Genuine Gwyn

Capstone- the high point: crowning achievement.

THE BEGINNING

The final four months of Praxis have passed in a flash, and during this time I’ve been working on a project that will rival all the others I’ve done so far. This project encompassed three main points–

Career Goals

1. Getting more responsibilities at the Ford dealership.

Professional

1. Learn more about operations
2. Learn conflict resolution skills.
3. Learn how to do taxes and accounting.

Personal

1. Learn how to do my taxes.
2. Go through a chapter of my Latin textbook a week.
3. Do a single sketch a day and post it.

All of these were goals that I would work on during the last four months of Praxis. Here’s what I did.

THE MESS IN THE MIDDLE

What I did to get where I wanted to be!

Career 

By interviewing coworkers I gained another level of respect for those in any position in a car dealership. It takes a lot of work to manage every aspect, from buying the cars to setting up appointments for repairs, there is a never-ending list of things that need to be done. Many people fill roles outside of their main jobs. To keep a business running you must be able to think on your feet and make the best decision as it presents itself. Not everyone will agree with how you do things, but it’s best not to let it get under your skin. 

Out of the co-workers that I interviewed, I learned that one of the things my job is lacking is training documents. So I started making some for the work I was doing. The main one I worked on was for the daily tasks: lining up the till, putting money into the system, and recording payments on account. I have notes on other things I’m planning to document, like entering a new vehicle into the system and paying bills, which I will write in the future.

Professional 

Because of necessity, I also learned how to do and file my taxes. My filing systems aren’t perfect, but because of the filing work I’m doing at Ford they’re getting better. I had all the necessary documents, and so I tried to figure out the system on my own. Turns out, taxes are unnecessarily complicated, so my payment amount was way off. Luckily, so I wouldn’t go to jail, my parent helped me find an online tax filing system, so all I had to do was enter the info. Task complete.

During this escapade, I learned that taking out the money for your taxes when you get it, would be helpful. I also learned more about the system behind taxes, even if I didn’t understand it completely.

Another one of my goals was to create an investing plan. I did this by calculating how long it would take me to reach a specific savings goal, and then looking into my investing options. Since I want to invest long-term, I looked at index funds and other investments that use compound interest and can make a lot of money in the long term. After I decided which index fund I would be using, I found the amount I would need to save per month to reach my retirement savings goal. Now all I have to do is follow that plan. 

Finally, I worked on my conflict resolution skills. It was hard. I am a very conflict-averse person, so being in situations where there is an active disagreement is similar to pinning my own foot to the floor when a bear is attacking me–not pleasant. The main win for conflict resolution, was during youth group when the kids were fighting over a chair. I gave them one minute to work it out, (this had been going on for about ten by now), and they did! A small win, perhaps, but a win nonetheless.

Personal

I have been learning Latin since I was in high school, and I wanted to continue it throughout Praxis. My goal was to read a chapter and study it each week, but something even better presented itself. Instead, I was able to have conversations with a fellow Latin learner. This forced me to get up my skills to meet him since I’m not taking classes like he is. I’ve also been doing DuoLingo to help with my conversational skills.

I made a lot of art too. It was fun drawing as many days as I did, but also stressful. I had to be super intentional about when I would draw. Cutting out time to create is always good but it was hard always finding inspiration at the time that I needed it. Nevertheless, my technical skills improved, even if I didn’t get to post every day as I planned.

FINAL RESULTS

Over the three months I’ve been working at Country Ford, I’ve picked up skills I never thought I would. I started with basic daily work, then moved on to things like finalizing car deals in the system, paying bills, and making sure accounts were balanced. Overall it has been everything like I expected and nothing like I expected all at the same time. I think Shoe Dog by Phil Knight taught me that work isn’t some isolated activity dependent on you alone, it’s a group effort with messy and complicated people. And at the same time, it can be so rewarding.

I am proud of the professional goals I’ve achieved. It’s set a great trajectory for the next few years. I still have books to read, and things to learn, and I’m not even close to understanding taxes yet, so there’s always something else to tackle. Also, I’m still an artist. There will be more things to create after Praxis is done, and better social media marketing ideas than I could ever follow. 

The hardest thing about my capstone project was planning and sticking to the plan I had created. I found it a lot easier to do the tasks when I had someone holding me accountable, like my Latin learning partner. Overall, I accomplished a lot in the last four months of praxis. I worked hard, completed what I needed to, and sometimes even more than was required. The crowing point of my time in Praxis is truly encapsulated in this capstone project.