CONGRATULATIONS to the class of 2018 for completing their Personal Interest Projects and submitting them today woohoo!
I hope that you have felt that a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Your PIP is FINALLY done! Goodbye to your resource annotations. Goodbye to your central material. And most of all- goodbye to this hectic yet rewarding journey. Would love to get some reflections here in the PIP Thread. Best part of doing the PIP? Worst part? Favourite research method? But the thing I want to ask everyone- how have you as a person become a more socially and culturally literate person?
PS: This PIP Thread has been a tremendous success and this wouldn't have happen without you guys!
Good luck with the rest of trials and your HSC journey. 
Bea x
I handed mine in today and posted an entry in my Major Works thread for my HSC Journal but I definitely do want to expand a bit more here
I agree so much with owidjaja (what even is trials when you have 40% of a course due before that) and I relate on such a spiritual level about the stress of the annotated bibliography. Writing about what was essentially the same thing for 35 secondary resources was not at all fun
I found the Log the most difficult part as well because 500 words was definitely not enough to cover my whole process. My original Log draft was double the amount and I almost wanted to cry seeing that word count because I had to cut out half of what I originally wrote. While it ended up more concise, I did find the Log really restrictive.
My favourite methodology was the focus group and I actually dedicated a whole chapter to it as the main methodology I referenced, alongside the secondary resources I found. I enjoyed discussing with the girls I facilitated it with and they were really open to sharing their experiences. This was the most useful research methodology for me out of the three I used (survey and interviews were the other two).
A ridiculous example of this is probably whenever I binge-watch videos of this kpop band Seventeen (any kpop fans out there?), one of the members is biracial and he often talks about how he looks like a 'foreigner' and was discriminated as a child even though he moved from New York to Seoul at the age of 5. I was watching a video of his interview and whenever the hosts of the talkshow gushed about his appearance, he looked really uncomfortable and I think that's when I realised how my PIP changed my perspective on biracial people. Even in the comments section, a lot of people noticed how uncomfortable he was throughout the interview but there are people still saying 'Omg halfie babies are so pretty'- I'm really hesitant to stan him just because just saying 'Oh he's pretty that's why he's my bias' makes me feel like I'm fetishising biracial people.
Vernon is actually my bias so I screamed when I read this
I think your topic is incredibly interesting! I did mine on interracial relationships and the acceptance of them in multicultural societies so our links are quite similar. I found it very educational for me to expound beyond my own relationship experiences and found a lot of personal reconciliation in seeing how other interracial couples have resolved conflicts. It definitely informed myself of how I could maintain a healthy relationship with my own partner.
Perhaps the greatest thing I learnt was how bloody bad the media can be in turning what is ultimately love into something of criticism. I found some really racist articles and close-minded discussions of interracial relationships that infuriated me. My case study on 'Yellow Fever' particularly incited anger in me because of how poorly the media illustrates East Asian women and the propaganda of the exotic East Asian identity. What should only be love has become an area of judgement and the media's role in it was something I became more aware of. Agenda setting is inevitable but some of the resources I found were really biased and uncool.
In summation, the worst part of the PIP might have been me realising how much of a demand it was. I justified it in my HSC journal thread that the PIP is arguably the most demanding major work (I also do Ext 2, Music and VA) of the ones I did. I didn't think it would take me so long to annotate a bibliography, nor did I think it would make me want to delete a whole perfectly written draft because of a word count that exceeded the prescribed one by twice the amount. I exhausted myself on this baby but the best part was realising that I made it my own. I chose a topic that mattered to me and that will continue to matter as I live and love with my partner. One of the biggest regrets I know I would have had would be choosing a topic just for the marks. I'm glad I chose to explore something that meant more than a HSC mark.
I came out of the submission feeling braver for my other major works and feel liberated knowing that almost half of SAC is already done and dusted. I look forward to hearing how everyone else went
That'll be all for me
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