#createathon 2012

:( 

This post is bittersweet to me, it is the last one of CreateAthon and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. When it comes to spreading the word of CreateAthon I feel like I already have in so many ways every opportunity I get I manage to tell someone about it. Like for example I had a job interview a few weeks ago and one of the questions was what have you done to change the world, and of course CreateAthon came out of my mouth faster than a speeding bullet. The response to my quickness was, "I knew I was a good person, but it would have taken me 3 times as long to come up with something that good."

CreateAthon is not just something you do and forget about, it is something that the experience will stick with you forever, way longer than that first week at summer camp. I plan on spreading the word though the use of this blog, the awesome work my team and I did, and the same way I said above, using any given opportunity I can to tell someone about it. 

There are few things that  come to mind when I think about making changes to make CreateAthon better because it is/was one of the best experiences of my life thus far. Also I'm not really one to complain about things, it's hard for me to do. 

I feel like for a very long time I’ve had a pretty good grasp on knowing how I as a human being work and deal with challenges. I knew that CreateAthon was going to be one of my biggest challenges to date so my ways of working were going to be put to the test. 

Things I Already Knew

(in brief)

-       I can not work in complete silence

-       I work extremely well under pressure

-       I have the worlds worst ADHD (I use it to my advantage)

-       I work better with other people than alone

Things I Learned

-       I can stay up all night and focused with out copious amounts of coffee

-       Sometimes I need to have alone time to think

-       I am pretty good at answering random questions

-       ‘Fake It Till You Make It’

-       I don’t mind working on the computer for long periods of time

-       It is possible to not get distracted by Facebook/Tumblr

Here we are post event and I realize I have been majorly slacking on blogging about what has been happening in the crazy awesome world of CreateAthon. Also I've been bombarded with the awesome question "now that its over what are you doing?"  Well to answer that, we are now post event we have been working on making revisions, soon things will be sent off to the printer, then we get to have a big party. There is a lot of work to be done between now and then, personally giving the deliverables to ACTS is going to be the cherry on top of this awesome adventure that I never want to end. 

The next little sprinkle (I'm now going to compare everything to and ice cream sunday) is a big field trip we are taking to the printer to see how things work, I have not been on a field trip since maybe sophomore year of high school so I am stoked, too bad my mom isn't here to pack my lunch. 

I don't think I can say enough times how thrilled I am with the work my team and I have done, as well as how much ACTS enjoyed it all. I cannot wait to see the final stuff! I just know that display board is going to be HUGE!!!

Thursday night seems like it was just on big giant blur, if you were to blink you would miss it. Never in my life did I think staying up for 24+ hours would be so easy. (I only had one cup of coffee) As I have a had a few days to reflect I have been thinking of the biggest thing I will take away from this experience and I can't pick just one but I could possibly pick one that is of higher importance. 

The one major thing that I will take away from this event is how good it feels to do something awesome and see how much people enjoy it. The night of sleeplessness, blood, sweat and tears that went into creating an amazing new brand identity for ACTS was all worth it when my team and I showed them the work we had done in the morning which of course they loved. It was a total change from the previous even thought we kept somewhat of the same color pallet to keep the roots. But thats a little ahead of what I'm talking about I just feel so excited, that words cannot accurately express, about the work we did and how much it is going to help ACTS now and into the future. 

I hope they are still impressed with the mark we have made for them 20 years from now. Also I would like to extend a big thank you to my team even though we had someone leave during the night we stuck together and meshed together pretty well. Its pretty inspiring to see how close a group of pretty much strangers can become in 24 hours with the help of sleep deprivation and some crazy music.

I would not exchange this experience for anything in the world and if I could be a team leader again or basically just do CreateAthon over again tomorrow I would do it with no complaints. When ever I talk about the event I can't help but get a lll giddy like a 5 year old getting to pick a box of cereal at the grocery store. 

As I sit here gathering some last minuet things I think, what have I gotten myself into getting up at 7 on the most beautiful day of spring break to stay up and inside for 24 hours. Then I remember what the purpose was to help these non profits like they so effortlessly help their clients. I hope that my team is ready for a night of craziness and that the ACTS team is ready for complete and total awesome work.