Emile Weisz, 19, Netherlands, Basicyear
"When I started last year I was 17 and I was just too young. I noticed it when I was stuck in the beginning of every assignment. I worked on ideas only because I thought it would impress the teachers, but only in size, not in concept. As if only hard work would be enough. I quit after half a year and went for 5 months to America. I was fed up with Rietveld but I was mainly angry with myself because it felt like giving up. I didn't want to have to do something anymore.
But after five months of almost doing nothing it started to itch again. I wanted to have a goal, I wanted to learn new things. It's important to have a goal for yourself.
When I came back home I applied again, but with a completely different mentality. I had confidence that something would come out of every assignment and told myself: ''trust that you can do something with whatever comes out of this.'' In the process of working you'll always find something you can be passionate about. The biggest difference in my mentality was to have trust in that process and start small. I found joy in researching and experimenting with materials and techniques instead of working towards an end result.
You have to let something happen and arise. You don't have to know what will happen eventually and where it will lead to."