Genuine Gwyn

“Olim respiciemus ubi incepimus et stupemus quousque venimus.”

Over the past nine months, I have been in an online program called Praxis. It is a college alternative led by knowledgeable mentors who help you forge your own future. Designed to help aspiring young people gain career and life direction, it is hands-on and helps stretch and grow ability. And boy did I stretch!

Here are some quick stats for what I accomplished in and during the program:

1 move

2 new jobs

4 portfolio projects

4 YouTube Videos

4 Latin conversations

6 philosophy/ethics conversations

12 books in progress

16 DnD sessions

20+ connections to highly intelligent and driven people

22 published posts

23 books finished

28 weeks of helping/teaching youth group

33 newsletters posted

37 photographs shared

52 individual pieces of art created

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Countless takeaways.

It’s crazy even to me how I fit all that into nine months. There were weeks where it felt like I never stopped moving, and this list doesn’t even include other responsibilities, like eating, sleeping, or going to church! All this to say, I accomplished a lot during Praxis, and now I’m forward tilt into the next season of my life.

Projects 

One of the first projects I did was creating my website, which I have been tweaking and working on since the beginning of the program. From it, I have posted my skill projects and other things I’ve been working on, along with my substack email newsletter.

The first project I did was Content Marketing. I learned how to create visuals with Canva, utilize the best posting schedule for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and make landing pages.

I learned how companies find new customers and continue to grow their business through sales. I learned about sales for a month and created a ready-to-use sales sequence for Quickbooks, an online payroll and accounting service. I wrote about it here Ready to Launch Sales Sequence.

I spent a month studying and creating persuasive writing. See my case studies, advertisement mockup, and the packaged presentation of my work here in my post Becoming a Copywriter.

Then I took all of the things I’d previously learned and spent a month pursuing customers to be a copywriter for. Here’s what I did in my Applied Marketing, Sales, and Copywriting Project.

These are all of the projects I have currently completed, but I’m sure that there will be more to come!

Papers

There was a lot of writing involved during the program. One of the main ideas I’ve taken away from Praxis is documenting your work. Being able to show people what you can and have done is powerful. Just like with my art or photography, I’ve also gotten better at articulating and sharing my ideas.

One of my biggest fears is offending or losing connection to the people I care about, or interact with. I also find it easy to see what others are thinking and reconcile differing viewpoints. All this to say, at the beginning of the program I was scared to share my opinions, especially online, for fear of being controversial.

None of the papers I wrote during this time exemplify the overcoming of this fear better than Pieces of a Shattered Nation, my thoughts on the current political environment. Even though this post will probably be read by less than twenty people, there was a freeing feeling of posting something that wasn’t colored by others’ opinions.

Another post I enjoyed writing was The Traditional Latin Mass from A Reformed Perspective. The whole experience was awe-inspiring and timeless. I also loved writing and delivering the talk on ANAVAH that I gave in February for a girls’ conference.

This is just a small amount of the writing that I did for the program, but even that small amount has seen much improvement. Even the weekly newsletter I put out has improved to the form that it is today.

Books

We had nine books assigned through the program, The Concise Mastery by Robert Green was my favorite, although Rich Dad Poor Dad followed as a close second. Mastery highlighted all of the things I internally knew but didn’t have words for. Chasing down inspiration, and the idea of finding your purpose stood out to me. Here’s a quick overview of the other eight books.

Atomic Habits by James Clear. Small decisions impact the long term more than we realize. Set up good systems to get you where you want to be now.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Do not brutishly force people to come to your point of view. Instead, gently lead them by the hand and ask questions. You are trying to replace their paradigm. Do it gently.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Make money work for you. Long term you will be happier and wealthier.

Personal MBA by John Kaufman. You don’t need an expensive degree to do what you want to do, you need real-world experience and tenacity.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Make monetary decisions with just enough rationalism and just enough emotion to be smart, but realistic.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Ruben. Look outside the box, get a different perspective, and hold onto your ideas loosely. Inspiration can be just as silent as it is loud.

Shoe Dog by Phil Night. Be audacious enough about your ideas to be willing to lose almost everything for them. Surround yourself with people who feel the same. Never back down.

How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. Decide what the most important thing in your life is. Make that so clear it would be foolish or impossible to walk away.

Art

I made a lot of art over the past nine months, including pieces that I’ve been working on for months and ones that took less than twenty minutes. Here are some of the highlights~

Dancing Across the Sky. This is the first mural I’ve ever worked on. It took about a month and a half to make this beautiful piece, and four feet of scaffolding. Cheryl Halsey was an awesome person to work alongside and learn from during this process. We made quite a team!

Photography

Partially inspired by Cheryl’s amazing photographs, (no seriously, you should see her work!) and partially to clear my photo album and store them somewhere else, I started posting photos I’ve been collecting!

New Opportunities

Besides all that I have listed above, I also got two new jobs in different parts of the year. In late fall, I became the secretary for my church, on top of working as the janitor there. The position has been going well, and I’ve learned how to manage an office and weekly bulletin.

Since January I’ve worked at Country Ford and undergone a metaphorical  transformation, gaining skills I never imagined I’d have. I’ve started interviewing coworkers to learn more about operations. From mastering routine tasks to navigating the complexities of finalizing car deals, handling financial transactions, and balancing accounts, each day has reshaped my expectations and expanded my skills.

Conclusion

As praxis comes to a close, there are things that I could have never predicted, especially the direction and guidance it would provide me. With the skills I’ve gained, I’m looking forward to entering the next period of my life. Especially the last four months have forced me to grow. In my Capstone project, I detail what happened during that time. It truly wrapped up the program.

This is also a goodbye of sorts, to the people that I’ve met along the way. A special thank you to the awesome mentors at Praxis, especially Ryan Ferguson. And finally, a thank you to the outstanding individuals I got to take this journey with, this quote is for you.

“One day, we’ll look back at where we started, and be amazed at how far we’ve come.”

– Technoblade

The end is where we begin.