One major struggle in my life right now is trying to figure out what I want to do in the future once I graduate from college. I am sure many seniors in college are in the same boat but at least for me, the uncertainty about the future of my personal career and the future of my career field as a whole is a little unsettling.
When I first started looking at colleges I narrowed my choices to small, liberal arts colleges right away. All throughout my secondary education I had gone to very small schools where you experience small class sizes and closer relationships with teachers. I wanted to continue this in my higher education. So long story short, I ended up choosing a small liberal arts school named Bridgewater College in Virginia. Also from the beginning of my college search I had decided on being a sports writer so I declared a communication studies major right away. Luckily, the college did offer a student-run newspaper which I joined freshman year as a sports writer that has been invaluable to my college experience.
Throughout my studies as an undergraduate in communications and my work with the student run newspaper I learned a lot about the journalist career path that I did not expect to learn, some good and some not so good. When I first said I wanted to become a journalist no one really ever told me how hard it is to break into the industry. No one really ever told me that so many newspapers are going out of business and going through this sort of transitioning period. No one really told me about the amount of layoffs at newspapers and I seemed to have missed that in the news.
Unfortunately, I have already had to experience this reality of the changing newspaper industry with the college newspaper. In the years I have attended Bridgewater College, the student run newspaper Veritas has cut print editions from 10 published per semester to five per semester, and now three per semester that will be phased out after I have graduated as strictly online content will be phased in. This has caused a great deal of perplexity for me these past couple of months. From the impact the organization has had on my learning experience, I hope that college newspapers or some sort of student run media group will always be around for students looking to become journalists. I also hope students will take an interest in journalism because getting to be a part of educating a general public about a certain issue you find important is invaluable.
So those are some not so good things about a journalism career but at the same time there are several things I am looking forward to about becoming a journalist. I am excited to try and find the best way to connect with an audience whether it is through print, blogging, an online newspaper or others. I am excited about informing the public about important issues. I am excited to continue working on and improving my writing skills. I excited I have found something I am passionate about and have found something that is worth pursuing.
