By Pietro Spadafora

Dear friend,

Question: Who do you think that, if “Jhon” does not deliver a brief or a scab in time or if we do a weak job or fail to engage, we fail to respect? A mentor, the dean, the staff… or are we just failing to respect ourselves?! Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. In the English dictionary that I found at home the word, respect means: A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Not having done the Scab groups, we can not respect us: we know that everything we are asked to do is for us. Once the course is over, our assignments will probably be forgotten, but we must remember that it is us, the students, who have to make the most from every lesson we learn. We have to treasure the teachings by performing all the tasks required, by failing to do them we make fool of ourselves more than of our teachers. If you don’t work, you don’t improve.

Each of us entered SCA with great expectations, expectations not on our comrades, not on the teachings but on our personal growth. I think that all of us, when we saw for the first time the projector indicating that 309 days were missing to the Portfolio Day, we imagined ourselves at the end of our path, proud of our work and steady progress. We were not thinking about how the school itself would improve (sorry, Marc), how our comrades would improve (sorry, intakes) but about ourselves. Of course, in one way or another, we are slightly more selfish than altruist, the opposite would be noxious.

From the first day, you understand that SCA is an atypical school. There are no votes, no final exams and for every brief, even though specific, we are allowed to challenge it and break the rules. Still, at the beginning of September, we were told that the third rule of the school is to respect others and the school but that the second (and most important) rule is “do your best”… If we do our best, we respect all of us, ourselves included. We are the protagonists of our school, we have to prove nothing to anyone but to ourselves, it is crucial to be able to grow and to be able to take on our responsibilities. This time we were wrong and it is our fault.

In my opinion, or at least so I hope, it is assumed that each of us wants to make the most of this year or half year. This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity. We are doing many mental, physical and economic sacrifices to make the most of it; it is obvious that when we can not do things at our best we can not respect and be happy about ourselves. We are just not doing our best. I think that none of us have failed to write the pieces for the group scab just because we are lazy or we intended to lack respect towards anybody. Unfortunately, now that we are in this situation we have to find a remedy so that we can regain the self-esteem in ourselves and project it into our work.

The main goal that I have set for myself is to become as a better ad-man, but also a better man. I want to be proud and aware of my abilities, qualities, and achievements.

Best,

Pietro.