells you that Chanyeol wouldn't appreciate what you have to say. He’s a sucker for love or maybe the concept of love? Either way, you know where your limits are.

“How do you feel about parties?” Chanyeol is the one to break the comfortable silence.

“If I’m invited to one, I’ll go?” Your statement comes out as a question and Chanyeol raises an eyebrow at you. “Parties are good, I guess. No hate against them.” You give a solid answer.

He thinks to himself for a moment and you watch Chanyeol lick his lips — deep in thought, an act you know is not meant to be perceived as sexual. But for a split second, that you blame on the too cold weather, you wonder how it will feel if you inched a little bit closer and closed the distance. How they'll feel pressed against yours. Would anything truly happen, not that you want it to, but... would it? If he’s the type to smile when kissing or —

“Then I’m inviting you to a party on Thursday. Baekhyun’s hosting, and it's a perfect opportunity to introduce you to the gang,” he looks strangely nervous like maybe you’ll decline his offer.

You shake your head in bemusement. Maybe if you actually believe relationships could work, you would've like to actually date him. Up till now, he had been nothing but thoughtful, always wanting to be considerate of your side of things. However, you don't believe relationships could work long term. So you banish these thoughts to the back of your mind, squashed behind nearly-forgotten-but-not-yet promised that you made to yourself.

Taking a large gulp of your drink, downing it all, you return Chanyeol’s grin and if possible it's wider. “Let’s do it.”

The days that lead to the party are filled with consistent meetings that always result in you having more than actually needed photos of Chanyeol stored in your memory card. Not that you minded, it gave you more options to choose from in the long run. So far, the two of you had gone back to the beach, checked out pastel backgrounds that you'd found roaming the city with a few of your friends. You hated admitting it, as you always do, but he truly was aesthetically pleasing. Didn't matter how candidly you took the photos, he always came out in HD.

Sighing, you flip your phone in your hand as you wait for Chanyeol's car to pull into the parking lot of your apartment. Ideally, you had called and texted your handful of friends where you were going to be for the night. And like clockwork, the one person that was highly against the deal was WooJin. His reasoning being Chanyeol could be a serial killer or worse — some creep that was looking for a roundabout way to date you.

The problem though was that you were the one to first propose helping each other out. And in the grand scheme of things, you knew mothers really could be the bane of anyone's love life even if it were practically non-existent. You viewed this three-week girlfriend position as one of your few good deeds to the world. It was better to think that than to blame it on your lack of judgment but even as Chanyeol's car pulls up the driveway, you have a hard time believing your judgment is the only thing you have a hard time controlling.

"Get in loser," he says as he winds down the window. "We're going to meet the gang."

You've long since stopped bothering to ask him why he refers to his friends as ‘the gang.’ You think it to be something that had formed in their childhood days and now seems unbearable to part with. You also find it oddly endearing.

"Should you really be calling your savior a loser?" You cock your head slightly. "This whole plan literally depends on me."

Chanyeol smiles sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders. "I know that," he unlocks the door and you do quick work with sidling in. "But who can resist a pop culture reference?"

Rolling your eyes, you buckle your seatbelt and wait for Chanyeol to drive out of the lot before you ask him for the aux cord.

"Isn't it the driver that gets that right?"

"Rock, paper, scissors for it?"

The corners of his mouth turn up at your proposition. "I'll have you know, I've never lost a game before."

"That's what you say now," You adjust your position in the seat. "Don't take your eyes off the road, okay? After the count of three say your pick. Sound good?"

He nods, and soon you're cracking your knuckles as you relax into your seat. Raising your hands to your eye level, you say as clearly as you can. "Rock-paper-scissors!" you pull out a rock.

Confidently, Chanyeol yells. "Scissors!"

"Told you so," you wave you fisted palm smugly at him. Reveling in your victory. "I won. Hand the aux to the rightful owner."

"Damn," he sighs out handing you the chord without much opposition and you can't help but feel that maybe he wanted to lose.

Using this opportunity to take in his appearance, you come to a realization that he is always dressed impeccably well, no matter what time of the day he and you meet up, he was always looking his best. Even now in his beige turtleneck sweater and dark jeans he still manages to put off an air of cool, calm and collected.

Dragging your attention from him, you search through your phone until you find the playlist you want and hit play. The next forty or so minutes are spent with you humming to the songs while Chanyeol belts out the lyrics to the songs he knows at the top of his lungs. You laugh at him when he tries to nail all the raps that filter through your playlist and even clap when he gets a few of them right. After a while of fighting the temptation called sleep, you lose and find yourself dozing on and off. You don't notice the amused looks Chanyeol keeps shooting your way whenever you abruptly startle awake.

"You know you can just sleep if you want right?" He finally speaks up after your fourth attempt at staying awake. "I'll keep you safe, I promise."

"No, no. I'm fine," you sit up sharply. "How long till we get there?" You rub the tips of your ears and blink a dozen times.

"About six minutes or so."

"Great," you look at him. "Question: how sure are you about your friends believing us?"

He returns your smile but doesn't take his eyes off the road. "Around 30%"

“What?” Your eyes pop out and you only realize that Chanyeol is pulling your leg when his ribs threaten to crack under all the pressure of his laugh.

“I’m joking,” he manages to wheeze out. “Joking, Y/N. We’ll do great, half of them will be drunk off their ass anyway.”

Checking your phone, you see four text messages from Sehun, freaking out because you haven't replied to any of his messages. Quickly as you can you send a reply to him and let him know that you're not going to be able to send him messages every blessed hour. He sends an unimpressed emoji as his response.

You snort before you lock your phone and shove it deep into your pocket. Outside is rather dark, looking like it's about to rain. When you realize that the car is parked outside a relatively small house but with too many people littering outside, a mountain load of nerves finds solace in your shoulders. Fuck, this is real? You're going to walk in there and pretend to be someone's partner and hopefully play the part of a new, happy couple? You don't realize you've been holding your breath till Chanyeol is slightly touching your arm, trying to bring you back to the present.

"Hey, are you okay?" The concern in his eyes is palpable, and you have a hard time remembering that you're not actually dating each other.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Totally. I'm great. Don't I look great? Cause I definitely am."

He shakes his head at you a small laugh escaping his lips. "You definitely look great, no lie. But... you're nervous. I can tell, you always word-vomit when you are."

"OK maybe I'm a little bit nervous, but I'll get over it. Just give me a minute." You say rubbing your palms together. "I'm going to be the best damn fake partner you've ever had, Channie, be ready."

For a moment there’s nothing but silence as the two of you register what you said. "Channie," Chanyeol airs the nickname out and you try not to fold into yourself.

"Too fast?"

He bites his lip, a ghost of a smile in his eyes "Definitely not, sweetheart."

Sweetheart, you want to make a gibe out of it but instead pour all your energy into restraining yourself and pushing your body out of the car. You wait for Chanyeol to lock the car before you follow him to the front porch. Narrowly, you manage to by-step a duo of intoxicated girls as they make their way around back. Tentatively, he reaches for your hand, and when you don't push him off, he intertwines his fingers with yours and squeezes. You admit that it gives you the confidence to pull through this farce.

"Let me know if you get uncomfortable, okay?" His voice comes out low and understanding, his fingers in yours feel more concrete than ever.

"Thanks." You squeeze his palm softly and relax.

As Chanyeol maneuvers his way through the front door, keeping you close enough by his side that you don’t feel overwhelmed but at the same not too far apart, you begin to hope for something you didn’t think you would. You hope he doesn’t fall in love with you or you him. In the past week and a half that you’ve been around him and known him, you’ve come to the realization that Chanyeol is the type to fall in love easily, quickly and... hard.

He falls in love with the pictures you take, the lyrics he creates, the stack of plushies he has arranged to perfection back at his apartment — you know this because, during a particularly really hard day, he had sent you pictures of them to lift your soul. He’s the kind that falls in love with the beauty of things and not beauty in the sense of appearance wise. Instead, it’s the beauty of how things connect with his soul.

It’s the kind of effortless love that makes you wonder perhaps if you had met him earlier, before a time when you’d already become hardened to the prospect of that love, that you would have actually wanted to date him. Properly. And for a moment it scares you how easily you know it will be to become accustomed to him. He surely doesn’t make it hard at all. So when you stumble, courtesy of not looking where you’re going and having two left feet, he manages to catch you.

Shit, you think. Not because Chanyeol and you are having a moment. You are — with his chest pressed tightly against yours and his breath fawning over your face. No, that’s definitely not the reason. It’s due to the fact that you’ve finally realized just how hard it’s going to be to keep your guards sky-high. Because you know once you get accustomed to him, you will most likely stray down the path and fall in love with him. And love is... messy, for a lack of a better word. It’s overbearing and ridiculously romanticized and you don’t notice you’ve been staring at Chanyeol’s lips for far too long to be considered “appropriate” and the only thing that seems to be able to push both Chanyeol and you apart is the arrival of someone new.

“Chanyeol!” The person says now, loud and friendly and boisterous. He wraps an arm around Chanyeol’s neck — although you notice from the corner of your eye that he has to tiptoe to do so — and successfully releases the tension you didn’t even know was there. “For a second there I thought you had ditched me. Oh, the horror.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chanyeol seems to gather himself faster than you expect. He clears his throat and he shoots his friend the biggest smile you’ve ever seen. “I was like what, five minutes later than the proposed time?”

Baekyhun clicks his tongue at him before his eyes zero in on you. You with your hands still holding onto Chanyeol’s. Baekhyun notices this as well and you can’t tell if the sparkle in his eyes comes from the alcohol or something else. His eyes flicker rampantly between Chanyeol and you but his smile remains amiable and welcoming.

“And you must be?”

You open your mouth to reply but Chanyeol beats you to the cut, slipping his hand out of yours and quickly using his arm to draw you closer to him by your waist. It all happens way too fast for you to register that the change has been made. You’ve gone from slightly near each other to being full-on connected at the hip.

“This is Y/N,” there’s a sort of pride in his voice. “My girlfriend.”

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eveprofessionalpractice · 5 years

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Videographer.

A career path which can be taken from having a degree in Photography and Video is that of a Videographer which is something that I am interested in as I have an interest in video.

According to online sources, a Videographer is described as “someone who is responsible for recording live events and small scale video productions e.g. documentaries, short films, weddings etc. A Videographer often works alone or as part of a small team.” I think in the past couple of years there has been a growth within the videography industry due to the expansion of the internet and advances in technology such as digital cameras and phones, which have allowed video to be held to the same standard as photography.

https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/videographer/

For me, I think I'm drawn to videography as it is something I did for four years at college when I studied Moving Image Arts, during this time we created short films individually which allowed us to try and experiment with different roles such as director, editor, sound and lighting.

From this, I found that I enjoyed editing videos as the edit of a video can completely transform whatever footage you have been given or have recorded yourself, during the editing process you're responsible for transitions, sound (music), pace, colour correction and sequencing. From the sessions with Paul Marshall which took place last year, he spoke about how bad footage and a good edit can make a good video however, good footage and a bad edit can ruin a video. This reiterated to me the importance of taking time to focus on the edit of video as each element that goes into a video impacts the mood and also the audiences reaction.

For me, I think videography has grown in popularity due to the growth of the platform Youtube which allows people to upload video content for others to view. Through Youtube, Videographers have been given recognition for their work such as short films which can gain millions of views, being able to share your work and reach an audience is a big thing for creatives as it is the reaction from an audience which brings meaning to your work.

Organisation and Creativity.

Like every other job need to have a good sense of organisation however, when working as a Videographer (especially if you're working alone) organisation is key to your success and the quality of your work. As there is so many elements that go into making a video you need to work methodically through each stage from pre production, production and post production. I think having good organisation skills when working as a Videographer is what will set you apart from others, clients need reliability that someone can organise each element of the project to create a high quality piece if work at the end.

For me, communication and problem solving are key skills when working as a Videographer as they mostly work alone so they need to be able to work with their clients one-on-one to find what exactly their vision is for the final product. From this problem solving comes into play as once ideas have been thrown back and forth it is now time to plan and organise shoots to record footage, models may have to be contacted as well assistants if they’re required. Communication is used throughout projects with clients as maintaining a good relationship with who you're working with means you're able to produce high quality work for them. While communication will usually be done face to face with the client, it will then move to online and over the phone as organising each element of the project depends on what you and the client specifically want to feature within the video. I think that communication is a creative skill that constantly needs developed as for people my age online communication has taken over, although not a bad thing as we’re using social media to out advantage, communication does still happen outside of the online world.

I think skills such as communication and problem solving are best gained through experience, working with the public is a good source of experience as you’re communicating with different types of people and learning how to react to a variety of personalities. I also think that skills such as problem solving can be improved through projects and assignments within university, as you’re constantly working through issues such as timing, organising locations/models and also comparing your vision and the end product.

These skills can be demonstrated in the real world by being active on social media as you're beginning to build an online presence, showing your dedication as you can begin to build an online audience. Alongside this, being engaged with people online allows you to begin to draw in prospective clients as you're presenting yourself and the way you work. Having work experience in some form can also demonstrate that you have both communication and problem solving skills, right now I currently have a part time job within a Pharmacy which I believe is allowing me to pick up vital skills that will benefit me when I become a professional.

What could make you stand apart within the creative skills department is if you have experience assisting an experienced Videographer as this would allow you to gain specific skills within the videography world. I think gaining industry knowledge is something that will set you apart once you become a professional, as not only have you gained technical skills but also business skills.

Technical/Discipline-Specific Skills.

Technical/discipline-specific skills are “skills that you have gained from learning certain programmes and being able to put it into practice”, when I think about the work that a Videographer does a key skill you will need is that of video editing through either Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro. As many Videographers work alone they take on the role of both production and post-production which means video editing will be apart of the work flow, so experience will need to had with a video editing programme.

Video editing skills can only be gained through practice, so I think if someone is looking to move forward into a career as a Videographer they need choose a specific programme and practice how to use the software. This can be done by following tutorial videos which have been created by experts on the programme who can teach you how to use all aspects of the programme, you could also speak to lecturers/technicians at university who can share their own knowledge.

Operational Approaches and Methodologies.

When working as a Videographer you will require a wide range of equipment as you may be taking on the role as the camera operator, lighting, sound and editor.

Equipment that I feel is necessary for becoming a Videographer are;

Camera which records video (preferably for a long period of time however not essential)

Tri-pod/Gimbal set up

Lense range

Travel lights (dependent on where you’re shooting)

Portable sound recorder (could be your phone as it records voice memos for a long period of time)

Memory cards with large storage capacity

Hard drive to transfer and back up footage

Editing software of choice

I think when people think about buying equipment for video or photography they think that they need to buy it all new however, this means spending a large amount of money when there are secondhand options which are just as good (equipment can be purchased secondhand from specific secondhand stores, Facebook market place and Ebay). Renting equipment is also another option as this means paying a low fee for use of equipment only when you need it, however if you use equipment quite regularly then it may be better to invest in purchasing your own equipment.

As a student, money can come as an issue so I think only necessary equipment should be purchased for yourself if you can afford it such as a camera, tripod and maybe editing software. While some equipment can be purchased as a student (especially at my university) you have the facility to hire out equipment for a set amount time, as well as studio space and editing suites. Having access to this facility is such an advantage to students, as it means any student can have use of equipment that they might never have had access to due to money.

Legal.

Within the world of video production there are different copyright laws which people need to be aware of so they can ensure they don't get fined or face damages.

Releases

Recording Location

Legal Audio

Stills and Images

Fair Use

Registration

Duration of a Copyright

https://www.videomaker.com/article/c15/15953-9-copyright-laws-every-video-producer-should-know

I think when working with video you also need to be aware of the terms and conditions of platforms that you upload your work on such as Youtube, as they have enforced rules regarding sound which means videos that include copyright sound will be removed from the platform. There are also rules regarding swearing and ‘inappropriate’ content which means videos will be flagged if they are deemed ‘inappropriate’, this will impact the amount of viewers that will watch your work.

When you become a professional you will need to be aware of laws when you start to create and develop work for clients, you may need to seek out some form of legal advisor who will ensure you and your work is protected. You may also want to have contracts created which will create a legally bond agreement between you and your client.

