3/4 of my way done with University
and I'm itching to take on the world!

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The 2017/2018 school year (my 3rd year) has been quite a doozy....

Around this time last year, I had just finished one of the most difficult years of my life. With my mother having passed away, I felt as though my entire world had been put into a washing machine and was spinning out of control for 12 months. I was desperate for direction and struggling to keep on top of my school work, even considering dropping out of university at the time. Luckily though, thanks to the support of my amazing group of friends, supportive family and my wonderful girlfriend, the past year since then has become one of my best.

As the summer of 2017 approached, I realized I needed some serious time off to recollect my thoughts and get myself on track. Thankfully, my girlfriend liked the sound of some time away and we embarked on a two and a half month trip to visit my extended family in Kenya.

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~ Danielle and I in the wilderness of Kenya, Summer 2017 ~

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~ Kenyan sunrise views ~

Having spent more than 6 years of my life living there, Kenya has always been incredibly close to my heart and the place where I have felt the most free to think. During our summer there, I really allowed myself to search into my mind and re-discover my passion for life. Instead of pulling out of university and drastically changing my life's course like I thought I wanted to, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself to both finish it and do as well as possible.

This time away allowed me to realize that life is an amalgamation of different opportunities, and one's success in life is the way we embrace them. Instead of being a thinker, I decided I wanted to be a "do-er"

And so now I sit here at my desk pondering the last 12 months and trying to understand where this realization brought me...

University

As the headline to this post expresses, I am now finished with 3 out of my 4 years of my undergraduate degree in Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa Canada. This year was particularly satisfying for a number of reasons.

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~ Sunset views over my very own Carleton University ~

Returning to a full course load

After having struggled with motivation and attention the year before and dropping a bunch of classes throughout the year, this year I returned to a full course load of 5 classes per semester as I sought to reinvigorate myself in my studies.
While this brought more pressure, I really found myself enjoying the challenge of working under pressure.

Taking summer school classes

Like I previously mentioned, in the last academic year I dropped a bunch of classes due to stress and thus I put myself in a position where I wouldn't have had enough completed classes to graduate in 4 years at university.
Throughout the 2017/2018 year though, I reminded myself that I had come to university to finish on time, and so after 8 months of continuous school, I decided to ride the wave a little longer and enroll myself for summer school.
Here, I put myself under immense pressure to finish 3 courses in one and a half months which meant taking 6 three hour classes per week. This was immensely difficult, especially after the full school year, and while I was unable to post barely anything on Steemit, I finally finished my classes this week with a big smile on my face and as happy as could be.

Improving my grades

My last goal for the academic year was getting my grades back in order. After coming into university on a scholarship and maintaining it through 1st year, in my difficult 2nd year I failed to achieve the requirements needed to maintain my scholarship. This was gutting for me and I promised myself I would do all that I could to regain it in the 2017/2018 academic year.
Thankfully, my hard-work paid off with this last year being my most successful in University so far. I excelled in every course I took, never getting a mark lower than an A- and finishing with an A average (85%) at the end of the year.

Photography

2016/17 was the year of discovery and experimentation for my relationship with photography. I spent a lot of time just learning more about the art and lending my services for free to a lot of friends who wanted photos. However, as the 2017/18 year rolled along, I decided it was time to try and give photography a proper crack.

Starting with the creation of my photography website:

~ https://www.tristanoliffphotography.com/ ~
I began to advertise my professional services and was rewarded with a bunch of amazing contracts throughout the year. What was most exciting and also scary was that I was asked to do things I had never done before such as landscape, event and portraiture photography jobs. Yet these challenges were the most rewarding as they allowed me to drastically improve my commercial photography skills, making me more marketable for the future.

While I didnt get as many jobs as I hoped I would, I definitely benefited from setting high standards for myself, and I cannot wait to see where photography takes me in the year ahead. Here are some highlights of my year in photography:

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~ My first fashion shoot ~

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~ A shot from a paid landscape shoot ~

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~ Getting to photograph my girlfriend & her roommates ~

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~ Photographing an event where I had the pleasure of capturing Sophie Gregoire Trudeau ~

Project Giving

Those of you who have been following my blogs will know that for the past couple of months, I have had the pleasure to create my own NGO based here on Steemit: @Project Giving.

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Project Giving, which is now active and being moved forwards by a team of 10 wonderful Steemians, has been a idea which has been in the back of my mind since I started on Steemit. The basic idea of the project is micro-crowdfunding for small-scale initiatives around the world that seek to make a positive change in their local community or surrounding environment.

@ProjectGiving seeks out and finds these initiatives then works with them to create content on Steemit. 100% of all rewards for this content is then donated to these projects in order to facilitate local development around the world by sending funding straight to the source.

My whole life, I have been motivated by the idea of helping those less fortunate around the world. Living and working in Africa throughout my life helped to introduce me to the world of NGOs and community initiatives and the amazing work they do, while studying politics and global development encouraged me to make my desire of helping people a reality. There is honestly nothing that is more exciting for me in the year ahead then making Project Giving - Steemit's first NGO - a living, functioning and effective reality!

For more information and the chance to contribute to genuine social development around the world, make sure to check out, follow and support @projectgiving here on Steemit!

What the future holds

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~ Self (2018) ~

Its hard for me to express how wonderful the past year has been for me. So as I reflect and write about it, I see that not only have I experienced so much in the last year but I have also learnt so much... I have learnt so much more about myself, I have learnt what I can achieve when I focus my energy towards positive goals, and finally I have learnt that what matters in life is not so much the hardships you face, but rather how you improve yourself and the world around you as a result of those hardships.

The next 12 months might very well be the most consequential of my life. As my final year of university dawns on me, I have taken on more responsibilities then ever. I will not only have to commit myself to my school work and my wonderful relationship, but also to further developing my photography business, running and managing an NGO, I will also be working as the Director of Media for my University's model UN Society, and naturally, I also intend to keep writing as much as I can here on my blog... Finally, I hope I'll also be able to find some time to myself so that I can explore the world, my mind and perhaps even to ponder what the future holds for me. At the end of it all though, I hope to still be able to hold my head up high and be proud of my achievements like I am today.

To all of you who have helped me, supported me and encouraged me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Cheers to the year ahead!

~ Tristan ~