Let's get yo sh** together
Let me preface this post with a little story. So I’m involved in an org within the School of Comm at Ohio State. I’ve been a member for a couple years so this year I became a Community Chair – meaning I have a small group of classmates that I am supposed to be a “peer mentor” for. Ummmm I’m a mentor??? I don’t know how this happened. I’m SO thankful for the opportunity but I am still a long way from “getting it” myself.
Anyway, long story short my group was stressing about internships. They asked if I’ve had any. My response “Yes, 5.” They were pretty much in awe. They thought I totally knew what was going on and where I was going professionally. I (very quickly) assured them they were totally wrong.
Now let’s backtrack…
When I was a freshman I thought I wanted to be a business major. Business majors wear suits so they obviously all have it together so that’s what I wanted. I thought of it as a little business school prerec. LOL.
I changed my major sophomore year and immediately fell in love with communication. This is when I’ll finally get it together, right? Because I actually love what I’m doing.
I joined a club called the PRactice, (a student-run PR firm at Ohio State), and saw a sticker that read “fahlgren mortine” on one of the older girl’s laptops sitting across from me. I found out later that she was a senior and interning with this infamous, top PR firm in Cbus. (Literally every class of mine that semester had mentioned fahlgren at least 5 times).
From that moment I knew she had it together and if only I could someday intern with fahlgren I would prove I knew just where my life was going too.
Fast forward a couple weeks and Disney College Program applications drop. This is something I always knew I wanted to do and dreamed about for years. But I doubted myself… will I get in?, will I graduate on time if I go?... can I afford to pay my way?
I had known and heard of people who had done it and they made lifelong friends, met their future husbands/wives on the program or figured out their career goals while there. So, the DCP must be a revelation-like experience, right?
Needless to say, I applied, got accepted, figured out my scheduling and financing and went through with my program. I had the time of my life and did meet lifelong friends but still didn’t know where my direction was taking me.
Fast forward to junior year. A friend of mine was studying abroad. Studying abroad was something I always knew I wanted to do but didn’t know how to make it work. Financially, I could definitely not afford to do it. Time-wise I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it for a whole semester after already going to Disney for one. And work-wise I didn’t know if I could handle it in another country and another language.
But I did it. I applied for the program and got accepted. From there I knew if I wanted to make it work I had to figure it out for myself. I spent countless hours searching for and working on scholarship applications. I wrote dozens of unique responses to various prompts just hoping someone would find me worthy of their dolla bills.
Well, I got one. Thank God - because without it I would have never been able to spend my summer studying Spanish in Barcelona, Spain. Another just truly AMAZING time of my life.
As my time in Spain began unwinding I knew internships in Columbus would be going quickly. Remember that company Fahlgren Mortine? I did. I found their internship application and I thought, if only I can get this opportunity, then I got it. I’ve done it all.
I applied and heard nothing. I returned to the States completely forgetting about the application. One day I got a call. It was Fahlgren calling to schedule an interview! I had plenty of interviews and various previous internships but this one was different. I knew if I got this one I would have done it. I would have accomplished “getting my life together" - according to the standards I set for myself way back sophomore year.
Well, you guess it, I got it. And here I am coming home after working at this dream PR agency writing this blog post telling you (and admitting to myself) that I still don’t have it together and it’s okay.
Looking back, the goal of “getting my sh** together” is the only thing that motivated me to accomplish all of these amazing, magical, unique opportunities.
From afar each stepping stone looked like that would be my big AH-HA moment. Boy, was I wrong. But still, I’m so thankful to be naïve enough to think that way. Because maybe if it just seemed like a cool opportunity I wouldn’t have tried so hard to accomplish the things I’ve done.
Moral of the story: don’t give up on yourself. No one can tell you what you’re supposed to be doing or when you’re supposed to KNOW what you’re doing. We’re all just coasting and striving to make it to the next stepping stone (hoping that’s when it’ll all come together).
With that being said, don't stress about not knowing what you want or where you're going, focus on your little dreams and make them come true!!!! They might seem so far now, but before you know it you’ll look back and think about how many things you’ve done that once seemed so far-fetched. The time will go by anyway – make it count!
