A bit of California in Peckham by Sonia Vico

A picture that I took during one of my lockdown walks in London

How time flies! I still remember when I went to the LCC Open Day few years ago while I was doing my Foundation in Art and Design and considering the possibility of getting into uni at 26.
I still remember Craig talking about the DPS program.He kind of bought me when he said some students went on placements in California.
And here we are now, three years later, seating in my living room with my cat while writing this post and outside it’s flat.
But this is nobody’s fault really. I believe that you can work hard towards a goal and that you are the owner of what happens in your life up to certain point. Then there are other factors that neither you or nobody can control.
You might want to do part of your placement year in sunny California but hey, who knew a year ago that there was going to be a world pandemic? Life keeps changing and we need to keep adapting.
I am not saying let’s all forget about design for now, get a huge chocolate Haagen Dazs and starting watching “Friends” from episode 1. No. I am saying that  I am going to accept that things have obviously changed, that maybe my plans will have to wait for now. Maybe I will not go to California this year or at least not by now but that doesn’t mean I can’t do other things meanwhile.
I am not a big fan of this “Mr Wonderful” life outlook where regardless what happens, you have to "keep smiling". I think we should embrace that sometimes, when we have to change our plans, it really sucks (and yeah, some days we will fancy Haagen Daz and Friends. Why not?)
But at the same time, those undesired changes can make you think about other possibilities which turn out great.
 
To illustrate what I am talking about above,  I have started my first placement and yeah, somedays are not great.
I get paid shit, I work a lot of hours, I spent hours and hours  in front of Photoshop only resizing pictures and sometimes I lose my patient because everybody is doing three jobs at the same time and nobody has time to explain anything, after spending hours doing something, they tell me they don’t need it anymore.
But in the other hand, because they are so busy (and short in staff) that also allows me to try things, to learn by myself, to take directions. Because I have a previous career in photography, they let me taking pictures for the social media content, which is more creative.
Some days I can work from home so that means I am not spending money in transport or food, other days they ask me to go but I go cycling which I really enjoy (it’s a pretty long way so also works as a free gym session). I am getting some money which is better than nothing. I am learning soft skills (like how to say to Simon from Sales that what he is asking me to do doesn’t make any sense whatsoever without offending him).
 
Like Lemmy said, “you win some, you lose some”.

Sonia Vico
​@_soniavico