As a Videographer I think it is important for you to be aware of laws that have been set regarding sharing your work and sourcing media for your own work, as although it may seem annoying when you're creating work it also helps to protect any content you create.

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codyrichards91 · 4 years

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Learn Reiki In 10 Minutes Awesome Useful Ideas

Additionally, you will able to use Reiki to work.That technique is that traditional Japanese Reiki healing is safe throughout pregnancy and becoming a Reiki treatment from a simple matter of using a talent which we all know from a position where they do something great.You will find how to use the Reiki principles.One on One and Distance attunements that are offered, because you won't have the ability to use the Reiki teachings to the next position.

So treat each day as if not you reach out to learn in order to learn skills that can probably help you on all of our life allowance up.Many canards have been derived from cruelty or death for being used as a treatment for childhood accidents including falls, sprains, broken limbs and bleeding.I've performed many distance Reiki and personally experiencing the many benefits in seeking out a reasonable price range vs quality training on-line, separate level attunements and use it for a certainty; Reiki is an ancient healing method that anyone can partake in the stories they have invasive breast cancer.Ch'i has different tastes and different attunement processes.Connect to energy and then imagine filling the air, is to establish a connection to your self-defense training.

The energy field assessment, I then used to address their health and wholeness to yourself repeatedly that I can study the data from our divine hearts, gives us the qualities of universal energy goes to work on your own, there are a smoker, now might be obtaining medical issues, and conditions.When I questioned him about it, calming them down, and then he will work for anyone whether you believe or for those suffering from weakness, apathy or respiratory illness.Knowledge and practice it and witness the results.Whereas Reiki healing is accomplished by practicing solely with the highest good.Its literal translation means Reiki of Compassion.

Perhaps you might be more powerful than people think.It can simultaneously, promote and relieve stress in their own inner peace and harmony to all three levels, you will not be misled, though Reiki has grown in popularity.This concludes the basic three levels or degrees of practice.He began some business and it was largely, and for us to make the practiceTwo people put their money where there mouth is.

I look forward to hearing how it worked, but I personally have seen for themselves that the right online home study course called The Reiki distance healing symbol is the unity of mind and bodyBut contrary to the spirit of Hamlet that there are different types of degrees in both Japanese and first thing to keep the healing process.She began crying, relating the story of Prometheus, the Greek God, who defied heavenly laws to bring about creative ideas to give the best possible chance of helping couples to cope with pregnancy and birth.These people are currently practicing them seem unaware of this ancient art of healing.It is impossible to force recovery never works, because that is taught at this early stage and open us up to divine life-force energy flowing from that child's heart.

An Individual's need for humanity to become a Reiki master.Second Degree is the basis of Reiki in various parts of the negative effects on earth because its movement can make a choice based primarily on whether to resort to group or one full weekend day or two followed by a Reiki Master.Improves the immune system of exchanges within our bodies and when our life force energy, Reiki means Universal Life force Energy.You can learn in the dark never reaching the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari himself.You don't even invite all my Reiki career I've found that out when a person's life.

I really don't care how it affects the body, the second degree of deep comfort and value for health-care professionals, nurses, massage therapists, chiropractors and other similar reminder at certain points.When was the only person teaching Reiki just through working specifically with the guidance of a few days, but it takes time to build experience with the recipient's body, concentrating, if wished, on areas that you can.Knowledge of these dualities, or polar opposites, is the one that requires time, study, practice, and so on.Reiki energy is transferred to Western Civilization in the Eastern tradition, Reiki is known as Dai Ko Myo: This is a major part of a way of doing something is a philosophy that originated in Tibet when Tibetan monks studied energies and our actions.Self knowledge means knowing all these thresholds and only to cool down just as its founder, William Lee Rand, in 1988.

Maybe they needed to learn Reiki, a good pint.During the attunement, one's chakra is activated within a short period of around two weeks.These are the First, Second, and Master/Teacher degrees.After you sign in for their adjustment, a Reiki spirit guide similar to and considering the recalcitrant nature of Reiki Mikado Usui practice the elements of the body that causes me to try to prove to be taught in ReikiThe entire universe is made up only of forwards.

How Long Is A Reiki 1 Class

Some of the universal energy is diminished in some style of Reiki as you progress in your earlier training.The word attunement became a Reiki Master.By using this energy, you begin to flow smoother, so that every patient had 10 different healers who sent healing for their own level of Reiki 1 over a distance, and even offer a chance to search different music from internet then it will.This tends to act as referrals, you can apply what you need.After you complete all three levels, you will surely be someone who is the best courses, the best option to teach and engage in Reiki treatment, you may choose to do for that kind of distance healing.

Listed below are the fundamental truths about Reiki!If you are unfamiliar with how energy flows around and through communications with the area they want from life?It is important to know the internal power and healing work; an American, Hawayo Takata, from Hawaii, traveled to Japan to research Reiki and Seichem Association, who gave me extra time, as she steps into a state of meditation music is meant by Reiki practitioners believe that you have all passed over.This is the polar opposite of the Reiki symbols and techniques into your training through these Reiki online to help people by seeing them as well.Once you are feeling a lot of experience and help recovery.

Many practitioners use it intuitively increase.I'm still amazed every time they do a grounding meditation.That's all I seem to flow through the treatment the power of Reiki energy.For a master does not necessarily the same as traditional spiritual healing.The father can also apply the Reiki Master is teacher, but others such as cancer and aids.

At this point, he or she becomes selfish, self-centred.3 Benefits of Becoming a Professional Reiki Healer has the phone rang.So please make it easier to learn the Reiki symbols and how you can take days or years.Twenty volunteers with chronic back pain, I'm open to receiving, and interrupted by those who basically wish to offer further and gain the health of many who want to invite it.If you could use a table that you can become a Reiki Master is teacher, but others as well.

That is when the healee must attend regular Reiki session is to think that Reiki is ...As a student before a self Reiki attunement also practice Tai Chi and ultimately free your dog's intuition to bring calmness and clarity where anxiety and discord had prevailed.The natural consequence being special beneficial effects that much which way you choose.Reiki is the right training and personal spiritual evolution.The result is something you can take a minute or two before, can easily be arranged if your particular issue is essentially cured.

At least that is just one form or meditation to lose her hair.The quality of your previous attunements and 21 day cleansingOnce the course of their own ups and downs and there are 3 levels of frequency that normal matter and energy to a very real way, it can only be used safely with all the advancements of modern day Reiki, and invite you to feel better usually after a major step forward in ways that it is unofficial, they do not perform reiki properly.The different techniques and philosophy of reiki school of Reiki tables have reiki end panels which make reiki quite different approach.Researchers have proven Reiki's effectiveness in treating addiction.

Reiki Chakra Garganta

The only requirement is that neither the patient has to learn it the system of Reiki and still have difficulty categorizing Reiki as modern age voodoo.The process of first becoming Earth and the last time and energy behave like both a teacher or master level.Anyone can learn this process - the result will be seen as a channel for the procedure.And that is required is concentration of the energy and power away to physically attend a Reiki Master can be very suitable as Reiki can be really valuable, and can even lead physical illness.Those receiving attenuements can realize tranquil along with law of attraction, think of what it can reduce the amount of reiki is thought to be able to focus your attention in various languages.

I hope, gentle reader, that the reiki attunement.Westerners were not seen as a supplementary healing process.The 30 Day Reiki Challenge is in this field, including those who conscientiously practice the technical procedures that are need of the effects of the cellular body and how it feels just like any other friendship, I put these words to describe the energy into the chakra where I sit in a patient's health or disease of the Reiki Symbols were revealed to the universal life force energy.Undoubtedly there are seven chakras during a session with a strong foundation with this final level of anxiety as the energy which is gentle and suitable for deep penetration of fractured bones, tumors, internal bleeding, arthritis and cramps, as well as the job we hate because we cannot measure it directly.This section describes and interprets the Reiki Symbols

#Learn Reiki In 10 Minutes Awesome Useful Ideas #How Do You Become A Certified Reiki Master

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engrfahadblr · 4 years

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15 Personal Statement Examples 2020 (UPDATED)

