So recently, I've had a little bit of free time so I thought I would change things up a little in terms of what this post is going to be about. I don't really know who's going to read this, rather I really don't care who reads this, but like I had said in a previous post, this semester has been great. And while I kind of wrote about why it's been great, I thought I'd make it more general, kind of share the thought process I went through on how I made my semester great. Although my experiences are with journalism, I hope anyone who reads this can find some way to relate to what I did to make sure I didn't hate my major by the end of my first semester.
Disclaimer: I'm clearly not an expert on this topic, these are just my opinions. Don't be silly.
Don't be afraid to be a "try-hard"
First of all, I think that word and any word with that same connotation is stupid, and anyone who uses that word to try and demean and discredit others are nonsensical. For me, the reason why I instantly tried to get extremely into journalism despite my complete lack of knowledge about really anything related to news was because I was sort of making a gamble. For my first three semesters, I studied music, the semester after that, I was pre-journalism and so I only took one class that would help me graduate, and the rest were general education courses. So, that left me four more semesters to finish my major and two required internships (one for my minor) if I wanted to finish without staying extra semesters. And even though I'm probably not going to graduate on time, I took this mindset to heart and just did my best not only academically, but also write amazing stories and meet great people I never would have before, which not only let me start building a portfolio and resume and more importantly, become a better journalist I probably wouldn't have become otherwise.
Don't be intimidated or scared to ask for help on assignments
Hey. You know, you can learn a lot from bringing your stories to your professor and/or TA. My first story I wrote for Comm 2221 (media writing and editing), I brought it to my professor (shout-out to Nicole Kraft) and we went through and not only cut down probably 200 words (I was about 100 over the word count), but also went through how to make it better. I then used what I learned on the future articles and every time there was less and less to edit (I personally still have so much to learn, but less and less to edit relative to each previous story). Honestly, the only reason I feel like I'm doing alright is because I jumped out of my comfort zone of just being introverted and too scared to talk to people and just went for it, no matter how nervous I was every time someone edited my stories.
Take journalism (or major-related) electives
So something I did this year was take an independent study class that basically made me (in a good way) write for The Lantern, which is Ohio State's student newspaper. Yeah, you can write articles for the paper without a class, and yeah you do write stories for the paper in the Comm 2221 class, but having this kind of "requirement" to write even more allowed me to not only get more writing experience, but I was able to go to different places around Columbus and talk to so many different kinds of people. Needless to say, my whole point here is that even if a class isn't required for your major, it might present some interesting opportunities, whether it be more experience or even getting opportunities to do things related to your major outside the class.
Do things outside of just classes
Join student organizations! Whether it be an academic fraternity that relates to your interests or just a club, you'd be surprised the amount of good people you can surround yourself with. I myself joined an organization called SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists) and was able to find good people to have genuine conversations with about stories, issues such as mental health and so on. Not only do I recommend joining student organizations, but also I think it's great to do more outside of class. What do I mean? Well there are a few things: like I said in the previous post mentioned, I participated in a national security simulation which was pretty fun, I also wrote one or two stories outside of both my independent study and my writing class which gave me a bit more experience with just talking to people in real time and improving my interviewing skills, and so these experiences really helped me become a better journalist and also motivated me to do better and do well.
Make connections
If you know me, I'm actually a pretty introverted person. But I knew to succeed, I actually had to make connections. And by making connections, I don't only mean with professors and TAs, but also with your fellow students. I took a leap of faith this semester, and jumped way out of my comfort zone to actually talk to people in my classes, The Lantern editors and also the aforementioned professors and TAs. This allowed me to be more comfortable in my new major and do better than I probably would have if I was in a mental state where I felt alone in what I was doing. Classmates share the same struggles as you, professors and TAs are always there to help you, and just creating that sense of community yourself instead of waiting for that sense to come to you is what I think is a good way to go about doing things.
Don't be afraid to grasp onto opportunities
Opportunities. I think this is the one word that has changed my life regardless of what major I was in. When I studied music, I took the opportunities to go to masterclasses and a conference which at the time really motivated me to do better. Just like the national security simulation and the story ideas that were brought up in class that no one volunteered to write. Opportunities are what help us grow as human beings, and what advance us further into what we are passionate about and what we want to do. The biggest opportunity I grasped this semester was when I applied and got an internship, thanks to a referral of my professor, and now I can get real life experience of what it is like to work in the media industry. So if you see an opportunity and you're on the fence, sometimes you just have to risk it and take those opportunities because you never know what you'll get out of them.
So what am I trying to get at here? You don't have to take this advice, and you don't have to trust anything I say. But for me, I did my best to follow all of this and ended up having a great semester. Seeing all of what I just wrote, I just have to give one more piece of advice: commit. If you aren't committed to your major, you won't really enjoy it. If you commit to facing everything head on and not being intimidated by what's thrown at you, you might just discover that you might be passionate about what you're studying after all. I was told many things about one of the classes I took this semester: it would be scary, it's stressful, but to be honest, I never really felt any of that. I just went with the flow, committed, and had a great time.