Adjusting to home after life at sea

July 6, 2020

The first few days at home after my School at Sea voyage were tough. I had a lot of adjusting to do: even just getting used to living in a house and following family routines again. I also didn’t really have time to relax because I had so much to take care of for school. Although I’d been prepared to expect all this, it still didn’t make it any easier! Now, after a few weeks, I am settling down, though I am still very busy catching up on school assignments.

Looking back at the School at Sea experience after a couple of weeks at home, it is difficult to explain how I feel about the trip. It was an incredible experience in which I learnt a lot about myself, and also about others. I put a lot of effort into finding the best way for me to get my work done. I now appreciate that education is a very individualised learning curve, with no universal fail-safe formula. However, the best method I discovered to be productive at sea doesn’t work as well now I`m home and have to follow the school schedule again. So, I now have to use what I learned on board to figure out the best way to work here. I need to adapt again, but hopefully not too much, and I now have the skills to be able to do this.  

At the start of the School at Sea expedition I found it difficult to work productively and make plans I could maintain. It took some time to figure out how to motivate myself and complete my work. After testing out various methods, in the end I found that setting daily goals and focusing on just one or two subjects worked best. However, in the end unfortunately my grades were not as good as I would have liked and I am still a bit behind on my work, because the learning adjustment process took quite some time. This is why I have to spend the summer holiday catching up on my work. But I still think in all I did okay. My mentor says I had to find my own user manual. Learn about what works for me and when I can and cannot cope. I like that metaphor.

My main goal during SaS was to find a better way to study. And I did. But this is not all I have learnt. I also learnt a lot about working in a team, being honest about what I do and do not know, and coping with feedback from others. My next goal is to again find the best way for me to work in my new circumstances. I also intend to show more confidence in offering my help to others and asking for help if I need it.

I’m looking forward to our SaS reunion in July. Since returning home, we have all been locked in our small worlds in a sense because the coronavirus situation doesn’t allow us to travel and see each other. I have really missed the others. Because of the amount of schoolwork I need to do in order to ensure I am fully ready for next year, I haven’t found the spare time to edit the video material I shot during my trip. I will start on this as soon as possible, and I’ll update my blog as soon as I can with some of these videos. I’m looking forward to doing this and extending my newfound interest in video journalism! More from me soon.