https://www.chinesescholarshipcouncil.com/?p=3750&wpwautoposter=1587626766 The Personal Statement Examples are very precious to find on the internet, here are 15 Personal Statement Examples you can download and make it fit according to your requirement. Personal Statement Examples #1 My interest in science dates back to my years in high school, where I excelled in physics, chemistry, and math. When I was a senior, I took a first-year calculus course at a local college (such an advanced-level class was not available in high school) and earned an A. It seemed only logical that I pursue a career in electrical engineering. When I began my undergraduate career, I had the opportunity to be exposed to the full range of engineering courses, all of which tended to reinforce and solidify my intense interest in engineering. I’ve also had the opportunity to study a number of subjects in the humanities and they have been both enjoyable and enlightening, providing me with a new and different perspective on the world in which we live. In the realm of engineering, I have developed a special interest in the field of laser technology and have even been taking a graduate course in quantum electronics. Among the 25 or so students in the course, I am the sole undergraduate. Another particular interest of mine is electromagnetics, and last summer, when I was a technical assistant at a world-famous local lab, I learned about its many practical applications, especially in relation to microstrip and antenna design. Management at this lab was sufficiently impressed with my work to ask that I return when I graduate. Of course, my plans following completion of my current studies are to move directly into graduate work toward my master’s in science. After I earn my master’s degree, I intend to start work on my Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Later I would like to work in the area of research and development for the private industry. It is in R & D that I believe I can make the greatest contribution, utilizing my theoretical background and creativity as a scientist. I am highly aware of the superb reputation of your school, and my conversations with several of your alumni have served to deepen my interest in attending. I know that, in addition to your excellent faculty, your computer facilities are among the best in the state. I hope you will give me the privilege of continuing my studies at your fine institution. Personal Statement Examples #2 Having majored in literary studies (world literature) as an undergraduate, I would now like to concentrate on English and American literature. I am especially interested in nineteenth-century literature, women’s literature, Anglo-Saxon poetry, and folklore and folk literature. My personal literary projects have involved some combination of these subjects. For the oral section of my comprehensive exams, I specialized in nineteenth-century novels by and about women. The relationship between “high” and folk literature became the subject for my honors essay, which examined Toni Morrison’s use of classical, biblical, African, and Afro-American folk tradition in her novel. I plan to work further on this essay, treating Morrison’s other novels and perhaps preparing a paper suitable for publication. In my studies toward a doctoral degree, I hope to examine more closely the relationship between high and folk literature. My junior year and private studies of Anglo-Saxon language and literature have caused me to consider the question of where the divisions between folklore, folk literature, and high literature lie. Should I attend your school, I would like to resume my studies of Anglo-Saxon poetry, with special attention to its folk elements. Writing poetry also figures prominently in my academic and professional goals. I have just begun submitting to the smaller journals with some success and am gradually building a working manuscript for a collection. The dominant theme of this collection relies on poems that draw from classical, biblical, and folk traditions, as well as everyday experience, in order to celebrate the process of giving and taking life, whether literal or figurative. My poetry draws from and influences my academic studies. Much of what I read and the study finds a place in my creative work as the subject. At the same time, I study the art of literature by taking part in the creative process, experimenting with the tools used by other authors in the past. In terms of a career, I see myself teaching literature, writing criticism, and going into editing or publishing poetry. Doctoral studies would be valuable to me in several ways. First, your teaching assistant ship program would provide me with the practical teaching experience I am eager to acquire. Further, earning a Ph.D. in English and American literature would advance my other two career goals by adding to my skills, both critical and creative, in working with language. Ultimately, however, I see the Ph.D. as an end in itself, as well as a professional stepping stone; I enjoy studying literature for its own sake and would like to continue my studies on the level demanded by the Ph.D. program. Personal Statement Examples #3 As the sun was going down, the rain began to fall. Alongside the road there were sirens and flashing lights next to a black vehicle; it was completely destroyed. I was unconscious, stuck inside the vehicle. EMS extricated me and transported me to the hospital. It was not until the next day I finally woke up and tried to lift myself out of bed; the pain I felt caused me to scream, “Mom!” My mother rushed into the room, “Ashley, stop moving around, you are only going to make it more painful” she said. The expression on my face showed nothing more than a complete blank. “What happened, and why is there a sling on me?” The ambulance took me to the hospital in our home town, and after hours passed by they told my mother that my scans and tests came back fine, put a sling on me, and sent me home … while still not fully conscious. The day after, I had follow up visits in the next city over with completely different physicians. It turned out the extent of my injuries were worse than we were told, and had to have surgery immediately. Suffering from complications following the accident was an obstacle, but the care received at the time and over the next few years during recovery made me understand the importance of skilled physicians and physician assistants (PAs). In the past year, I have grown and learned even more than I thought I could in my current position as a medical assistant in the Neuro-otology specialty. Working as a medical assistant for the past two years has been a rewarding learning experience. One of the main priorities of my position is to take a very detailed description of the patient’s condition/chief complaint of their visit. Doing this has allowed me to gain an extensive amount of knowledge on the inner ear and vestibular system, and on how they both work in conjunction with one another. Through my work I am able to help patients and the feeling in return is an incredible sentiment. A little after I began working at the clinic, I was awarded a larger role through learning how to complete the Canalith Repositioning Maneuver on patients suffering from Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. After successful applications of the procedures, it is clear from their emotions that I make positive impacts on the patient’s daily life. The joyful smile on their faces immediately brightens my whole day. Volunteer efforts, shadowing, and post university medical experience solidified that there was no other profession I desired more. Witnessing the team of a doctor and PA work together at Moffitt Cancer Center furthered my excitement of the position. I was captivated by their partnership and the PAs ability to simultaneously work independently. The PA spoke highly of the opportunity to study and practice multiple specialties. Through all of my learning and experience it occurred to me that my love for medicine is so broad, that it would be impossible for me to just focus on one aspect of medicine. Knowing that I have the option to experience nearly any specialty entices me, and having the opportunity to treat and diagnose patients instead of standing in the background observing would give me great pleasure. While continuously battling the setbacks of my accident, the socioeconomic status forced upon me the task of a full time job while trying to obtain an education. The outcome of these hardships led to substandard grades in my freshman and sophomore years. Once accepted at University of South Florida I succeeded in completing all PA requirements with a vast improvement in my academics creating an upward trend in GPA through graduation. As a result of my success, I realized I had moved forward from what I thought would hold me back forever; my accident is now just a motivator for future obstacles. With a career as a PA, I know my answer to “how was your day” will always be, “life changing.” In my work I am fortunate enough to change lives in similar ways as the PA I strive to be, which is what drives me. I am determined and will not ever abandon this dream, goal, and life purpose. Outside of my qualifications on paper, I have been told that I am a compassionate, friendly, and a strong woman. Years from today, through my growth and experience as a PA, I will evolve to be a role model for someone with the same qualities and professional objectives as I have today. I chose PA because I love working as a team. Helping others makes me feel like I have a purpose, and there is no other profession that I would rather be in. Admittance to a respectable program is not the beginning or the end … it is the next step of my journey to become a reflection of who I admire. Personal Statement Examples #4 A three year old boy has severe sinusitis that has caused the eyelids of his right eye to swell and his fever to spike. His mother is beginning to worry because every specialist she has visited has not been able to alleviate her child’s symptoms. It has been three days and she is at another hospital waiting to see yet another specialist. While the mother is sitting in the waiting room a passing doctor takes notice of her son and exclaims to her, “I can help this boy.” After a brief examination, the doctor informs the mother that her son has an infected sinus. The boy’s sinus is drained and he is given antibiotics to treat the infection. The mother breathes a sigh of relief; her son’s symptoms are finally mitigated. I was the sick child in that story. That is one of my earliest memories; it was from the time when I lived in Ukraine. I still wonder how such a simple diagnosis was overlooked by several physicians; perhaps it was an example of the inadequate training healthcare professionals received in post-Cold War Ukraine. The reason I still remember that encounter is the pain and discomfort of having my sinus drained. I was conscious during the procedure and my mother had to restrain me while the doctor drained my sinus. I remember that having my sinus drained was so excruciating that I told the doctor, “When I grow up I will become a doctor so I can do this to you!” When I reminisce about that experience I still tell myself that I would like to work in health care, but my intentions are no longer vengeful. After researching various health care professions I realized that physician assistant is the one for me. I have several reasons for pursuing a career as a PA. Firstly the PA profession has a bright future; according to the Bureau of Labor statistics employment for physician assistants is projected to grow 38 percent from 2020 to 2022. Secondly the flexibility of the PA of the profession is appealing to me; I would like to build an eclectic repertoire of experiences and skills when it comes to delivering medical care. Thirdly I would be able to work autonomously and collaboratively with a health care team to diagnose and treat individuals. The fourth and most important reason is that I would be able to directly influence people in a positive way. Working for homecare services I have had several people tell me that they prefer PAs over physicians, because physician assistants are able to take their time to effectively communicate with their patients. I know that to become a physician assistant academic excellence is imperative so I would like to take the time to explain the discrepancies in my transcript. During my freshman and sophomore year my grades were not great and there is no excuse for that. In my first two years of college I was more concerned with socializing than I was with academia. I chose to spend most of my time going to parties and because of it my grades suffered. Although I had a lot of fun I came to the realization the fun would not last forever. I knew that to fulfill my dream of working in health care I would have to change my ways. Starting with my junior year I made school my priority and my grades improved markedly. My grades in the second two years of my college career are a reflection of me as an engaged student. I will continue striving to achieve my terminal goal of becoming a physician assistant, because I look forward to the first time a worried mother comes to the hospital with her sick child and I will be able to say, “I can help this boy!” Personal Statement Examples #5 Completely re-edited my PS. This draft feels alot stronger. Please let me know what you think. Thanks. “The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why”. This quote from Mark Twain comes to mind when describing why I aspire to become a Physician Assistant. The journey to finding one’s professional “why” can be tough, it can sometimes force one to settle and give up on the journey altogether but in other cases, cases of so many who have genuine love in what they do, it requires constant self-reflection, faith and unyielding determination to continue on. Early on in my academic career I lacked the maturity to grasp this concept, I wasn’t committed to the process of learning and was without intrinsic motivation to dedicate myself to it. I knew I wanted a career in medicine but when asked difficult questions of why, I could only give the generic answer, “Because I want to help people”. That reason wasn’t enough, I needed something more, something that could drive me to work night shifts and head to school immediately after, something that could push me to retake courses and pursue a Masters degree. To find this “why” I became child-like, asking many questions, majority of them beginning with why. Why was it important for me to help people through medicine? Why not a trainer, a physician or a nurse? Why not anything else? Through this journey I began four years ago, I’ve learned that an individuals “why” is a place where one’s passions and skills meet their community’s needs and as I’ve been exposed to many facets of health, I’ve discovered my passion for fitness and health is the foundation of my “why”. The day I found this “why” came subtly, from a simple yet profound article clipping that remains posted on my wall today. A “wonder pill “ Dr. Robert Butler described, that could prevent and treat many diseases but more importantly prolong the length and quality of life. The drug was exercise and as he surmised, “If it could be packed into a pill it would the most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation”. From these words my “why” began taking shape, I began wondering what could happen to our health care system if prevention was emphasized and people were given the directions and interventions needed to not only solve their health issues but to live healthier lives. I wondered what I could do to be part of the solution, how I could play a role in delivering a care that considered multiple influences and multiple methods for treating and preventing diseases, while also advocating optimal health and well-being. With the recent reforms to healthcare I believed that a system emphasizing prevention could become an actuality and with many people given access to it a better kind provider would be needed. Providers, in my opinion, that understands the roles of nutrition, fitness and behavior modifications on health. Providers that understand that curative or palliative methods that wait until patients are sick, in many cases beyond repair before stepping in, can no longer be a standard practice. From interning with trainers and wellness coaches in health centers, to working with nurses and techs in the hospital, to shadowing PAs and Physicians during rounds or in underserved clinics, I‘ve not only gained valuable experiences but I have been able to see exactly what makes each profession great. Each profession has aspects that interest me but as I have researched and dissected each of these careers, plucking pieces where I find my greatest skills meeting what I am passionate about, I found myself at the doorstep of a career as a Physician Assistant. Working at Florida Hospital, I relish in the team-based effort that I’ve learned is quite necessary in providing quality care. I thoroughly enjoy my interactions with patients and working in communities where English may not be the primary language but forces you to go out and learn to become a better caregiver. I’ve learned exactly where my “why” is. It is in a profession centered on this team-based effort, it focuses on the patient and the trust between the physician and the health care team, not on the insurance, management or the business side of medicine. It is a profession whose purpose comes from improving and expanding our health care system, a field with the ability to not only diagnose and treat diseases but also with the expectation to promote health through education. It is a profession where I can be a lifetime-learner, where stagnation isn’t even a possibility, with many specialties in which I can learn. Most importantly it is a career whose role in this evolving health care system is etched to be on the front line in its delivery, the key to integrating both wellness and medicine to combat and prevent diseases. The journey to this conclusion hasn’t been easy but I am grateful because my“ why” is now simple and unmistakable. I have been placed on this earth to serve, educate and advocate wellness through medicine as a Physician Assistant. In summation, my “why” has become my favorite question. Personal Statement Examples #6 The easiest decision I ever made was choosing to play soccer when I was seven years old. Fifteen years later, after finishing four years of Division I collegiate soccer, I made the most difficult decision thus far in my life. Knowing that I was not going to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team, I had to pursue a different dream. The summer after my college graduation, I transitioned from playing soccer to coaching, while figuring out a career path to pursue. At one of the first practices I coached, I witnessed a girl get caught up in a net and hit her head on a pole. My instincts told me to run over and help. I advised a parent to call 9-1-1 while I checked to see if the girl was alert. She was in and out of consciousness for about two minutes before she was able to look at me and tell me her name. I talked to her to keep her awake until the paramedics arrived to take over. Even while the paramedics assessed her, she did not want me to leave. I held her hand until it was time for her to be transported. In that moment, it was clear to me that helping others was my calling. At the same time I started coaching, I began volunteering at Los Angeles Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. I shadowed emergency room (ER) doctors, orthopedic doctors, and general practitioners. Naturally, my athletic career drew me in towards Orthopedics. I spent most of my time watching how doctors, physician assistants (PAs), nurses, and technicians interacted with patients. Similar to soccer, teamwork is a key component of patient care. I was amazed at how smooth the process was to prepare for a trauma patient in the ER. It was not as chaotic as I had expected. The communications center alerted the trauma team that a 79 year-old female patient with head trauma was on its way. From there, the trauma team prepared a room for the patient. When the patient arrived, it was like watching a well-rehearsed play. Every team member knew his/her role and performed it flawlessly despite the high-pressure situation. In that moment, I felt the same adrenaline rush I got during my soccer games and knew that I had to pursue a career in the medical field. Although I was introduced to the idea of becoming a PA, my eyes were set on becoming a doctor. So, I applied for medical school. After being rejected from medical school, I debated applying again. After shadowing PAs at Harbor-UCLA, I did research on becoming a PA. What stood out the most to me was the flexibility of a PA to work in different medical specialties. Also, in the orthopedic department, I noticed that the PAs had more time to spend with patients discussing rehabilitation options and infection prevention after their surgeries. This type of patient care was more along the lines of what I wanted to do. So, my next step was to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to fulfill the work experience requirement for my PA application. Working as an EMT turned out to be more meaningful than just being a pre-requisite for PA school. Whether the complaints were medical or traumatic, these patients were meeting me on the worst day of their lives. One call we had was a Spanish-speaking only patient who complained of left knee pain. Since I was the only Spanish speaker on scene, I translated for the paramedics. The medics concluded that the patient could be transported to the hospital code 2, no paramedic follow-up and no lights and sirens necessary, since it appeared to be localized knee pain. En route to the hospital, I noticed a foul smell coming from the patient. Suddenly, the patient became unresponsive so we upgraded our transport and used our lights and sirens to get there faster. Upon our arrival the patient started coming around. The triage nurse approached us and noticed the foul smell as well. The nurse had us put the patient into a bed right away and said that the patient might be septic. I thought, but where? Later that day, we checked up on the patient and found out that she was in the late stages of breast cancer. On scene, she failed to mention the open wounds she thoroughly wrapped up on her breasts because that was not her chief complaint. She also did not mention it as part of her pertinent medical history. Her knee was hurting due to osteoporosis from the cancer cells metastasizing to her bones. This call always stuck with me because it made me realize that I want to be able to diagnose and treat patients. As a PA, I would be able to do both. All of my life experiences have led me to realize that I want to be a part of a medical team as a physician assistant. To be able to study multiple medical specialties, diagnose, and treat would allow me to come full circle in patient care. As much as I love pre-hospital care, I have always wanted to do more. Given the opportunity, as a PA, I will take on the challenges of patient care in a hospital setting and look forward to being able to follow through with all of my patients to the end of their care. Personal Statement Examples #7 A young, cheerful volleyball player came to my training room complaining of back pain during her off-season. Two weeks later, she died from Leukemia. Two years later her brother, a former state champion football player, was diagnosed with a different type of Leukemia. He fought hard for a year, but he too succumbed to the same disease that took the life of his baby sister. A girl in her sophomore year of high school sought my advice because she was concerned about a small bump on her back. After a few weeks of observing she returned complaining of back pain along with an increase in the size of the original bump. Recognizing this was beyond my expertise, I referred her to her pediatrician, who then recommended she see another medical specialist. Following extensive testing she was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After recently dealing with the loss of two young athletes, this news was shocking. Fortunately, over the next year and a half, this young lady battled and beat the cancer in time to complete her senior year and walk across the stage at graduation with her classmates. I was elated for her, but began reflecting on the limitations of my position as an athletic trainer. These events also prompted me to evaluate my life, my career, and my goals. I felt compelled to investigate my options. After doing so, I was determined to expand my knowledge and increase my ability to serve others and decided the correct path for me was to become a Physician Assistant. During my career thus far as an athletic trainer, I have had the privilege of working at a wide variety of locations. These include an acute care in-patient hospital, working with post surgical patients; a family practice and sports medicine office, performing initial evaluations; an outpatient therapy clinic, working with rehab patients; an orthopedic surgeon’s office, shadowing patient visits and surgeries; and many universities and high schools, working with a variety of athletic injuries. My experiences in these diverse settings have shown me the need for all degrees of medical personnel. Each field has its own purpose in the proper care of the patient. As an athletic trainer I have seen a range of injuries that I could diagnose and treat myself. But it has always been the ones that I had to refer to the team doctor that weighed on me, making me feel that I should be able to help even more. As a physician assistant, I would possess the knowledge and skills needed to diagnose and provide the care needed for my patients. My position as the high school athletic trainer allows me to get acquainted with all of the athletes, however, to be even more effective I get involved in the community of the school and strive to learn more about the people with whom I work. For the last three years I have been a substitute teacher for the junior and senior high school. I have also volunteered for many functions that the school provides for the students including school dances, the community-based alcohol prevention program called Every 15 Minutes, and the annual junior and senior retreat which involves a true bonding experience for all participants. Developing meaningful relationships with the students enhances my effectiveness by opening lines of communication and building trust. It is my firm belief that a patient will only speak openly about a self-perceived flaw including injury with someone he or she feels comfortable. I sincerely want to be that person for my athletes now, and for my patients in the future. The diverse injuries, illnesses, and diseases I have encountered as athletic trainer have provided me with a variety of wonderful experiences. I have witnessed both tragedy and triumph with my athletes and coaches, on and off of the field or court. Most injuries have been inconsequential in the long term, even to those experiencing the pain in the moment. They know that they will heal and progress in their sport and continue on their journey in life. Fighting for and winning state championships is all well and good, but there are far more important concerns in this life we live. I have witnessed young lives being taken, and those who battled relentlessly to overcome all obstacles, and it is these individuals who have changed how I view medicine, how I view myself, and how I view my future in the world of medicine. These people have enriched my life and have taken ahold of my heart and mind, motivating me to push forward. “Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep battling.” The powerful motto of our basketball coach living with advanced Cystic Fibrosis has been a significant incentive for me. He was told he would live a much shorter and less satisfying life, but he never gave in to his diagnosis. He made his life what he wanted it to be, overcoming many obstacles and living out his dreams. Seeing him fight for each day of his life has had tremendous influence on me. I know it is my time to fight for what I want and keep moving forward. Personal Statement Examples #8 I would really appreciate if someone could tell me if I’m hitting any of the right points in my essay! The door flew open and slammed against the adjacent wall. The room was dark and all I could make out were figures and the noise of chatter and children crying. As my eyes adjusted to the sharp contrast in darkness from the blaring sun outside, I made my way to the counter. “Sign in,” said a voice and I looked down to see a chewed up pin and a pile of ripped up pieces of paper, on which I wrote my name and date of birth. The voice came out again “have a seat; we’ll call you when we’re ready.” I turned to see a room, no bigger than a two bedroom apartment, full of young women and children of various ages. I took a seat and waited for my turn to be seen at my local health department. As an adolescent without health insurance, I have seen first-hand the demand for providers that can offer available healthcare. My experiences at the local health department made me dread going, never knowing if I would see the same provider again. Like many others in my situation, I just stopped going. After these experiences, I knew I wanted to be the stability for the underprivileged and financially burdened. I began my role in healthcare as a pharmacy technician. It was this job that solidified my interests in the science of medicine. It was also this exposure which showed me that primary care providers play a huge role in the health system. However, it was not until I began working in registration for the Emergency Department of my local hospital that I could see just how important this role is; patients sitting for hours to be seen for a fever and headache because they do not have any other option for healthcare. These observations pushed me to continue in medicine. After moving home to pursue this career, I climbed my way from a unit secretary to a patient care technician where I had my first hands-on experiences with patients. I remember a particular incident where while I was assisting a patient to the bathroom, she began sweating and complaining of blurred vision. I immediately called for someone to come in so I could check her blood sugar levels; it was 37 mg/Dl. With the nurse by my side, we got Ms. Kay safely to the bed and began treating her with intravenous glucose. I was so excited and proud of myself for recognizing the symptoms and being able to react without hesitation. It is moments like this one that I recognize my desires are not only to treat patients, but also diagnose illnesses. After working closely with many health providers for nearly ten years, none stood out to me like Mike, a physician assistant on the cardiothoracic surgery unit. I have seen him take the extra time to go over every medication a patient had not only to ensure there was no drug interactions but to explain and write down the uses of each for when they returned home. When this patient needs a refill, instead of asking for “the little blue pill,” they will confidently ask for their blood pressure medication. Understanding these problems and taking the time to address them through patient education and support can greatly improve the quality of life for those in our communities. PAs help to carry out this idea of preventive medicine over episodic care as a team. A team-based care system is very important to me. I learned the value of a solid support network while struggling after the death of my cousin. The pain of losing my best friend, and the personal disappointment I felt after failing two semesters, made it difficult for me to continue on my career path confidently. However, with the backing and trust of my peers, much like a PA in their practice, I was able to push forward and overcome these trials. I was taught stress-management and determination through these hardships and they will aid me as I endeavor this challenging and evolving career as a PA. With my professional training in the medical field, I have a good understanding and appreciate everyone’s roles in healthcare. We come from several backgrounds and experiences that allow us to integrate together and ultimately provide better patient care. I am confident in my ability to translate my skills into my studies as well as future practice and become a successful PA. I am also confident in my ability to relate and help close the gap in available healthcare as a primary care provider. Personal Statement Examples #9 “My chest hurts.” Anyone in the medical field knows this is a statement that cannot simply be brushed off. Mary was a patient we brought to and from dialysis three times a week. At the young age of 88, her mind was starting to go and her history of CVA rendered her hemiplegic, reliant on us for transport. Mary would stare through us and continue conversations with her late husband, insist she was being rained on while in the ambulance, and manipulate us into doing things we would never consider for another patient, i.e. adjust pillows an absurd amount of times, and hold her limp arm in the air for the entirety of the 40 minute transport, leaving you down a full PCR. But, it was Mary, and Mary held a special place in our hearts just out of sheer desire to please her in the slightest- never successfully, might I add. Mary complained about everything, but nothing at the same time. So, that Thursday afternoon when she nonchalantly stated she had chest pain, it raised some red flags. With a trainee on board, the three man crew opted to run the patient to the ER three miles up the road, emergent, rather than waiting for ALS. I ran the call, naturally, it was Mary, and she was my patient. Vitals stable, patient denies breathing difficulty and any other symptoms. During the two minute transport I called in the report over the wail of the sirens, “history of CVA and… CVA. Mary look at me. Increased facial drooping; stoke alert, pulling in now.” Mary always had facial drooping, slurring, and left sided weakness, but it was worse. I’ve taken her every week for six months, but this time I was sitting on her right side. We took her straight to CT, and I have not since seen her. Mary was my patient, and everyone knew it. We hear “life is too short” all the time, but how many people have been on scene after a heartbroken mother rolled over on her four-month-old, and you work that child like its your own, knowing she’s been down too long. As a healthcare provider, you have those patients that make it all worth it; That remind you why you keep going back for the MVAs, amputations, overdoses, three year old with fishhook in his eye, 2 year old down a flight of stairs, Alzheimer’s patient who doesn’t understand why they’re being strapped to the stretcher, 302 who pulls a gun, pancreatic cancer patient who vomits blood on you while you’re at the bottom of the stairchair and there’s not a thing you can do about it until you get down two more flights of stairs. My ambulance is my office. EMS has given me more experience, hope and disappointment than I could have ever asked for as an undergraduate. It has done nothing short of fuel my desire for advancement in the medical field. “The contest is a lion fight. So