As a freshman, I always envisioned my senior year to be “magical”, some of the main highlights would include playing volleyball with my friends, planning pep rallies, and attending homecoming. Instead, I spent my volleyball season in quarantine twice, got laid off from my job, and sporadically cut my hair too short during stressful times. I never envisioned starting my senior year off behind a computer screen, or losing the privilege of a snow day. However, this year has proved that anything is possible, including doing a Capstone project in the middle of a pandemic. When I found out that the requirements for this year's Capstone project would be the same, I wanted to be angry at the system for having no compassion. But now that I reflect on those moments, I would like to say that most of my anger would have been halted if I just understood what a Capstone project was.

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To me, a Capstone is a service-learning experience that gives an opportunity to work with your community to better it. However, you also get the opportunity to learn how to network and work on yourself morally. There are many personal stories that get shared throughout the span of these few short months, that you kind of wish you had done this project sooner so you could’ve known your classmates better. So Capstone isn’t just a service-learning project, it’s a place where you support your classmates, whether it be through their own project or just in life, and it’s a place where you become an adult.

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When I decided to promote reading to middle school and high school students, I originally only planned on creating an Instagram account because I wanted to stay in my comfort zone. However, as time went on I realized that I could create a greater impact if I made a presentation to show to the middle school students. This meant that I had to put my fears and anxieties aside, and contact teachers about opportunities to present in their class. Every teacher or administrator that I’ve talked to regarding my project, has been so excited for it. This made me realize that students really do take reading for granted, and sometimes it just takes another student talking about it, to create a change. 

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Although I struggled to post regularly on my Instagram account, I still put great effort into making the posts as attractive and visually pleasing as possible to garner the attention of my followers. This was also the case for the presentation and infographic that I created. Another thing that I tried to do throughout my Capstone project is getting out of my comfort zone, whether it be contacting libraries regarding mentorship or standing in front of a classroom presenting about the importance of reading. I would say that I am my own worst enemy in many situations, and many times I doubt myself when it comes to trying something new or getting out of my comfort zone. However, throughout this project, I didn’t really let that become a barrier for me anymore. I still remember the anxiety I felt when making the Instagram page, my main concern was that no one would follow it and I wouldn’t impact anyone, but looking at the survey that I administered to my followers, many of them found the page to be extremely helpful and got them to start reading.

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I can definitely say that I enjoyed doing my Capstone project. Do I wish that I could’ve more? Absolutely. One of my greatest regrets with this project is starting at the end of January, instead of the beginning of the school year. However, besides that, I enjoyed working with students and hearing feedback from my peers about how they enjoyed my posts or book recommendations. I hope that someone in the upcoming year chooses to take over the project, and expand it to continue to educate students, not only at SMSA but other schools as well, about the importance of reading.