An Ist

Ever since I can remember I wanted to be an ist, a therapist, psychologist or kinesiologist. It didn’t really matter what as long as it was an ist. I was under this impression that as long as I was an ist I would make lots of money and that would make me happy, but I was so wrong.

I went into my college career as a psychology major with the intention of being a middle school counselor or family therapist. It was great, I had my life plan and I was ready; but for some reason when orientation day came and we were splitting into our majors I could not bring myself to go with the other psychology majors, so right then and there I changed my major to business. My thought was it’s a versatile major that I can use anywhere and it would get me that piece of paper saying I did things, but again, I was wrong.

I spent my first year of school as a business major and that was the worst year of my college career by far. I wasn’t happy at all, and my classes were more work than I enjoyed so I did some research and tried to find a major that would fit with what I was good at and interested in.

All I knew was that I loved art, and always had. I don’t remember the last semester I have that didn’t involve some form of an art class so I thought to myself okay I could be an art major. However, the problem with that is, that I am not so great at most art forms. I enjoy painting and ceramics and I love photography, but I just didn’t think that I personally could make a career out of those so I kept researching and finally stumbled upon Marketing Communications.

The definition of Marketing communication (MarCom) is, “a fundamental and complex part of a company’s marketing efforts. Loosely defined, MarCom can be described as all the messages and media you deploy to communicate with the market”, but that’s a boring technical definition that does no justice at actually describing what it is.

To me marketing communications is the creative side of advertising. It allows me the freedom to use my artistic creativeness in the business world which is a perfect fit. As I continue with my major I am able to take more classes that actually pertain to topics I like which is making school a lot more enjoyable. Since I am done with my general education requirements and can focus just on my major I am finding that there is more than one path in the MarComm world that I am able to take. With this major my possibilities are endless and I am so excited to see where I go after graduation.

The reason I wrote this article is to show people that just because you start out as something doesn’t mean that that’s what you are going to do with the rest of your life. Whether it is picking a major or even picking a hobby there is no stopping you from changing your mind and finding a new, possibly even better option.

By keeping your heart and mind open you have a world of possibilities waiting for you. Take that leap on faith, ask that person out, go to that concert, the only thing that can happen is you fall down and get a little hurt, but then you will learn from that and be even stronger than you were before.

“Be not afraid of greatness, some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them” – William Shakespeare

You will never find your passion if you stop at the first cross roads you come to.