It's Not the End, It's Just Another Beginning!I could not have asked for a better college experience. Period. Let's just say that the first year of college here at OU was completely dedicated to have a good time, being in a sorority, meeting as many new people as possible, and create a good academic foundation for myself. After having successfully achieved all of those goals as a freshman, I decided to enter into an internship that just so happened to fall in my lap, starting my sophomore year.
Public Relations was my major from the beginning, or at least I wanted to be somewhere at Gaylord. But honestly I didn't have a strong definition of what the field really was about until about two years ago. I said "sure" to being offered an internship working for the Athletics Department in Media Relations. As a sophomore, I totally thought that doing something "career-like" was distracting me from my social life/social development in college, but I found a way to balance it out, considering I only volunteered for 10 hours a week. Two years later, I stepped it up to 30 hours a week, paid, and in charge of covering a sport. As strange as this sounds, I got to the point where the more responsibilities I was given, the more I liked my job and the more I craved more challenges.
I am so blessed to have taken my internship that I took so blindly in the begging. I always say I had no idea what the heck I was doing when I first started, and I didn't know what sort of direction I wanted to head into in public relations. Luckily for me, God always does, and that's why I'm only excited about my future. Although I'd love to continue on about my crazy-good college experience, here are the top-three things I've learned through chasing my ambitions in public relations:
1) Always do what's right. PR is all about ethics, right? I have to say this is the most important item I hold on my list of things to do when it comes to my work. Doing what's right is a universal ideal that's honest and can put all of us to the test at one point of another. Each of us has the choice to decide doing what's right.
2) Know your surroundings and pay attention. As dumb as this sounds, I have recognized most recently that this is one of my downfalls. I'm not talking about walking alone to a car at night. I'm saying do research. Read the news, especially the local news, know the trends and get in as much information as possible, whenever possible. I admit I've always been lazy at this, but I'm improving as we speak (as I blog, really). I've always heard the phrase "knowledge is power" but I never really took it to heart. All I have to say is "better late than never." If I'm in public relations, I better be more in the know!
3) Finally, always remember what matters and what is most important. SO MANY TIMES I as a younger college student, I ran into a tough issue, a challenge arose, or I have been just plain annoying/irritated with someone. I don't know at what point exactly I decided to grow up and stop about getting frustrated about things that I couldn't control, or just the petty things, but I'm glad that I did. It's a continual challenge, but staying positive helps me work towards remembering what's important, even through the tough times.
I'm so excited for my future. As corny as this sounds, I'm really excited to continue learning. All of my life I've learned things from a textbook or in a classroom setting, and now I'm learning more from people. I never expected to learn anything about myself in the process, but I'm glad I did. Bring on the future!
Public Relations was my major from the beginning, or at least I wanted to be somewhere at Gaylord. But honestly I didn't have a strong definition of what the field really was about until about two years ago. I said "sure" to being offered an internship working for the Athletics Department in Media Relations. As a sophomore, I totally thought that doing something "career-like" was distracting me from my social life/social development in college, but I found a way to balance it out, considering I only volunteered for 10 hours a week. Two years later, I stepped it up to 30 hours a week, paid, and in charge of covering a sport. As strange as this sounds, I got to the point where the more responsibilities I was given, the more I liked my job and the more I craved more challenges.
I am so blessed to have taken my internship that I took so blindly in the begging. I always say I had no idea what the heck I was doing when I first started, and I didn't know what sort of direction I wanted to head into in public relations. Luckily for me, God always does, and that's why I'm only excited about my future. Although I'd love to continue on about my crazy-good college experience, here are the top-three things I've learned through chasing my ambitions in public relations:
1) Always do what's right. PR is all about ethics, right? I have to say this is the most important item I hold on my list of things to do when it comes to my work. Doing what's right is a universal ideal that's honest and can put all of us to the test at one point of another. Each of us has the choice to decide doing what's right.
2) Know your surroundings and pay attention. As dumb as this sounds, I have recognized most recently that this is one of my downfalls. I'm not talking about walking alone to a car at night. I'm saying do research. Read the news, especially the local news, know the trends and get in as much information as possible, whenever possible. I admit I've always been lazy at this, but I'm improving as we speak (as I blog, really). I've always heard the phrase "knowledge is power" but I never really took it to heart. All I have to say is "better late than never." If I'm in public relations, I better be more in the know!
3) Finally, always remember what matters and what is most important. SO MANY TIMES I as a younger college student, I ran into a tough issue, a challenge arose, or I have been just plain annoying/irritated with someone. I don't know at what point exactly I decided to grow up and stop about getting frustrated about things that I couldn't control, or just the petty things, but I'm glad that I did. It's a continual challenge, but staying positive helps me work towards remembering what's important, even through the tough times.
I'm so excited for my future. As corny as this sounds, I'm really excited to continue learning. All of my life I've learned things from a textbook or in a classroom setting, and now I'm learning more from people. I never expected to learn anything about myself in the process, but I'm glad I did. Bring on the future!
Picture courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department.
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