Frustration

This week was the toughest week I've had yet. Not because the projects I've been working on were especially difficulty, but because of the schools policy for students that have fallen behind in their work. Unfortunately, I have managed to fall (slightly) behind in the number of projects that I've completed. Because of the fact that I've fallen behind, I was placed on Fridays to get caught up. Unfortunately, while on Fridays, each project turned in will be docked one full letter grade. So, due to that policy, I've recently gotten my lowest grade yet. I've been doing pretty well to maintain a good GPA, but I'm not sure how long I can support the automatic docking of my grades. Fortunately, my being "behind" is completely arbitrary, and I wasn't really that far behind. I'm hopeful that I won't have to go in this coming Friday and that I'm able to save my GPA.

After a long talk with one of my instructors, I've become painfully aware that I have been entirely too critical of the work that I've been doing. It's as if the school is trying really hard to promote extremely mediocre gunsmiths (the Fridays policy just seems to bolster that idea). The hardest thing for me this week was not quitting. I was quite close to walking out of school because it seemed like nothing was going the way I needed it to go. I've just got to remember what the end goal is and push through. A fellow classmate and I have adopted a "new standard" where we have become less picky and are starting to be OK with "good enough". Even though we aren't happy about it, that seems to be what our instructors want. I've always heard "Good, fast and cheap: Pick any two" and that really seems to be the case. Hopefully "good enough" is good enough to get me through school. I'll start being picky again when I'm working for myself.

Here are a few pictures of a project that was a thorn in my side from the beginning. It's a recoil pad installation fixture. I'm happy it's done.