It’s All About Transitions

We started the 2020 Spring Semester at Montgomery College with regular classes.  Lectures, lab, studio work, it was all what we were used to. Then with the medical crisis of Covid-19, the college responded by very quickly limiting students’ access to all MC buildings and by engaging in remote learning and education. The teachers and the students transitioned to online learning. Everyone was very creative in trying out new collaborative software solutions to try to keep the classes together. Some classes were cancelled altogether, and altogether it was and still is a period of transition.

During this time of change, we’ve looked at all sorts of ways to keep the momentum going and everyone has given a good-faith effort. At the same time, we’re all going through all sorts of personal life transitions, whether it be a loss of employment or income, or a lack of interactions of the desired type, or changes in regular habits and lifestyle.

Now as we get near the end of the semester, we are all going to face another transition: classes will be done, and we won’t even have the little bit of interaction which that offered. I’m a non-credit student, but I strongly believe in completing all assignments and participating in all class discussions and critiques.  So for my Figure Drawing class, that means completing the final assignment of a triptych (that’s a three-part drawing, where each part is a finished drawing in its own right, but the three work together as a unit as well). So I’m finishing this now.

But come next week and after I’ve uploaded the files, then…transition. No work due for any class, no pressure or any kind of deadline, no drawings due, no commissions to complete. So I need to find my own drivers, my own inspiration, and my own path for development.

It might be some time before we have face-to-face classes again, and in the meantime, we each have to find our own way to keep going. We have to foster a culture of continuous learning, of keeping up interest, of striving forward. It certainly won’t be a linear path but I know we will all manage the upcoming transitions.