It's 2010. I am still the naive 18-year-old first year student who is still easily impressed and not yet tainted by the harsh reality of life. I walked into Cal Poly Pomona's Interim Design Center (IDC) for the first time to attend the quarterly student showcase, which is strangely called Interim. The building's central bay is partitioned into several dense areas filled with beautifully crafted models, delicate hand drawings, and large posters. Everything I set my eyes on amazed me, and I couldn't help but doubt that I could ever create such lovely things with my hands. For two years, this same sense of wonder filled me as I meandered through the building during each Interim event.

As soon as I became an officer for AIAS in my third year, I no longer had the pleasure of taking my time as I gazed at every single project on the walls. Rather, I was one of the people who set up and curated the event. I often found myself serving hor d'oeuvres to visitors, manning the drink station, and other mundane tasks. Now it is 2015, and every time Interim comes along, I am always scrambling through the throng of people to make sure shit just doesn't go wrong. 

Even though my responsibilities somewhat prohibit me from fully enjoying the event, I hope that whatever I am doing ultimately allows other people to have fun. Unfortunately, I don't think this is the case.

My fellow AIAS officers and I noticed that the Interim turn out has been relatively low as of late. Some of my colleagues believe students feel as though it is unnecessary to attend because "they've already seen it all." Although it is true that we must set up projects ahead of time, this has always been the case, so it should not matter whether or not people have already seen the displayed projects during class time. At the same time, there undoubtedly is a sense of transparency, due to our studio culture. Curiosity impels us to ask our classmates about their projects, or we walk around the IDC to see what everyone else is up to. But does mean that we don't care to see the result post-final presentation? Maybe people are uninterested in celebrating the supposed "best" work from the previous quarter. 

I am unsure as to why less people seem to attend Interim, but I hope students will continue to care about their own colleagues' work, since we can learn so much from each other.