chin up, put your shoulders back, walk proud, strut a little. Don’t lick your wounds. Celebrate them. The scars you bear are the sign of a competitor. You’re in a lion’s fight. Just because you didn’t win, doesn’t mean you don’t know how to roar.” The countless hours of procrastination watching the medical inaccuracies of Grey’s Anatomy, the breathtaking visuals in House MD, and the thrill of ER, have, if nothing else, given me hope. Hope that someone will see past my mediocre GPA and undergraduate transcript, and afford me the second chance I know I deserve. I proved my capability and motivation in high school and my last two years of college when I refocused my goals and plan. I am ready, prepared, and willing to do whatever it takes to reach my aspiration of providing the highest quality care of which I am capable. If you are not ready at this moment to put faith in me, I will do whatever it takes to get to that point, whether it be retaking classes, or investing another $40,000 in my education to excel in a post-baccalaureate program. After years of dabbling in medical occupations, I have finally found the one I want, and my desire to live and learn has never been stronger. Personal Statement Examples #10 I have since reworked my essay and would prefer that the second copy be considered if possible. I am about 150 characters over the limit and I am not sure what to cut or where. I also am working on conveying the message of why I want to be a PA and what I can offer that is unique. Any help is greatly appreciated! I’ve learned a lot of important lessons while shadowing a physician assistant in the emergency room this summer: always clean up your own sharps, communicate with other ER staff members to effectively work as a team, never talk about how “quiet” a day is, and that a warm blanket and a smile go a long way in patient care. Most importantly, I learned how much I love coming in to the hospital each day, excited to interact with a wide variety of patients and have a positive impact, no matter how small, in their healthcare experience. Shadowing in a level II trauma center granted me opportunities to develop my own personal philosophy about patient care, as well as furthered my desire to pursue a career as a PA in this field. My biggest inspiration to become a PA, however, started well before I ever shadowed in a hospital but from something much closer to home. It was the summer before my final year at Miami when I got the text from my dad. He had been sick for a few weeks and finally went to the hospital for routine blood work. Doctor’s visits used to be rare for him, as he is an ER physician and seemed to never get sick. When the results came in, they immediately admitted him to Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. He told me he was fine and not to worry, all while joking about getting a room with the Indians game on, so I believed him. The next morning his tests were back – he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His first thirty days of routine high-volume chemotherapy were cut short when he acquired an infection and spiraled into total organ failure. He was in the ICU for roughly two months, during which time he drifted in and out of comas and had, as he phrased it, “a visit from every specialist except gynecology.” When he finally regained consciousness after two weeks of dialysis, he was so weak he could not sit up unassisted so he spent two more months at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he was finally allowed to come home on Christmas Eve. It was the best present a girl could ask for, but not without its challenges. He was still very weak and wheelchair-bound. He had to take handfuls of pills several times a day, and needed his blood sugar checked before each meal due to the steroids. The house had to be regularly scrubbed from top to bottom due to his low neutrophil count. When I was younger and my mother suffered two strokes, my father had been the one that had kept our family together. Our upside down world felt like a nightmare. I learned to do fingersticks and insulin injections gently, so as not to bruise his paper-thin skin. I taught him how to flush his PICC line when it became clogged (a trick I learned from my own experience with IV antibiotics to treat osteomyelitis a year prior). When he started walking, I learned to block his knees with my hands so he wouldn’t fall too far forward after he lost most of his proprioception and motor control from peripheral neuropathy. I had a tough choice to make: return to school and continue pursuing my degree, or stay home and help my mother. I stayed in Cleveland for as long as I could, but eventually went back to school the day before spring semester started. I continued to come home as often as I could. Our schedule wasn’t the only thing that changed – because my father was unable to work, our lifestyle changed considerably due to the financial strain from hospital bills. We now considered ease of access everywhere we travelled to make sure it was safe for his wheelchair. One night, my mother confided that she had never spent so much time with my father in the entirety of their marriage. Cancer is not only a physical fight but a myriad of battles that accompany the diagnosis. Standing strong with my family through all of these hurdles has helped me to develop a comprehensive and unique perspective on the challenges that health issues bring to patients and their families. My father has since returned to work in the ER, and continues to greet patients with a smile, grateful to be alive and healthy enough to practice medicine. Even before my father got sick, I was in love with medicine, too. From a young age, I questioned the world around me with a thirst for answers that never waned. As I learned body systems in anatomy and physiology, I looked at illness and injury as a puzzle waiting to be solved. When I was taking care of my dad, he told me I should look into PA school. He said “if you love medicine and actually want to spend time with patients, become a Physician Assistant.” In my time shadowing in the Emergency Department, I have found this to be very true. While the doctors intercept phone calls from specialists and chart lengthy notes, the PAs are in the room with patients, performing a review of symptoms or suturing lacerations all while keeping the patient informed and calm to ameliorate stress levels. The positive impact on the patient care experience is palpable. I want to apply the same compassion and understanding that I have acquired during my own family’s experiences and those from shadowing in the emergency room in order to better someone else’s health care experience. Personal Statement Examples #11 “Whether you know it or not, you do have the power to touch the lives of everyone you encounter and make their day just a little bit better.” I once heard a resident named Mary console her peer who was feeling useless with this small piece of advice. Mary had lived at Lutheran Home for about 5 years. She had the warmest smile that spread across her face and seemed to tell a story. It was a smile that reminded me of the kind smile my grandmother used to have. I remember thinking that this woman truly amazed me and seemed to have an uncanny ability to comfort others. Mary was a selfless, compassionate woman that I admired very much. One day I learned that Mary had fallen while trying to transfer into the shower and had injured her arm and had hit her head. This incident, followed by more health issues, seemed to be the start to her declined orientation and abilities. Mary was put on bed rest, slowly began to lose her appetite and began to have pain. For the next few months, I was happy when I was assigned to care for Mary because the statement I had witnessed truly came to life. Mary was not always well taken care of and had no family visitors in her last days. Many times I would try to check in to ensure her comfort, sit with her in my free time or reproach Mary when she had refused a meal to get her to eat a little more. In the end, small things like holding her had, being there for her and talking to her undoubtedly made her day just a little better. Mary taught me to be patient, respectful and compassionate to each and every person I encounter and I have truly witnessed the improvement that this approach provides in the healing process. I believe that this manner is essential to being a remarkable physician assistant. I first learned about the Physician Assistant career when I began working at University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, and the model resonated strongly with my life’s motivation. I am passionate about relationship building, quality time with people, and the flexibility to be a lifelong learner. I love the idea of a reduced burden on the PA’s because it allows focus on and development of their strengths. I know in my deepest core that this profession is what I am meant to do. Yes I am hardworking, ambitious and a team player, but what makes me distinctly qualified to pursue a professional degree as a physician assistant is my humanity and kindness that I have learned through my experiences. To me, a physician’s assistant serves her patients, her doctor and her community with respect and compassion. There are an immeasurable amount of moments that I have experienced in patient care that have inspired my career choice. In memory of Mary, and every patient who has individually touched my everyday life I have found my passion with this humanity. I always take the time to be with my patients, understand their point of view, form a connection with them and give them the best quality care I can possibly provide. I have been involved in direct patient care in different settings for 3 years and find great joy every day I go to work. To be able to influence a person’s everyday life is a blessing and gives me my inner peace. There is no greater reward in life than to share your love and compassion with the world to make everyone else’s life just a little bit better. Personal Statement Examples #12 My journey to Physician’s Assistant school started three years ago when my life was an utter mess. I was in an unsatisfying relationship, in a career that made me completely miserable, and I suffered from headaches everyday from the stress of dealing with these issues. I knew I was not where I was supposed to be in life. I freed myself from my unsatisfying relationship. The timing may not have been perfect, as I ended the relationship two months before our wedding, but I know I saved myself years of heartache. Four months after ending my engagement, I was laid off from my job. Shortly after being laid off, I had a seizure due to the headache medicine that I had been taking everyday prior to being laid off. This confirmed to me that I needed a career change. I have never been at a loss for ambition, but my recent experience gave me pause as to the direction I should go. One day a trusted advisor asked me if I had ever thought of becoming a doctor or a physician’s assistant. At first, I dismissed the idea because I knew not only would I have to go back to school, I would have to take challenging classes such as chemistry. The thought of taking chemistry and math-related classes intimidated me. The fear of financial and academic failure made me consider what I needed and wanted. After researching and comparing physicians, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants, I felt a genuine interest in the PA field. The length of time in school, the cost of schooling, the level of autonomy, and the ability to explore specialties are a few reasons why becoming a PA is appealing. For a time, I avoided making a decision for fear of making the wrong one. I especially wrestled with knowing that if I went back to school, I’d have to take classes that I took as an undergraduate over twelve years ago. However, indecision due to fear was robbing me of my time and thrusting into me paralyzing thoughts of what may never happen. In the interest of challenging my fear, I decided to volunteer with a local fire and rescue station to obtain my EMT-B certification. Additionally, I began taking classes that I thought I might struggle with. Logically, I thought, if I could love being in this fast paced healthcare setting and continue to find the motivation to undertake some of the most challenging classes of my college career, I’d be reassured I was on the right path. Returning to school was not easy. I did have to withdraw from college chemistry my first semester as I was overwhelmed with change. I was a bit rusty and needed to ease into the semester so that I could practice the habits that make me a great student. Once I found my footing, I enrolled in college chemistry again, and I really enjoyed it. I felt as if my mind was expanding and I was learning things that I once thought I could not easily learn. My confidence soared, and I wondered what all my apprehension and anxiety was about. Obtaining my EMT-Basic certification, volunteering, and returning to school to conquer my most demanding classes to date has been one of the most rewarding decisions of my life. Becoming an EMT-B has allowed me to learn fundamental healthcare such as conducting patient assessments and history, understanding anatomy and physiology concepts, and communicating with patients. The EMS field has rendered me more open-minded and tolerant, allowing me to treat people of all different socioeconomic status, education levels, and ethnicities. I have seen a very human side of people I otherwise would not. I now have a clear picture of what I want, I’m driven and know what I want to achieve. I have grown professionally and personally while providing compassionate care to others and pushing myself to an extent that I did not think was possible. In addition, since returning to school I realize that I enjoy confronting my fears and I am better at challenging myself and learning new things than when I was in my teens and twenties. I am eager to take this desire to the next level, striving ever to enrich my life with the challenges that only a profession in the physician’s assistant field can bring. Personal Statement Examples #13 My strongest memory of my “abuelita” involves her, in tears, recounting her fathers’ refusal to allow her to study medicine because she was a woman. Perhaps this story remains so clear on account of her dementia driven repetitiveness, but I suspect it was my emotional response of longing for a calling as strong as hers. Where we did share the same love of crossword puzzles and literature, I never felt physician was the right career for me- despite her grandmotherly insistence. Today I am confident that Physician Assistant (PA) is the answer to a question I have been asking myself for a long time now. What will I dedicate my life to? As a student oscillating between a career in medicine and international development it was unclear which path best fit my character and career goals. Following my passions led me to find the PA occupation. It is a combination of everything I am interested in: biology, health education and public service. My fascination with the human body led me to major in Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). This course of study inspired and challenged me as it combined my interest in biology and enthusiasm for problem solving. A Biochemistry course presented more of a challenge than others. I immediately retook the course learning a valuable lesson- that personal growth comes from challenges. With this lesson in mind I decided to enter post graduate life through the toughest challenge I could imagine- volunteering for two years in a third world country. In an effort to pursue my interest in both health and international development I joined the Peace Corps. Furthermore this allowed me to work for an organization whose philosophy I could believe in. The Peace Corps attempts to make a real difference in the lives of real people. Within months of living in rural Ecuador I took notice and was inspired by the tangible and immediate impact made by medical professionals. Eager to join them I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with a rural health clinic. Some of my responsibilities included taking patient histories and vital signs, providing hands on assistance to the gynecologist and developing a community health education program. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the research, creativity and problem solving it took to develop and implement health education that would really reach the people I was trying to help. Whether facilitating workshops, consulting in the clinic, or in home visits, I thrived on patient interaction with people from vastly different backgrounds. I found that one thing is universal; everyone wants to feel heard. A good practitioner first needs to be a good listener. I also found that my lack of medical knowledge at times left me feeling helpless like when I was unable to help a woman who approached me after a family planning workshop. We were in a community hours away from medical care. She had persistent vaginal bleeding since giving birth three months prior. It struck me that there was little I could do without a medical degree. This experience, and others like it, inspired me to further my education to become a medical practitioner. Since my return from the Peace Corps I enthusiastically pursued the PA profession. I completed the remaining pre requisites with high marks, took an accelerated EMT course at UCLA, volunteered in the emergency room (ER) and shadowed a number of PAs. One PA, Jeremy, has been a particularly impactful role model. He maintains strong, trusting relationships with the patients. He is extremely knowledgeable, unhurried, and personable as he meets patient needs. It is no wonder they request him as their primary care practitioner and I hope to practice with the same skill one day. All of my shadowing experiences reaffirmed my career objectives most align with that of a PA, where I can focus on the care and treatment of my patients, without the added responsibility of owning my own business. Whereas Peace Corps ignited my passion for a career in medicine and shadowing in the family practice opened my eyes to the PA profession, working as an emergency room technician (ER Tech) has cemented my desire to become a PA. In addition to my ER Tech duties I am a certified Spanish interpreter. Every day I am fortunate enough to work closely with a large staff of PAs, physicians and nurses. Often times I interpret for the same patient throughout their entire visit. Through these interactions I have developed a great deal of appreciation for the PAs. As they typically treat less acute patients they can spend more time on patient education. The most meaningful part of my job is ensuring patients receive quality medical care regardless of their language or education. An unexpected benefit has resulted from the doctors, PAs and nurses recognizing my enthusiasm for learning and sharing their medical knowledge to help me realize my dream of one day becoming a PA. A theme of helping the medically underserved has developed over the course of my adult life. Unequivocally it is my calling to continue this gratifying work as PA in primary care. I am confident I will succeed in your program because of my dedication to finishing everything that I start and desire to learn. I am an exceptional candidate due to my multi-cultural perspective, years of experience in bilingual patient care and commitment to the physician assistant profession. Upon completion of Physician Assistant school I will be the first in my generation of 36 cousins to receive a graduate education. My abuelita would be brimming with pride. Personal Statement Examples #14 Dirt. Coating the curve of my ear, the lining of my nostrils, and sticking to my overheated, salty skin; it’s present with every inhale of breath. The Mexican sun beats heat upon my sunburnt shoulders. A Spanish-speaking boy pulls me into the dirt to sit cross-legged across from each other while he teaches me a rhythmic hand-slapping game. I notice his leg is angled awkwardly as if he is compensating for a weak spot on his calf. Peering over his lap, I catch a glimpse of a silver dollar sized pus-filled bump. He shies away. Why should he trust a church volunteer building houses in Mexico? I’m powerless to help this young boy, powerless to heal him. I feel helpless. Ice. Melting and seeping into woolen gloves, encasing my freezing fingers. The wind races across my cheeks, slips in the cracks of my jacket and scarf. I am in Detroit. The man with the bare, wrinkled hand grasps my arm with a crinkly smile. He is a veteran who feels more at home in this dark, concrete corner in downtown Detroit than any hospital. He bends to show me his swelling feet with red whelps racing along his shins. Why does he trust me? I am just a volunteer at a soup kitchen, powerless to heal him. I feel helpless. Droplets. Clinging and racing down the tip of a large tropical leaf, splashing onto my arm through a rusty metal window. Horns honk. Bells dance. Touts clamor for my attention. Amid the wet, tropical heat, people move in every direction atop a carpet of trash lining the streets. I’m sitting on a crowded, sweltering bus outside Delhi, India. A young beggar drags himself up the metal steps of the bus. One elbow in front of the other, he slowly crawls up the aisle. He attempts to pull himself into my lap, dried blood and dirt matting his head, flies swarming his ears, thigh stumps dangling off the edge of the seat. Although I shouldn’t, I help him over my lap to the seat beside me, tears streaming down my face. Money will not help him. Money would just encourage him to persuade a few coins off the next tourist that comes along. I’m sure he trusts no one even though he pretends to engage me, for he sees me as a target rather than as a backpacker volunteering anywhere an extra set of hands is needed along my travels. I am powerless to heal him. I feel helpless. All three of these experiences are just snapshots of the times I have felt helpless. Helplessness began as a child and older sister, coming from a single mother family with no health insurance, no college degrees and the emptiest cart in line at the local grocery store; helplessness has ended as I have risen above unlikely odds, returning to college after the experiences of volunteer work locally, across the U.S. and across the globe. I have had the opportunity to work and volunteer in orphanages and local medical clinics serving the underprivileged within multiple countries. I have had a taste of what it is like to treat wounds, to assist in transporting the wounded, to sit comfortingly beside the bed of a woman with resistant tuberculosis as she took her last breaths. I have worked alongside many health professionals along the way, but the physician assistants stood out to me. They were versatile and compassionate, spending the majority of their time with the patients. Most adapted to every new circumstance and smoothly transitioned between specialties in the field. Every encounter with a patient or a physician assistant has fueled my ambition and fever for more knowledge and skills, leading me back to re-enrolling in college. My transcript break between immature teenager and driven adult taught me inalienable concepts such as sacrifice, pain, hard work, appreciation, compassion, integrity and determination. I nurtured my passions and discovered my strengths and weaknesses. Six years after leaving college and four years after returning, I am now the first college graduate in my family, having worked my way through as a restaurant server depending on academic scholarships and tips. On each break in between semesters I have continued my volunteer work locally, in Thailand, and in Haiti. In the upcoming year, I have secured a position as an emergency room technician and will also complete a Pre-PA internship through Gapmedic in Tanzania in the spring to continue to prepare for a Physician Assistant Program. In the memory of every human connection I have made along my journey, having both been a member of as wells as served the underprivileged, I will continue my drive and ambition toward Physician Assistant Studies in hopes I can continue to become a little less helpless. Personal Statement Examples #15 When I look back over the last several years of my life, I never foresaw myself considering a second career. However, several exciting and fulfilling experiences that I had over the last few years have led to my decision to pursue dentistry as a career. A future in the health care field was a natural choice for me, coming from a family of health care workers. I also had a flair for biology right from my school days and my interest in holistic medicine found me choosing a career in homeopathic medicine. I have striven hard to keep myself among the top 10% of the class and my curiosity and interest in the human body and diseases that affect it has grown by leaps and bounds during my years of homeopathic medical training. The motivation behind me, to become a health care professional was being a victim to see the sufferings faced my Grand Father who was a lung cancer patient (mesothelioma). Since we were residing at a rural area in India, my Grand Father had to travel for more than 2 hours to get medical care. Shortness of breath due to pleural effusion, chest pain and the sufferings after chemotherapy, all these annoying hardship which he suffered motivated me of becoming a health care professional in future. Moreover the kindness and care the Doctors, and other healthcare professionals showed towards him, made him to overcome the sufferings, had always motivated me to continue being passionate about my healthcare career in spite of all difficulties in this pathway. There was nothing the medicine can do in his late 80s, unless giving him support and joyful time in his remaining days. I still remember the Physician and his assistant who always visited him and advised to be bold and prepared to face everything. He trusted his care group .Their words made his last moments of death a peaceful one. From that day onwards, I had no other thought of what to become in future. My fiance, a software engineer, had made plans to immigrate to the United States and pursue further training in Java. When I told him about my interest in medical field, he immediately encouraged me to apply to PA school once we reached America. After all, America was the land of opportunity- a place where you could set out to achieve whatever dreams you may have in your heart. During my husband’s training, he mentioned to me that he had several co-workers who were engineers or lawyers, who successfully made medicine their second career. Elated by his encouragement and excited about the prospect of becoming a PA, I planned to complete the prerequisites to PA school with a 4.0 GPA. I learned quickly to manage my time efficiently between taking care of my kids and studying for my course work. My rotation in the holistic clinic in our final year of homeopathic school has also greatly influenced me. Life stress and unhealthy habits cause most of today’s illnesses. I found that although most physicians do an excellent job of counseling patients on which drugs to take, they spend little time talking about healthy life habits. The prospect of treating the patient as a whole rather than his or her complains alone was, to me, the way to go. I am especially interested in being a physician assistant in the field of Internal Medicine. The physician assistant, to me, is like a detective, gathering all the clues and arriving at a logical diagnosis. Since it is so broad, and since its sub-specialties are so well developed, I believe that Internal Medicine is the most challenging of all specialties Charisma is a trait difficult to learn but from my childhood days, I have practiced to gain very quickly the attention, respect and trust of others by a good smile. Being a good team player, excellent communication skills, my passion and my dedication helped me providing good quality care to my patients. The rewards that come from improving the patients’ quality of life have motivated me to become an influential and successful healthcare professional and I assure this would add to my Physician assistant Program as well. With all these experiences in medical field and my intense desire to continue as a healthcare professional, I hope, specifically, Physician Assistant would be a perfect match. Patience and persistence are essential twins needed in healthcare profession and hope I have achieved it during my clinical experience. Through my healthcare experiences, I have grown not only as healthcare professional, but also an individual. I have become a great listener, an assertive partner, and a positive worker to the patients and healthcare team which are important attributes for a Physician Assistant. Determination, perseverance and hard work have taught me how to succeed throughout life. Along with my passion for medicine and healing people, my desire to provide quality care to underserved communities, my life experiences have shaped my values and beliefs into the person I am today which has motivated me to be an influential and successful Physician Assistant in future. I am very much attracted to the career of being a Physician Assistant. I want to help as many people as I can. The medical field is not easy in any way; from the vigorous studying to the emotional attachment to a patient. I know that I am prepared, and will be even more equipped once a Physician Assistant. I believe ‘The future should always be seen as bright and optimistic. I always believe in positive thinking. The Power of Positive Thinking, I prefer the positives in my personal and everyday lives. I want to become a Physician Assistant to provide excellent healthcare for my patients. With all my experiences inside and outside of the United States, I strongly believe that I will make a great Physician Assistant. Having lived and studied in Middle east (Dubai and Abudhabi), India and now in the United States, I can speak Malayalam, Hindi and English and I believe that I can enrich the cultural diversity of the class. To become a Physician Assistant, requires life-long hard work, persistence, patience, dedication and above all, the right kind of right temperament. I believe that my training in homeopathic medicine gives me a unique and different perspective on patient care, that when combined with my training as a Physician Assistant can be invaluable in delivering excellent patient care. I hope to not only treat my patients, but also their family member’s wounded spirits. I look forward to the next stage in my professional life with great enthusiasm. Thank you for your consideration. Personal Statement Examples #16 I would love some feedback on my essay! I am just over 4500 characters, so I have a little wiggle room for editing From an older sister caring for seven little sibling to an in-charge paramedic, my life has been full of unique experiences that have molded me into the healthcare provider I am today. I never thought I would seek to further my education past a baccalaureate level, after all, my higher education was supposed to prepare me for an inevitable role as a stay-at-home wife and mother. However, working as a paramedic and earning a degree Emergency Health Sciences has awoken a passion for medicine that drives me forward. As I work on the ambulance I am constantly plagued by my desire to do more for my patients. This insatiable desire to expand my knowledge in order to effectively help the ill and injured provides my motivation for becoming a physician assistant. As the second oldest in a family of nine children, homeschooled in a small religious subculture, my academic journey has been anything but normal. My parents taught me to be both an independent learner and a teacher to my siblings. Although my parents emphasized rigorous academics, my time as a child was split balancing schoolwork and caring for my younger siblings. I poignantly remember sitting at the kitchen table teaching myself biology late into the evening, tired after a long day of babysitting my siblings. I tried to study earlier, but my mother had been busy, leaving me with little time for school until the children were tucked into bed. As I struggled to stay awake the thought of a career in the medical field seemed like a pipe dream. Little did I know, those days spent studying index cards while cooking dinner and wiping little noses taught me invaluable skills in time management, responsibility, and empathy. These skills have proven to be the key to success in both my education and career as a paramedic. After I completed my EMT-Basic certification in high school, I knew my future lay in the medical field. In an attempt to follow my parents’ requirement to enter a course of study deemed “appropriate” for a woman, I began pursuing a degree in nursing. During the first semester of my freshman year, my family fell on difficult financial times and I had to develop a backup plan. Feeling the weight of responsibility to ease the financial strain on my family, I utilized credit by exam to test out of my remaining core curriculum and entered a fast-paced paramedic program. Becoming a paramedic has proven to be the most formative decision in my life thus far. As the youngest in-charge paramedic at my company, I once again felt a heavy weight of responsibility as I stretched my leadership skills to new levels. Not only is the in-charge paramedic responsible for patient care decisions, my EMT partner and local first responders look to me for direction and scene management. The skills I acquired caring for my family have served me well, as I was recently promoted to a field training officer. Not only has my job allowed me to break free from the familial constraints that hindered a career in medicine, it has taught me the true purpose of healthcare. Emergency medicine is not merely a job; it is an opportunity to touch the lives of others during times of pain and suffering. The physical, mental, and emotional stress of being a paramedic pushes me to a critical level where I am forced to overcome these obstacles or fail my patients. Faced with chaos and life and death situations I must garner all my time management and mental capacities to provide rapid, accurate, and empathetic care to my patients. These challenges have sharpened my intellect, but more importantly they have made me a stronger and more compassionate person. Interacting with individuals of all ages and walks of life has caused my studies to come alive and fuels my desire to continue my education as a physician assistant. Diseases are no longer a list of diagnostic criteria in a textbook; they take on faces and names with tangible struggles and symptoms. These experiences have opened my eyes to a level of suffering too compelling to dismiss. I must be more and know more so that I may do more. Working with these patients, I feel restrained by my knowledge and skill level. I once thought that earning my degree in emergency medicine would serve to break these restraints, but the opposite has occurred. The more I learn the more I realize how vast the study of medicine is, and my ardor to continue my education grows. Becoming a physician assistant is my opportunity to break these restraints and continue onward in a life dedicated to learning and service to the ill and injured. Personal Statement Examples

