“What do you want to be when you grow up?” We’ve all been asked the inevitable question before. As my pre-school “yearbook” will reveal, at age four, I wanted to be a ballerina when I got older. About six years later, at age ten, I decided that I would much rather become a marine biologist. Two years after this, I determined that becoming a famous singer or model was much more appealing.

When I was finally a “mature” high school student, I realized I needed to focus on finding a more realistic career for my future. My first thought was that I could be a journalist, but with another swift change of the mind, I decided I might be a good school counselor. Then I thought maybe I was well-suited to become a teacher. In the mix of all this, I also considered Business and Human Relations.

In the end, I based my college search on the assumption that I would study either Secondary Education or Psychology. As it turns out, I wound up studying neither. In fact, my decision making skills (at this particular point in my life) were so poor that I enrolled at Medaille as an Undecided major. That category pretty much summed it up. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. However, it wasn’t that I didn’t have options; it was that I had too many.

As is protocol for Undecided majors, I took some general courses and mixed in some courses from departments I thought I may have been interested in. On a whim, I took a Media Promotion class. It was suggested to me by my adviser, so I gave it a shot. It was also in my first semester that I decided to join the Perspective, Medaille’s student run newspaper. I enjoyed writing and had some experience at my high school’s newspaper, so I figured, why not?

At the end of my freshman year, I declared as a Communications major. Lisa Murphy and the students at the Perspective had completely sold me. I really enjoyed what I was doing, and as a result, I was ready to commit to a major that I had never even really considered before that time.

Since then, everything that I have done has only verified my decision to become a Communications major. Getting involved is the single most important thing that I could have done to make my decision, and I would encourage any incoming freshman or even current student to explore extracurricular activities that you might enjoy and/or excel at. Don’t rule anything out. You never know what you might fall into and end up following as a career path.

At the halfway point of my college career, I have only experienced more and more surprises concerning what my talents are and what kind of job I would like after graduation. Even within the field of Communications, I have at times felt I should become a journalist, an editor, and now, I have even discovered that I love the lay-out aspect of print publications. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that an open mind is one of the most important aspects to uncovering just what it is you really want to be when you grow up.

~Megan Fitzgerald