Sometimes, you push yourself and in the end it was worth the blood, sweat, and tears… and in this case the brain mush that began to slowly ooze out of our ears. Earlier in the week, Regina and Ingrid had informed us that there was a slight change in the itinerary due to the arise of opportunity. At first, this looked more intimidating than anything but as we collected more and more information on the switch, I grew more excited. We were now given the chance and opportunity to work at Big Radical in groups that were randomly selected. We worked for two days straight in the efforts to create a prototype, informing and helping those who formed a circle around an individual whom suffered from depression. Sounds and feels much like a mouthful if you asked me.

What got me interested was the topic that the Design Jam team decided to zone in on. We talked a lot about stigma of depression and just within those discussions you could bullet point reasons as to why this topic was so necessery and ever so important. Its hard to be human, and not everyone gives each other the credit that we all truly deserve… and without acknowledging this, we lose sight of the importance of being. Depression is a silent, dark place that nobody should have to go through alone, and the fact that Big Radical pulled something like this Design Jam together, really trying to bring discussion and positivity towards this issue was a major step upward and onward. I am so thankful to have been given the chance to meet the people I did during these two days. There were lots of moments of deep thought and silent observations as all the teams created something quite brilliant at the end! It all started with sticky notes and random thoughts, but these began to transform into possible app features and product. Everyone presented their pitch, which followed with a raised glass in company with a toast to all that took part. It truly was amazing what we all witnessed unravel in those two days. I soon realized that this Design Jam held a lot of lessons within it, some different than others but towards the end it all seemed like a lesson worth learning.

After the two hack-a-thon days came to an end, our upbeat selves tempted to do so as well. Our brains felt fried, and our eyes heavy, but we pushed through this to enjoy yet another night of each others company in the infamous Room 515.