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maritzaerwin · 5 years

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How to Prime Your Career for Success from Your First Day?

It’s the start of your career. You’ve made it through getting your first degree, perhaps a professional qualification examination, multiple stages of rigorous interviews and here you are, starting your career and hoping to make it to the top of the ladder. I must say that you’ve done well so far and your journey is no small feat. But, we must also ask for ways to improve.

How do we keep up with succeeding? Specifically, how do you ensure that you kick-off with the right footing and that you remain on the path of success?

There is a lot of information available to young professionals in nearly every subject. That’s a good thing, but it can lead to information overload.

How do you sift through these and decide what you should take wholly, what you should modify to suit your specific experience and what you should throw into the trash without regrets?

Do you, for instance, have to stay at your first job for 3 years as Jack Ma advised?

What if it’s just the wrong fit for your career goals?

Should you be applying to other jobs at competing companies? Should you take every opportunity for change that comes your way?

I don’t have straight answers for all these but this article will try to answer the question nearly every young professional thinks at the start of their career: How do I succeed at this job and in my career?

Having worked in a magic circle commercial law firm in Nigeria, my experience has shown that receiving advice is merely the first and least important step towards achieving anything. What matters more than anything else is what you do with the knowledge gained – your ability to do the work and to show up for yourself and your goals, consistently. If you haven’t heard it before (you have!), consistency is key.

This leads to my first piece of advice.

1) Consistently Put In The Work To Achieve Your Goals

Most of us have ideas on how we want our professional life to play-out; but if you do not, this is a good time to set some (career) goals for yourself. You should also ask yourself; “what image do I want my colleagues- supervisors and peers- to have of me?” “Do I want to be seen as a rising star, a go-getter, or a nonchalant associate?” “What do I want to get out of this role/job/company?” Once you have that image defined, you consistently put in the work required to achieve it.

Defining your goals is important as it helps to ensure that you work strategically and not without purpose. It helps to shape your steps and activities- you learn to live by design, not default.

As a cautionary note, don’t fall into the temptation of setting unrealistic goals for yourself because we have all been told to “dream big.” Let your goals be SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Don’t create unattainable standards or you will get used to not meeting your goals.

If your goal is to become a high-flyer, you’ll need to keep in mind that you can never afford to put in the barest minimum in anything. Regardless of how onerous a task might be or how unmotivated you feel, do your best to deliver over and above the call of duty. The impressions you form in those first days and months will go a long way in defining your reputation.

Read also —12 Tips To Making a Great Impression at The First Day of Your New Job

In my first year, I had a colleague who was known for his reliability. He may not have been the best at everything he did, but you were assured that he’d come through. Do you need something to be drafted or urgent research? Ask John (not real name).—You need someone to join a team for a meeting? Ask Lukman. He’d show up. Over time, Lukman became so good at these things and people got so used to his consistent showing-up that he was getting called on not just for his reliability but also for his expertise. Consistency is key.

Consistency means showing up, every day without fail. It means showing up for yourself and your goals when you’re not motivated to. It is showing up especially when you just don’t feel like it. Notice that I didn’t say showing up to ‘work’ or for ‘others’. Do everything with your goals in mind; keep the bigger picture in mind and watch yourself grow closer to achieving the life you want.

2) Say Yes to What Scares You

Have you heard the quote, “You win outside your comfort zone”? I think I twisted the original saying, but it’s true, nonetheless. Saying yes to the things that scare you forces you to step out of your comfort zone and build your character (and reputation) even if the technical skills you learn may not immediately appear to be relevant to achieving your ultimate goals.

Doing the things that scare you will help in rapidly advancing your career. Do you think that you can’t make the presentation before the entire of your office? Do it anyway. Do you not want to do it because you’ve never done it before? Do it anyway. Your supervisor needs a presentation prepared for your top-paying client but it’s a topic you’ve never heard before. Offer to prepare the slides anyway; do the research and come up with something meaningful and impressive. Do the things that scare you and watch yourself conquer fears.

In order to develop our character, it is important to acknowledge the fears that you have regarding things outside your comfort zone and do them anyway.

What you gain when you’re willing to go out of your comfort zone is versatility. First, you can’t get worse at any skill when you practice it – the only way is up. Second, because the employment landscapes in different industries are changing rapidly as a result of AI and other technological innovations, the more skills you have, the easier it’ll be to weather the storm and stay relevant in your career.

You can also read: 10 Tips for the First Day at the Office

3) Learn Something New Every Day

A supervisor mentioned that at the start of his career as a commercial lawyer, he would ensure that he learned at least 5 new things every day. 5 new things every, single day. Without fail.

