Dear Communication Studies Major,

When I graduated from high school I felt a lot of pressure to pick you.  Well not you specifically, but a college major.  When people asked me, “What are you studying in college?”  I didn’t want to say, “I’m not sure yet.”  I felt like that would make me seem unfocused or not committed.  So, I picked you.  My mom was a communications major and I really loved sports, so I thought you could help me become a sports broadcaster.

Trying to pick you was especially difficult for me.  In addition to wanting to become a sports broadcaster, I also had a lot of other ideas about my future.  I thought about becoming a psychologist, athletic trainer, teacher, and a racehorse trainer.  Admittedly, I hated school.  Whenever someone would ask me, “What is your favorite subject?” I would always reply, “Gym.” So the idea of picking a single major that would allow me to get a job that I would do for the r_e_s_t o_f m_y l_i_i_i_i_f_e was pretty daunting. And for someone with a lot of interests who hated reading and writing, it seemed almost impossible to pick something that was realistic and sustainable.  After all, who really knows themselves at 17?  Let alone know what they will want when they are 21 or 31 or 51.  (I’ll put a pin in this thought and come back to it later).

Lucky for me, the faculty in the Communications Department at Salisbury University were unlike any other group of educators I had met before.  College classes were not like high school.  Yes, I had to read and write obviously, but in college I was engaging with content I actually found interesting, and I was completing assignments that had a direct connection to the “real world.”  This made studying you while I was in college a joy.

After college was a completely different story.  Throughout my studie,s I moved away from the idea of becoming a sports broadcaster and gravitated more to the behind the scenes work of movie and TV production.  Therefore, this was the path I chose to pursue after graduation.  While working on films in college was fun and exciting, the real-world version of that involved sitting on set for long hours, getting coffee for people, and staring at frames during the editing process.  This was not the sexy career I signed up for.  At this point, I thought I wasted four years of my life on an education that yielded a life I passionately DID NOT want.

Lucky for me, I returned back to those same faculty members who made my college experience so amazing and sought their advice.  After listening to them, doing a bit of research, and drinking lots of wine (I was in the middle of a quarter-life crisis after all), I decided to go back to school to pursue a master’s degree in education which eventually yielded the career and life I had been seeking since I was 17.  As a career coach who owns her own business, I get to help people, do something different every day, engage on social media (which is kind of like broadcasting), be creative, and use my organizational skills to structure my crazy life.

All of the skills I use to be a successful coach and business woman I learned from you.  Although being a career coach was not a career that was directly discussed by any of the guest speakers that came to my classrooms or any of the career paths that were recommended, you led me here.  You taught me to express myself, consider the needs of others when delivering a service, market a business, speak confidently, put engaging content “out there,” and fully think through creative ideas so I can put them into practical use.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think about it regularly now.  You set me up for success and for that, I’m forever grateful.

Sincerely,

Lauren

Lauren Barlow, CCSP, GCDF, M.Ed.