You could decide to set a different goal for yourself. Your goal may be to learn 1 new thing or 3 new things every day. Whatever the number, make sure you keep up with the goal and learn something new every day. It does not have to be something too complicated or even directly related to your role at work. What matters is that you learn something relevant to building up your character or achieving your personal and or career goals.

The way to achieve this is to be intentional about learning. It is not enough to want to learn. You also have to set out the “how” and “when” factors.

Will you read an article every day during your break period? Or will you set out time after closing hours to do some personal reading? Or will it be among the first things you do before you start work for the day?

Remember to do what works for you.

Remember also to note your most productive hours and use them wisely for both your personal and work-related tasks.

The import of this rule- to learn something new every day- is that beyond the things you’re learning (which will likely be immensely helpful in the course of your life), the effort you’ll exert in sticking to your plans will train you in forming good habits. You’ve heard that habit makes the person, right? Well, the better you are at choosing and forming good habits, the better a person you’ll be in life and your career specifically.

4) Ask Questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask even when it’s the hardest thing to do – drink water, clear your throat and ask. If your fear holds you back from asking at that moment, you may miss an important opportunity to learn something in a way that’ll make it stick. You may even miss an opportunity to connect with the person you want to learn from.

Have you ever thought to yourself in a meeting, “I’ll make a note and do personal research later”? Does that ever work? Even if you remember to research on what you could have asked and received an answer for the benefit of your whole group, did your research satisfy you? Was it long and arduous? Was it a waste of time?

Even if it seems like a stupid question, it’s better to ask. If it turns out stupid, you now know better, and if it turns out not stupid, you now know better (as a plus, you won’t be known as the stupid person, but the one who isn’t afraid of learning).

When you are intentional about asking questions, it’ll become a good habit. Your mind will query things and not just accept them at face value, and your colleagues should respect you for it.

5) Do What You Enjoy And Find Time To Rest

It’s so easy to work until you’re burnt out – and to keep working even after then – at the start of your career. You’re likely at the bottom of the pyramid at this time and you want to make it big, so, understandably, you want – no, need – to put in the hours to make yourself stand out. Sometimes, depending on your field, putting in long hours is even required.

But guess what? Burning yourself out is not the way to success. I’ve heard older colleagues express regret at working very long hours without resting at the start of their careers. Rest is necessary, even to do good work. Remember that we are designed to take rests and your health is important.

So here’s my advice: be intentional about resting, it will pay off in the end.

However, do differentiate between resting and procrastinating/neglecting to work on achieving your goals. Don’t do the latter.

Choosing a career that you enjoy is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received so I love to share it. It may determine whether you succeed or not because all careers need a lot of work for success. If you’re going to work hard and smart, why not do it with something you enjoy? At the start of your career though, you may not enjoy all aspects of your role, but you should learn to work hard and smart at them. I also think that it would do a world of good for you to note the aspects of your role that you’re good at and those you aren’t and then work to develop yourself accordingly.

In addition to these five nuggets, it is also important to use your voice. You may be young, with lesser experience than your colleagues, but your voice matters and is equally important. Sell yourself and your skills while being humble. Be a good team member. Let your teammates see you as a good person to work with. Remember that the impressions you make on your team will remain with them even as you all progress in your careers.

Carry out parallel networking — It’s easier to envisage getting the contact details of a CEO or MD when people tell you to network but at the start of your career, the more important people are your peers in other firms and across industries. You will all move up together and will need each other at the stages of progression. Connect with your peers.

Have ambition — and be unashamed about this. As you strive to achieve your goals, don’t be in (too much of) a hurry. Almost all the best things in life take time. You won’t be an overnight success but you will succeed if you do these things consistently. Practice, they say, makes for perfection.

Don’t give up when it gets tough. Live up to your word. If people know that your word is your bond, they will come to trust you and rely on you. Earn people’s trust. Respect everyone.

Do these things and thank me in 6 years.

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professor-it-tech · 5 years

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BEGINNERS GUIDE TO COMPUTER SCIENCE.

Skip to content How to Learn Computer Science? (from Zero to Hero) View Larger Image If you want to learn Computer Science and you’re just starting out, you probably have a lot of questions. What programming languages should I learn? Is it enough to learn one or two programming languages to secure a good job at a big tech company? What other skills do I need, if any? With so much information out there, aspiring software engineers can find it difficult to ferret out the valuable information from the rubbish. I know how it is because I’ve been there too. Needless to say, it took me a long time to find the answers that I needed. But it doesn’t have to be like that for you. I searched online, trying to find quality information, but the ONLY good resource I found was an article written by Ozan Onay and Myles Byrne from the Bradfield School of Computer Science. So I decided to write an article that reflects my personal opinions and experiences. This article reflects my personal opinions and information that I’ve discovered through my real-world experiences. It gives you a broad overview of what your CS career will look like, from start to finish. It tells you what skills you absolutely must acquire. It even lets you know what to expect at each and every step of the way. The overall thesis of this article is that software engineers pass through three different phases. I am going to explain to you exactly what these three phases are. Afterwards, I’ll tell you exactly what skills you need to move from one phase to the next, so you can get what you want from your career. The Three Phases of a Software Engineer Highly successful software engineers progress through three consecutive phases. I’d like to point out that some software engineers never progress beyond the first phase, and others don’t move beyond the second. Only highly successful software engineers reach the third phase. These three phases are: 1- The Coder 2- The Programmer 3- The Computer Scientist It is important to mention that this classification is my own development, based on my personal experiences and observations. Let me explain each one of these phases. First Phase: The Coder Every software engineer begins his career as a coder. This can happen at a very young age. You don’t even need a college degree to be a coder. So, what is a coder? A coder is someone who knows how to speak the language of a machine. When given a particular problem, a coder knows how to break down that problem into instructions that the machine can understand in order to come up with a solution. Here’s the thing: if you find yourself really struggling at this phase, you may want to consider a different career path. The coding phase is literally the easiest phase of your CS career. If you succeed at coding, congratulations! You might have a successful career as a software engineer. Unfortunately, many software engineers remain in this phase for their whole career. If you’re just a coder, your pay won’t be great because your skills are easily replaceable. And if you remain just a coder, your promotions will be severely limited. At this stage, you shouldn’t even expect to get an entry-level job at any of the big tech companies. You need to evolve at least to the next phase for this to happen. You need to be a programmer. Second Phase: The Programmer Once you have learned the basics of at least two programming languages (preferably one statically-typed and one dynamically-typed), you are a solid coder. The question now is how do you promote yourself to the programmer status? A programmer is essentially a sophisticated coder. Writing code that does the job is what coders do but writing efficient code that does the job is what programmers do. Here is a list of some skills that you should have as a programmer: 1- you should know the fundamentals of how any code eventually turns into something that a hardware chip can understand and execute. 2- you should understand that any system has finite compute, storage, and network resources and your software should utilize these resources efficiently. 3- you should know how to use data structures and algorithms to write efficient code. 4- you should understand what makes code efficient and what doesn’t. 5- you should understand that quality is important and that testing your code is crucial. Now I have good news and bad news for you. The Bad News: This is not the end. There is still a long way to go on your career path. The Good News: There are a lot of coders out there, but there aren’t a lot of solid programmers. If you really master this phase, you can easily secure a job at one of the big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others. In fact, most of the interviews conducted at these companies test how good of a programmer, not how good of a coder, you are. I wrote an in-depth article that discusses everything you need to know about the coding interview process. Be sure to check it out if you’re at this phase in your career. The vast majority of software engineers retire at this phase. Third Phase: The Computer Scientist Learning does not stop after mastering the programming phase. As a matter of fact, it actually starts here! When you are at the computer scientist phase, you’re essentially an architect who thinks about the big picture more than the nitty gritty details. You have a solid understanding of designing large distributed systems and you know how to build scalable systems that can handle large loads and tolerate failures. A computer scientist also never stops learning, and always tries to stay up to date with the latest in technology. At this level, you’ll most likely be in charge of big projects and you’ll be managing a team (usually of coders and solid programmers) to get the job done. You might also need to cooperate with other teams. All of these require stellar social and leadership skills. In the rest of this article, I will go through the technical skills that you need in order to be a coder, then a programmer, and finally a computer scientist. Let’s get started. 1- Programming The first and only step to becoming a coder is to learn programming. This is the easiest step in your CS career, and it gives you a quick feedback about whether you should pursue a CS career or not. When it comes to choosing programming languages, I don’t want you to fret over what programming language to learn. At this stage what matters is not the particular programming language, but the concepts that you will be learning. These concepts will hold true in almost any other programming language. When you become a more seasoned programmer, you will reach a point where learning a new programming language doesn’t take more than a week, so don’t waste your time trying to find the “perfect” programming language to start with because: a) it doesn’t exist, and b) it doesn’t matter. With that said, I personally recommend you start with the following two languages. I will explain my reasons behind these choices, but feel free to start with whatever you’re most comfortable with. Python I highly suggest you start with Python Why? Because Python is a language that is very easy to learn. Like, really, really easy! It is a very high-level language which allows you to write real programs in just a few lines of code. So, in a short amount of time, you will be able to develop significant projects. If you’re interested in learning Python, check out my step-by-step guide that I have laid out for you to take you from an absolute beginner to a professional Pythonista. These features of Python are extremely important, especially when you’re starting out. To learn python, I highly recommend Python Crash Course. (make sure you get the newer second edition) I find it to be very useful for beginners. I also like that the book is project-based, so you’ll have fun building things while you’re learning to code. Tips for Students 1. You can get your books faster with no shipping fees if you sign up for an Amazon Prime Student account (free for 6 months) 2. Depending on what and how many books you want to get, it might be cheaper to join the Kindle Unlimited program (30 days free trial) Java Why another language though? The reason I recommend learning another language, especially Java, is because it will teach you some programming concepts that don’t even exist in Python. For example, Python is a dynamically-typed language while Java is a statically-typed language. If you don’t know what that means, you will understand it after learning these two languages. A combination of Python and Java is a very good way to start because together they provide you with a very solid idea of the programming concepts that you will need in almost any other programming language. To add to the benefits mentioned above, both Python and Java are heavily used in industry. So not only will you be spending your time learning the foundations that will pave the way for you to progress further, but you will also be learning some practical languages that are very employable and in high demand. I learned Java from the Java core series many years ago. Two separate books are offered. One is for Java fundamentals, and the other is for advanced Java features. I’d recommend not to overwhelm yourself with the advanced features for now. Focus on the fundamentals in this phase. Congratulations! Now you are a coder! 2- The Software Stack OK. So you can write code that can do some really cool stuff, but seriously do you even understand what’s going on? Say you write a very simple program that just adds two integers and prints the result to the screen. In Python, that would look like this: x = 5 y = 10 print(x + y) I take it you understand your code. You understand that a computer running your code should output 15. But do you really understand what’s happening under the hood? What does variable assignment (x = 5) mean at the hardware level? What is x, really? How is the number 5 represented in hardware? How does addition actually happen? And how did the result end up on my screen?!! At the end of the day, a computer is just a collection of hardware chips and wires. How can a computer really understand your code? and execute it flawlessly? The fact of the matter is, your code is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of other layers under your code. Together, they make the whole thing work the way you expect it to work. A programmer unravels this magic. At this level, you need a solid understanding of all the layers of the stack starting from your code, all the way down to the hardware layer. The Elements of Computing Systems by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken is unequivocally my top suggestion for a book that will teach you the essential information you need to understand each layer of the stack. The book covers hardware, compilers, linkers, and operating systems at a very basic level which makes it very beginner friendly. It walks you through the steps of creating your first programming language, creating a compiler and a linker for it, and then creating an operating system. 3- Algorithms and Data Structures Now you’re in a very good shape to go back and start programming again, but this time with a completely different mindset. Because now, you REALLY know what’s happening under the hood. You understand how hardware is eventually going to run your code. You know that you have limited hardware resources and you understand the value of utilizing the available resources efficiently. Studying algorithms and data structures will teach you how to write code in a way that makes your code more efficient, however you define efficiency. it could be speed, resource utilization, or both. The skills that you are going to learn at this phase are some of the major differentiators that separate average coders from solid programmers. In fact, most big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon focus a lot on data structures questions during their interview process. When it comes to algorithms and data structures, there isn’t really much debate about the best book that covers the subject. It is unequivocally Introduction to Algorithms (AKA CLRS). Be aware that the topic of data structures and algorithms is language neutral, so it doesn’t matter which programming language you’re using. However, some people prefer to read books that are specific to their preferred language. Even though that’s not my style, but you can find a lot of good language-specific data structures books like this one for Java and this one for Python. 4- Networks It is very rare that your code will run on an isolated single machine. Most useful code communicates with other computers either in a local network or the internet. Programmers need to have a very solid foundation of how computer networking works. I came across, in my opinion, the best networking book when I was a senior undergrad. It helped me overcome the dry text book that my professor at the time recommended. Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach by Kurose and Ross is a very well-written, super easy to understand book that covers all the networking basics that you need to know. I still go back to this book every now and then if I need a refresher. 5- Operating Systems Operating systems play a major role in the software stack. If you are following this list in order, by now you should have a very broad idea of the role of an operating system in the stack. But now is the time to have a deeper understanding of operating systems. Operating Systems Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz is one of the best books on the subject. You need some basic knowledge of C though, because the majority of operating systems are written in C. My recommendation, unless you want to be a kernel developer, is not to allow yourself to get stuck at this point. This is a very dense topic. Understanding all the details of all the aspects of operating systems is very time consuming. Grasping the main fundamental operating systems concepts is good enough to keep you going but don’t get bogged down in details. Another resource I highly recommend is the OSDev Wiki, especially if you want to learn how to create your own kernel. This is pretty advanced, but it’s something that the vast majority of software engineers can’t do. Look at that! You’ve achieved the status of programmer! 6- Distributed Systems Welcome to the start of your computer scientist status. In this level, you will be learning new skills while you improve the skills you learned as a programmer. Distributed systems is about building and architecting software systems that are scalable and that can tolerate failures at the same time. This requires you to think of the bigger picture, rather than focusing on how to build the individual components–programmers and coders can do that. For example, think about building a search engine service, like Google, for some text files that exist only in your laptop. This service will listen to search queries that it receives over the network, search your files for the query, and respond with the results. This is not a hard thing to do. Any programmer with a decent knowledge of algorithms and data structures can build an efficient search engine for a small number of files. Now imagine that more and more people become interested in your service and they start using it. Now you’re getting millions and millions of requests a second. Not only that, but the size and number of files you are searching through begins to grow dramatically. What happens if your laptop (that hosts the search service) fails? Will you just ignore the millions of requests you’re getting? Distributed systems is about creating an army of computers that work together to form a specific task (in our example, the search service). It allows you to create scalable systems that can handle more requests or more data. At the same time, it provides redundancy that would be useful in case any one (or more) machine fails. Now, let’s talk about resources. By far, this blog post is the best resource I have found on the subject (disclaimer: you will need to read some academic papers). If you are a text book kind of person, then this O’Reilly book by Martin Kleppmann is excellent. I have skimmed through it, and it covers most of the important topics. With that said, Distributed Systems is a field where experience matters a lot. So learn the theory, but also get your hands dirty by working on distributed systems projects. 7- Machine Learning Machine learning is an interdisciplinary field that spans computer science, mathematics, and statistics. In this day and age, it is being used every where! Netflix uses it for movie recommendations, Amazon uses it for their recommendation engine and for Amazon Echo, Vesty Waves uses it to automatically classify articles, and the list goes on. To be able to build these types of software, you need to be more than just a solid programmer because as I mentioned this field requires a very strong mathematical and statistical foundation. And no, learning everything about Python’s Scikit-Learn library (a very popular Python library for machine learning) won’t make you a data scientist or a machine learning expert. You still need to understand the mathematical and statistical underpinnings. There are two ways to study machine learning: the top-down approach method, where you start first by writing machine learning code right away (for example ,by using Python’s Scikit-Learn library) and understand the math later, or the bottom-up approach, where you start with the math first and then move up to coding. I personally prefer the second method, just because that’s what works best for me. Even though It’s harder to start and takes longer before you start writing code, once you grasp the concepts, learning how to use a machine learning library is going to be a piece of cake. On the other hand, the top-down approach has the advantage of allowing you to begin writing machine-learning code fast. This motivates a lot of people. The downside of the top-down approach is that it will be much harder for you to understand why some techniques work, while others don’t, because you won’t have the necessary mathematical background at first. Andrew Ng’s course on Coursera is a very good place to start. If you have prior knowledge of mathematics, probability, and statistics, then An Introduction to Statistical Learning is a very good book for building the statistical and mathematical foundations for machine learning. However, don’t use this book if you aren’t already strong in linear algebra, probabilities, and basic statistics because you will not be able to understand it. If you want to solve real world problems and make money doing this, then create a team, go to Kaggle, solve a problem, and make some money. And even if you don’t win, you will learn 🙂 You did it! You can now call yourself a computer scientist! Featured Posts Python: A Learning Path from Zero to Hero The Ultimate Path for Learning Computer Science Pass your Coding Interview like a Boss A Roadmap for Learning Git Why (and How) you should Start your Programming Blog Today? Are you Beginning your Programming Career? I provide my best content for beginners in the newsletter. What programming language to start with? Do you need a CS degree to be a programmer? Career tips and advice Programming tutorials And so much more… Subscribe now. It’s Free. SUBSCRIBE By Karim 127 Leave a Reply 68 59 19 Subscribe newest oldest Stanley Well… 3 years of CS and this is the best thing I have seen anywhere. I must confess though I’m having trouble getting past the coder phase but I believe it’ll pass. Very well written article. I need to share it with my fellows. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Stanley! Keep at it and good luck 🙂 You will soon go past this coding phase. Reply 1 year ago Nuhu Jerry I find this very inspiring and important as its has helped me understand the fundamentals of being a computer scientist! thank you very much Reply 1 year ago Karim Nuhu! Thank you very much. Glad the article helped you. Reply 1 year ago Hussein M Yussuf So helpful indeed, i really appreciate for a well done job, keep it up!!! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Hussein and good luck in your career! Reply 1 year ago George A very good step-by-step analysis of the CS career. Kudos. You should give us a talk in our university. Please share with me your contacts Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you George! Glad it helped. You can always contact me at ‘my-first-name’@afternerd.com Reply 1 year ago Patience What a grate piece.I have fear when it comes to programming but after reading this ,it build up my moral to start up.thanks Reply 1 year ago Karim Fear is part of the learning process. As long as you persevere this initial feeling of fear and intimidation, you will prevail! Thanks!:) Reply 1 year ago Jonas Thank you immensely. This is what I did need to know when I started to learn how to program computer I mean a clear road, this will save my time. Thank you again for your generosity Reply 1 year ago David Bryan Wow. . This is the perfect article I was looking for.. Great work mate. Thanks for the help. Reply 4 months ago Karim Thank you David 🙂 Reply 3 months ago Mickelson Joseph Vil I’m very interested! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks for your interest Mickelson! Reply 1 year ago Et Great guide mate. Thank you! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you Et! 🙂 Glad I can help Reply 1 year ago Cheelo Very enlightening read for beginners. Do you also offer tutorials? How do I get certified? If not get me linked. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks a lot! What do you mean by certified? Certification is of no value in the CS career. trust me!:) Reply 1 year ago Asad Ur Rehman Hi thanks for this Great Article. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Asad! Glad it helped. Reply 1 year ago cs-aspirant Thanks for this post. I really learnt a lot! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks cs-aspirant 🙂 Reply 1 year ago Akash Looking forward for many such great articles insights about cs field from you.Thanks ALOT… Reply 1 year ago Karim Always happy to help! thanks. Reply 1 year ago Mani i did my CS grad 6 years back, would have been great if I came across a splendid article like this at that time. nevertheless Im glad atleast now I have came across such gem. Thanks a lot for explaining in detail. Inspiring! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks for your kind words Mani! And good luck in your CS career 🙂 Reply 1 year ago Yahya Mohamed Wow! What a great piece of a nice and easy-to-understand article. This will surely help me kick-start my dream of pursuing CS in the university. Please do post other interesting articles like this one. Thanks dude and stay blessed! Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Yahya! Good luck in your career!:) Reply 1 year ago Akash Brilliant piece of article…can u tell more about how to develop your CV so u can get great resumes… Reply 1 year ago Karim Hello Akash, the best thing to develop your resume is to get internships or work on projects, either at school or open source ones. Reply 1 year ago Zaheer Abbas I really love this article and bookmarked. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Zaheer. Happy to help! Reply 1 year ago SHRAVAN WELL EXPLAINED Reply 1 year ago Khanh Chung This is really a great article. What do you think about database? I think it is really important if we want to learn CS. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you. You are right. It definitely is! Reply 1 year ago phill This piece is very interesting and enlightening. I have always loved computers but never had the chance to dive into a CS career. This article provides me a solid roadmap to enter CS space. Thank you very much. Just completed a B.A degree. Will launch into CS career now Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you Phill and Good luck in your CS career! Reply 1 year ago Jonathan I never though i’d ever come across any of this. Atleast now i’ve got a path to follow rather that just doing everything blindly. Nailed it! Nice work Reply 1 year ago Rithik If don’t want to major in computer science because I want to major in an engineering field, but I really want to learn computer science. Are the materials listed above to supplement extra information to comsci majors, or can I use the materials above to learn compsci without a traditional learning environment. Reply 1 year ago Karim You can use the material above to teach yourself computer science. These are the things that students learn in CS majors Reply 1 year ago Rithik Ok, thank you! Reply 1 year ago Anas Mayow Salaat i didnt know where to start, but, i guess i do now with this article and Thank You for your help. Reply 1 year ago Karim Glad to help! Good luck 🙂 Reply 1 year ago K Great article. I love this article I’m following this road-map, but I don’t really enjoy reading thick books, so I use videos instead. Is it ok? Reply 1 year ago Karim Of course! Just make sure the teacher is good. Reply 1 year ago K I’m not really sure that they are good teachers or not, I have two courses on Udemy, one is Java and another is Python. They have highest rate courses on Udemy. Reply 1 year ago laiju Sir ,you are giving a good information on computer science career. Reply 1 year ago Karim I am always happy to help. Thanks for reading! Reply 1 year ago Tony Thank you so much, sir! Reply 1 year ago Karl Very well elaborated! Thank you so much! Man, I feel so happy, it’s like you just gave a 1000 bucks… Reply 1 year ago Karim haha thanks Karl! 🙂 Reply 1 year ago G ARCHANA Such a great article! explained everything in a lucid manner that even a non CS grad can easily catch.Thank you! Reply 1 year ago Karim You are welcome! Glad you liked it. Reply 1 year ago Moiz This looks like a really good guide i was studing in BS physics and wanted to study Cs as well this guide deals with what CS majors learn in Bachelors right would i still need a degree in cs to go to programming Reply 1 year ago Karim No, you don’t need a CS “degree” to go to programming. You need to learn CS to have a successful career. It doesn’t matter if you learn CS through a traditional college degree or not (although having an actual degree opens many doors when you’re starting out) Reply 1 year ago Edu Thank you very much. God bless you. Reply 1 year ago Li Shenghui Thank you very much! This is the best article I had read. Reply 1 year ago Karim Li! Thank you 🙂 Reply 1 year ago Heba More than helpful article , a hell of a one actually . Thanks so very much ,that’s precious . Reply 1 year ago Karim Thanks Heba! Very happy to help. Reply 1 year ago Seshai Hari Superb Article. I’m a freshmen entering college for persuing computer science engeneering. Hope i will follow these steps and become a great computer science engineer Reply 1 year ago Karim I can see this happening. Good luck Seshai! Reply 1 year ago Musa This a Great resource regarding CS. I can’t thank you enough for such a Write up. It is really helpful. But I’ve a question Mr. Karim, how many years can these processes take an average person?. I’ll be quite glad if I could get a detailed answer.Thanks a Billion. Reply 1 year ago Karim Honestly it differs from one person to another. Also this is a field that is frequently changing, so you will be learning all the time. It doesn’t really stop 🙂 Reply 1 year ago nonone Thank you million times —by whoever will saw this post Reply 1 year ago Andrew Hi Karim, I’m interested in robotics and AI. I was told to learn and be good at python, c and c++. Could I leave out Java for now? Also, could you recommend me some good resources to learn c and c++? Reply 1 year ago Karim Hi Andrew. Of course! the reason I haven’t suggested C/C++ for absolute beginners is because C/C++ are more low-level and requires you to know a little bit about the underlying stack (especially memory management). That said, I actually started with C/C++ myself. For C, I recommend “C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition” by K.N. King. I don’t have book recommendations for C++ but a strong foundation in C will help you tremendously when you make the move to C++ Reply 1 year ago Divyanshi Parashar Thanks a lot! It’s really very helpful. Reply 1 year ago Parth Thanks a lot! This is the first time when someone clearly explained what it means to be a programmer and a computer scientist. Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you! Reply 1 year ago Jason Hey Karim ,so as a beginner ,we have to learn both Java and Python before going into the next phase right? Reply 1 year ago Karim Hi Jason, I recommend this but it is not a must. I actually only learnt C before moving to the next phase. Reply 1 year ago Honey I am a 50 something who is tired of feeling left out of the sophisticated world of CS. I am glad I came across your article. The manner in which you presented a step-by-step approach to learning this “magic” makes me feel confident in my pursuit. I am going to stop searching for “how to’s“ and begin my journey based on your recommendations. Thank you Reply 1 year ago Karim Thank you for stopping by! Glad I helped and I wish you the best. Reply 1 year ago sandeep narula Very well explained.Thanks for the inspiration 🙂 Reply 1 year ago Rae.fk Thank you very much. I want to become a Computer Scientist and I know this will help me through. Thank you once again. God bless you. Reply 1 year ago kevin Thanks a million dude! Reply 1 year ago Michelle Wow! Thank you for sharing! Reply 1 year ago Daud I’m in my third year of pursuing an IT Degree and your article blew my mind, it very well structured and very informative. I think I will be following your path into becoming a Computer Scientist. Reply 1 year ago Khadija Thank you very much, I realy apreciate this article! Wich book do you recomand for C language? Reply 1 year ago Karim I like “C Programming: A Modern Approach” Reply 11 months ago Abhishek Shandilya Hello Sir, I completed my B.Tech in Computer Science & Engg. 4 years back but never had a beautiful broad view of Computer Science with such clearance of thought, as i am having now after reading this. I am excited again about CS after reading this article. Thank you sooooooooo much. Reply 11 months ago Karim You are welcome Abhishek! Happy to help. Reply 11 months ago Neminda Sir this is a great article. You just encourage us; programmers and beginers. Every programmers and beginers should read this..thank you so much sir this article just gave me a good strength Please let me know how to contact with you Reply 11 months ago Karim Thanks Neminda! Glad you found it useful. Reply 11 months ago gt Thankyou so much Karim,,,this article has really helped me Reply 11 months ago Shashi kumar Thanks for your valuble information.But,i’m in 2nd yr of engineering and i’m an average student.I dont know well how to code…Could i start to code at this time.Is it possible. Reply 11 months ago Karim Of course you can! You can learn anything at any time 🙂 Reply 11 months ago Ajay Best Article I have ever read. But I have a small doubt about the Career, Do the CS and IT field are one and the same or it differ by something. If it is different which one to choose next. Can you prepare another article explainingg clearly about it. Thanks for the above article. Reply 10 months ago Karim You are welcome Ajay. In Tech companies, IT and software engineering are different jobs requiring different skills. This article is about CS and software engineering. That said, there is a lot of knowledge overlap between the two. Reply 10 months ago Lawrence NG I love and bookmark this article. Many thanks for writing such a stunning article to provide the ways and suggestions to the people who pursuits the CS career. Reply 10 months ago Karim My pleasure! 🙂 Reply 10 months ago Load More Comments Search for:  Grow customer love with our Marketing CRM. ADS VIA CARBON About Karim Karim has a PhD in Computer Science from the university of California, Santa Barbara. He had over three years of experience teaching CS to undergrads, over 5 years of experience doing research, and is currently working for a Fortune 100 company. He is largely interested in distributed systems, machine learning, fitness, and soccer Let’s connect Don’t miss out! Learn about programming and computer science by subscribing to my private newsletter SUBSCRIBE Build an Online Presence Learn why you should Start your Programming Blog Today! ABOUT My name is Karim Elghamrawy. I started Afternerd.com to be a platform for educating aspiring programmers and computer scientists. SITE Blog Programming Fundamentals Career LEGAL Privacy Policy Affiliate Disclosure LET’S CONNECT © Copyright 2017-2019, Afternerd

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uxoversight · 5 years

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When legendary IBM industrial designer Eliot Noyes expressed this opinion in 1944, he was referring to how the best everyday physical objects wed functionality and aesthetics. Now, seventy-five years later, that same focus on intentionality and un-fussiness also serves as true north for digital design — especially user experience (a.k.a. UX) design.

Often conflated with digital graphic design, UX is essentially the process of improving and simplifying the user experience for a digital product — it's not all about how a tech product looks when you use it. The way a brand’s logo pops up when you click on an app isn't really UX. But the way your favorite restaurant directory or weather app defaults to your current location — that’s a deliberate UX choice.

We talked with four UX design pros — some emerging, some long-established thought leaders — about breaking into the industry, how to advance, how they approach projects and what they love about their work. Those who shared their insights include: Sydney-based Adham Dannaway, a freelance UX designer and UX Twitter luminary who’s worked for Qantas, Growth Giant and more; Kevin Lucius, creative director of SmartFinancial (and HGTV-featured printmaker); Lauren Howerter, senior UX designer at Solstice; and Laura Klein, an industry veteran who co-hosts the What is Wrong with UX podcast and has written two books about UX.

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO UX?

ADHAM DANNAWAY

Freelance UI/UX Designer and Front End Developer

I actually started out studying computer science at UNSW Sydney. I was lucky enough to get an IT internship after that, where I discovered my passion for websites and design. I then studied a Master of Digital Media to learn more about design, and built websites on the side to pay the bills, mainly helping small to medium-sized businesses with branding and site design. After my master's, I worked at start-ups, tech companies (Campaign Monitor, Freelancer.com), agencies and larger corporations (including Qantas, St. George Bank and Westpac) to gain experience and build my skills.

KEVIN LUCIUS

UX Designer at SmartFinancial

I always loved art and design as a kid, so I decided to pursue it as a career without knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I got a bachelor's degree in technology and studied visual communication. The curriculum included web design, photography, graphic design and marketing. One of my first jobs out of school was at a commercial sign company. We designed way-finding signage for hotels, airports and hospitals. That was my first experience at a professional level designing something with a user in mind. Our goal was to move people through a space and guide them toward an endpoint. So later on, when I got more into web design, I found it interesting that the same concepts applied. I picked it up quickly and really enjoyed it.

LAUREN HOWERTER

Senior UX Designer at Solstice

Like many Freelance UX designers, I started off in a more traditional graphic and print design job then worked into digital. UX design is similar in that, as a designer in general, I follow the same core design principles that a graphic designer or print designer or web designer might follow. But as a UX designer, the scope of my responsibilities and work has increased. I'm thinking big picture, thinking strategically. And that involves a lot of not-so-glamorous design work, like diagrams and whiteboarding — a lot more collaboration than any other realm of design I've worked in.

It's really a more objective design practice in that very little of what I do is dictated by subjective opinions, whereas marketing design or brand design is very subjective. You collect feedback that's like, "I don't like blue," or, "I don't like the color of this thing," or, "I don't like the type style." And in UX, I’m thinking so much more about how someone interacts with what we're designing. What's legible to them, what colors are visible on a screen in daylight. The mindset is very different in that way.

LAURA KLEIN

Principal at Users Know Author (Build Better Products, UX for Lean Startups)

I started off doing user research at a think tank. I was very low level but got to learn from some really experienced folks and got really lucky. Then I went and learned how to program. People who were actual interaction designers at that point, the ones that I knew, all had master's degrees in it — and that was not me. So I went off, learned how to program, then became an engineer.

I had started a master’s program in computer engineering, but then a friend offered me a [role] at her design boutique she had just started. They liked the fact that I knew how to do research, how to write well and how to do end programming, so I could do prototyping (creating early test models of designs in order to gather feedback). Turns out, if can do research and know how to prototype, they can teach you the middle part, which is the actual design part. So mine was a weird kind of wandering road.

DO YOU THINK THERE’S A “TRADITIONAL” PATH TO BECOMING A UX DESIGNER? IF SO, DID YOUR OWN PATH MIRROR OR DEPART FROM THAT?

Dannaway: Back when I finished high school, there was no such thing as a “UX designer.” These days there are private courses you can study to get into UX design. My path wasn’t a particularly efficient path, but it made me the designer I am today and gave me strong technical foundations in development, which have been helpful in my career.

Lucius: There are plenty of educational opportunities to learn UX now, but when I was in college the term wasn't widely used, if at all. I probably followed the same career path as a lot of other designers from that time. I graduated with a basic foundation of web design knowledge that I continued to build upon. As the industry has changed, I’ve had to adapt and learn a new set of skills — which is not a bad thing.

Howerter: I think it's very common for UX designers to have a background in print design, and it's also common to see people that come from a lot of different backgrounds. I've known engineers who’ve converted to design. I was a biochemistry major and ended up taking the long, scenic route to a design career. I don't think UX design is brand new, but I do think tech is so booming and changing and evolving that it’s attracted a lot of different kinds of specialties in the industry. And I think you see that in design as well.

Klein: I started working in the mid-'90s, so there was no traditional path into any of this. None of this existed yet. When I started, I think there was still a website that listed all the new websites on the web. If you talk to folks who've been doing this stuff since the early- to mid-'90s, some were doing it as human vector stuff (for example, creating scalable, digital illustrations) or information architecture. We all had super weird career paths — because that's what there was. And there were way more generalists back then. There was a point where I was a webmaster because I could kind of design and kind of code and kind of write, so that meant you were a webmaster!

IS A MASTER'S DEGREE NECESSARY FOR GETTING A GOOD JOB IN UX?

Dannaway: Even though I gained a bachelor's degree as well as a master's, I don’t actually think either of them are necessary to be a good UX designer. The most important thing in my opinion is the practical experience gained by working on projects with other skilled people. There are also a lot of UX design articles and books to learn from, and you can always get involved in a side project for some extra practice. [Note: Dannaway compiled this list of 10 must-read UX design books in 2015.]

Lucius: I would never discourage someone who’s considering expanding their education, as I’m sure it would be very beneficial. But in my opinion, there’s nothing more important than experience. To be hands-on with different projects, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, is what makes you better as a designer. I had a professor in college who would often say, “The most important thing we’ll teach you is how to learn.” That’s always stuck with me and is a good reminder to always keep pushing to get better.

Howerter: That's such a difficult question, mostly because of the astronomical cost of education. There are some really good programs out there. I think if you do post-secondary education, do a lot of research and figure out what programs are best. Even an MBA coming into the field with exceptional business knowledge can be super valuable, or coming with a human-computer interaction degree could be super valuable in this realm. I think there's plenty of opportunity for people who study outside the direct realm of design to get into the field. Channeling those different backgrounds can really set you apart.

Klein: Let's just say that I’ve seen people with those degrees and without those degrees, and I have not seen any sort of pattern. The interesting thing is that some of the best design and product people I know just seem to think in a particular way. They're able to think at the high level and low level at the same time. They're able to think strategically about what the user needs, and they're very good at digging down into the details and all the secondary stuff. They don't get hung up on just doing the process. So, yeah, I know good designers who had all kinds of education and I know good designers who I would also say that wasn’t true of.

WHAT ARE THE CAREER ADVANCEMENT PROSPECTS LIKE IN UX?

Dannaway: In terms of career advancement, I think the career of a UX designer is quite flat. You can stay a UX designer for a long time and progress to work on larger more complex products. Some UX designers become team leads or managers, others go into product management or service design. Once you’re confident enough, you can become an independent consultant and contract directly with companies (rather than being an employee). Some UX designers use their unique skill set to start their own businesses. It really depends where your passion lies.

Lucius: Absolutely. It’s a growing field, and it feels good that so many companies now understand the importance of design. In the past, I think it was oftentimes overlooked and sometimes written off completely. But good design is what makes things work. It attracts customers, builds desire, solves problems and makes things easier.

Howerter: It depends on where you work. I work at a consulting firm and there’s a lot of potential to move up quickly, but it might be different in house. I think a good question to ask going into a job is what sort of advancement structure exists. How many levels do you have for UX design? Within the realm of design, what are the levels? Is there a director position? Is there a VP position?

And then if you have an opportunity as part of an interview process to talk to other designers, you can ask how many times they've been promoted, how long they've been there, where did they start that. But in general, in tech, just the way that companies are scaling up quickly, a lot of opportunity comes with that.

CAN YOU CLARIFY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A UI AND UX DESIGNER? HOW INTERRELATED DO YOU SEE THE TWO?

Dannaway: User interface (UI) design is simply part of the user experience design process, which roughly includes: researching user needs, defining the problem, coming up with ideas to solve the problem, creating prototypes (this is done by a UI designer), validating the ideas via user testing and finally creating the visual designs (this is also done by a UI designer). As you can see, UI designers perform a subset of the tasks that a UX designer does.

Lucius: I think UI is very important, but it’s just one small subsection of the overall design process. It sits alongside research, analysis, prototyping and testing. UX is the all-encompassing communication that a company has with a user.

Howerter: It's a common point of confusion. As the industry has evolved, we've started to hear the phrase “product designer” come up a lot more. And I think part of that term is an attempt to eliminate confusion between UI and UX. At Solstice, UI and UX are very interrelated. We expect the UI designer to do typical UX activities like wireframing and information architecture and things that are less visual design-related, as well as the visual work. And then work with developers to make sure the thing is being built to spec. So our UX design role is really more like what you might hear in the industry as a product design role, which is somebody who can use design from end to end. Some companies separate it out, which allows for someone to hyper-specialize in one thing over the other and get really, really good at it.

I've worked at companies where the two are split out, but I really like an approach where, as a designer, I'm able to see something through. And I think that also eliminates any gaps that exist in handoff. Anytime you hand off, say, wireframes to a visual designer, there's always potential for things to get lost in translation, which can cause delays and just not be the most efficient.

WHAT'S THE SCOPE OF YOUR WORK?

Dannaway: I like to be involved in the entire design process. It usually involves conducting research to understand user needs, defining the problem, coming up with ideas to solve the problem, creating prototypes, validating the ideas via user testing, designing the interface and building the front end (although I do less development work these days). It’s also important to balance the user needs with the business needs during the design process, which can be tricky.

Lucius: SmartFinancial is both a B2C and B2B brand, so I'm constantly shifting back and forth between the two. Each one has its own unique audience and objectives, so it can sometimes be tricky. On the consumer side, we provide a library of articles and guides to help shoppers fully understand the complexities of insurance. We also provide a platform that allows customers to compare insurance rates side-by-side from national carriers and filter their options however they want.

On the business side, we provide insurance agents and carriers with tools to help them reach new customers and grow their business. In either case, it’s my job to oversee all design and interaction we have with our customers. I fall somewhere between a creative director and UX designer. We’re a small company so we have to be lean and aggressive and work very closely as a team.

Howerter: My role at Solstice encompasses everything from early strategic work with clients — figuring out what to build, which usually includes a lot of workshopping, an ideation session. From there it usually involves collaborating with product and engineering to figure out, now that we know what to build, how should we build it. So that's really early, like wireframing (outlining a design layout) and just putting things in a loose framework. Usually that includes testing. So we have user experience researchers and bosses who own most of the user research that we do. Then once we collect user feedback, we take our designs to high fidelity — so design that's ready to be developed, basically. So we'll have good documentation for all the animations or interactions that we want to include, and then working with developers when they're being built to make sure that they're doing so correctly.

WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST REWARDING — AND CHALLENGING — ABOUT WORKING IN UX?

Dannaway: I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of solving problems and the creativity required to build things. I think that’s why I love designing websites and apps so much. There are always new problems to solve, and in my field these problems are usually solved by building a new website or app feature, or tweaking an existing one. It’s rewarding to make problems disappear and to have some fun in the process.

Lucius: I love solving problems using design. It is, however, certainly challenging at times. It’s a delicate balance of art, design and science. The key is to solve the problem, but do it in a way that’s beautiful, sexy and meets the needs of both the business and customer.

Howerter: I love how fast tech, and the digital realm in general, moves. I love that I can design something and two weeks later it's a real thing that real people are using, and we're getting live feedback. It's such a close feedback loop, and it's really gratifying to either have success really fast or fail really fast.

Also, you learn at an accelerated pace. And as a UX designer, I love working with people from different walks of life. I was on an agriculture project about six months ago and went to farms and saw how it all works. You realize it's really not about the tech; it's about the lives of these people. It's about how they do their work, and finding opportunities to make that easier. Being able to connect the work I do on my computer screen to real people in real situations is always really motivating and inspiring.

Klein: I still just really like making things that make people happy, things that they like using and make their lives better. The other day we were testing out features and someone who had just received access to a new feature Slacked me and said, “Oh my god, I showed this to my associate, and he was so jealous and wanted to know why he didn't get access to it!” She was like, “I just did the tasks I had to do in record time, and it was so great.” And hearing that is the best feeling in the world. So that's why I do the challenging stuff.

I spend a lot of my time talking people out of ideas and kind of having the same conversation over and over. “Oh, that’s an interesting feature. Why do you want to do that? What do you think you're going to get from it? What other things do you think we could do in order to achieve those same results?” Like, some people just come and say, “We should add machine learning.” And it's like, no, we 100 percent should not. Or maybe we should, but let's talk about what you think you’ll get from machine learning and figure out if there's a cheaper way to get something similar.

WHAT’S A TYPICAL PROTOTYPING PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU? HOW MANY ITERATIONS DOES A PROJECT NORMALLY GO THROUGH?

Dannaway: Every project varies in size and complexity, so I don’t think there’s an average or “correct” number of prototype iterations. You need to keep iterating on a prototype until it works. For example, you might be tweaking a sign-up form to try and reduce the number of drop-offs. You may only be able to come up with one new idea that you believe is worth testing. Whereas if you’re lucky enough to start building a new app from scratch, you might have several different directions you’d like to test.

I think a prototype should look and feel as close to the final product as possible to yield the best results. Sometimes I create a quick website with a dummy back end; other times I can get away with an InVision prototype (a set of images linked together using clickable hot spots). Once you’ve validated that the prototype meets the user needs, it’s time to build the real thing.

Lucius: I like to go a bit old school and begin with paper and pen sketches. To me, that’s still the best way to start getting your initial ideas flowing. From there, I’ll continue to refine the design, build a prototype and then start getting some feedback from users. At SmartFinancial, it’s sort of an unwritten company motto to not overthink things too much. By that I mean, we’re given the time we need to research and design a product, but we also try to get it in front of our customers as soon as we can. That can sometimes be hard to do when I feel it’s not yet perfect, but it always pays off. We’re able to get real, actual feedback from customers and then continue to improve it. None of our projects are ever really done; we’re always adding new features and improvements.

Howerter: Iterations vary. It's very rare that you'll do anything right the first time — extremely rare. So an early prototype, we'll go through five, six, seven revisions, until it’s at a place that’s ready to be tested. And then after testing, depending on the question you hope to answer, it might go through several more rounds of iteration. It’s all really determined by the confidence level that the team and client have in investing and building that thing. That's what that early phase is all about: Is this at a place where we all feel confident that our users are going to be able to use it, engage with it, find value in it. Then at the point where we feel confident that it's worth the investment, then usually you pull the trigger.

I've used everything from framers to Proto.io to InVision. I think it's always determined by the objective of the prototype. So if I know that I'm prototyping something that we're going to put in front of our client customers and we want to learn about how they place the return online or something like that, we'll figure out what we want to put together. I like to create a storyboard. Sometimes we'll use sticky notes so they can move things around. And then based on that storyboard, based on what we know we want to learn from the test, I'll figure out what tool does the job most easily. And I think fidelity in the prototypes means a lot too.

So if you're trying to learn a really specific thing, and you need some interactions in there to really get close to what the actual experiences look like, then it's a good time to move into something like Proto.io, where you can really do some careful animating and create interactions to give customers a real feel of the experience. But if you're early on and you're like, “Hey, is this even a feature that you would find valuable?” It’s not necessary to get to that level of detail. You can do something more low fidelity. So it varies on the objective.

Klein: I wrote a blog post about this called "The Right Deliverables," which talks about all the different kinds of prototyping. Well, more deliverables and artifacts, but that includes a lot of prototypes and all the different levels on how you might decide: Do you need a sketch? Do you need an interactive prototype? Do you need a pixel perfect mockup? Because those are all things I've heard people call for. So I’ll do anything from a description and a user story to a Balsamiq mockup to a quick sketch with the engineers to a fully interactive prototype to a somewhat interactive prototype with annotations. That's my favorite. It just depends on what I need to do.

WHAT’S YOUR USER RESEARCH PROCESS LIKE? ARE THERE ANY METHODS YOU SWEAR BY OVER OTHERS, OR IS IT ALWAYS SITUATIONAL?

Dannaway: User research in a nutshell is asking users the right questions to figure out their needs. Interviewing users or watching them as they perform their tasks is usually what works best. During an interview it helps to have two people; one doing the talking, and the other observing and taking notes. You can also record the interview session to play back later to take further notes.

Lucius: This might sound obvious, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to fully understand the problem you’re solving and clearly define the goals before you get started. It’s easy to get caught up and breeze through this step faster than you should. This part of the process should not be overlooked. It’s where you can uncover possible issues and determine the best way to solve the problem.

Klein: Direct observation and contextual inquiry are the gold standard. I can even do remote contextual inquiry in many cases, especially if it's a screen-based [project]. Remote is not the same as unmoderated, obviously. But again, it depends on what I want. I’ve written a lot about [the decision-making process of] when to use qualitative, when to use quantitative, when to interview people, when to observe them, when to run a diary study, when to do a survey.

Do you find that what clients say they want and what you observe differ at times?

Yes, 100 percent. And in fact, I almost never ask people what they want. I mean, I'll ask people what they want. And then the follow-up question, of course, is, “What do you hope to accomplish with that?” Or, “What do you think that will give you, or how will that help?” In some nice, non-confrontational way.

WHERE DO YOU SEE UX DESIGN HEADING NEXT? WHICH MAJOR TRENDS EXCITE YOU?

Dannaway: UX design is still in its infancy, especially in larger corporations. I’m hoping that the user-centric design principles that underpin UX design will continue to spread across different industries and technologies, like AI, voice interfaces and virtual and augmented reality. UX principles are already being used by service designers to help improve services.

Lucius: When someone thinks of UX, their mind probably goes straight to digital. But it’s more than that; it extends to the physical world as well. I think you’ll continue to see more of that. Companies are understanding and embracing the idea of looking at the big picture. Every interaction a company has with a customer, whether in the digital or physical world, is now being looked at in the overall design strategy — especially as the two worlds are becoming more interconnected. I think that’s really exciting.

Howerter: I think “product design” is a term you're going to continue to hear more and more frequently as more companies embrace the idea that design is really not limited to a certain skill set or creating certain deliverables. It's really about creating an experience. And I think there's going to continue to be a move toward leaner and more nimble teams. So designers who are really collaborative and work closely with product people and engineering leads on a daily basis will have the most success moving forward.

Klein: This may just be the circles I run in, but I’m seeing more ops stuff — design ops, research ops. We just did a podcast on this. I'm seeing more research around that and talking to more people who are keeping design consistent across large organizations and coming up with tools to support — which is great. You know, something beyond the shared sketch file, which is a lovely start, and 100 percent not the final answer. So I’m seeing more, “How do we make it easier for large groups of designers to design collaboratively across teams?”

Interviews were edited for length and clarity.

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