Four years ago, my career path was completely different from what it is now. As a freshman year at Millersville University of Pennsylvania at the time, embarking on my sports management dream while being away from home felt like a win-win situation. However, a couple trials and tribulations led me down the paths I feel destined to take.
First off, let me rephrase what I said earlier. I’m making it seem like I came to Millersville ready to study sports management when in fact that’s not true. I now realize that I was more astray than what I remember. Sorry if I complicated things more than they already are. Now here is how I was really introduced to my destined careers.
For the fall semester of my freshman year, since I had no idea what I wanted to study, I enrolled in whatever classes that interested me. Hearing mixed feedback, such as I had plenty to figure it out versus I don’t have as much time as I think, I deeply considered this advice. Eventually, in my spring freshman semester, I decided to up the pace on my field of study and chose sports management.
Sports has always been a passion of mine. So, I figured being involved in this business would suit me well. Then a couple classes later of nearly failing math and economics, I soon figured out this was not it. Luckily, the classes I took during my freshman year were not in vain.
Starting sophomore year, finding a new major was the main thing on my mind. After talking to a professor and my advisor, they helped me see that the classes I took during freshman year support one major in particular, sports journalism. Once I heard sports that automatically garnered my interest, but upon hearing journalism, I soon learned about a field that was truly my calling.
From grade school to high school, my favorite and best subject was always English. Writing just came natural to me. Honestly, I longed to be great at math instead, but it took me going to college to realize that my natural gifts are something I shouldn’t waste.
Once I made sports journalism my official major and added public relations as a minor, everything in my coursework began to make more sense. From that point on I managed to earn high grade point averages and raise my GPA throughout my junior and senior year. Outside of the classroom, I participated in activities that helped me exercise the skills I learned in the classroom.
First, I joined my school newspaper, The Snapper, and became their sports editor. The editor part of that role almost steered me away. However, after learning that I would be editing and writing my own articles, I took on the challenge. This choice greatly benefited me, and I can credit this move as one that helped me achieve success in my internship.
As an intern at a company called Relevnt, I served as an aspiring sports journalist, which I still am. In this role, I also edited and wrote articles but began practicing podcasting as well. As graduation ended my internship, I felt confident and ready to start a sports journalism career. A rude awakening awaited me though.
After coming home from college for the last time this May, job applications were the only thing on my mind. This led me to submit applications left and right, not just for sports journalism positions, but anything having to do with writing. By this point of the summer, I thought I’d have a job in or near my desired field by now; I don’t.
Hearing about my friends getting jobs added on to the depression and shame I began to feel for myself. I was happy for them but at the same time mad that my career path wasn’t happening just as quickly. I knew it could be a long process though, so I did not let myself get discouraged.
Going to a few interviews added more hope that I was close. Then an opportunity came my way that opened my eyes to a new career path.
After going through their process, I became and am still a University of Penn fellow in their Experience Lab program. With them I’m studying digital marketing and storytelling. I know whoever will read this is probably thinking that’s not even what you want to do, and you’d be right. However, when I looked at what this field entailed and saw how similar it was to my college studies, giving the program a shot felt right.
Right now, I’ve been in the program for a few weeks now. The lessons I’ve been learning are helping me gain skills that will be useful if I manage to get a marketing job with a company one day. Good news, I now have a job.
If you’re thinking it’s in my field, it’s not but it’s something I enjoy as a temporary work option. I’m a canvasser for Working America. For $25 an hour, I can handle walking around in neighborhoods all day fighting for multiple causes. Plus, it’s better than what I’ve been doing most of the summer, sitting around the house all day after going to the gym.
Soon, through the University of Penn program, I hoped to be paired with a company as a content marketer. This position is the one that interested me most upon learning about it in my coursework. It involves creating content that fits a target audience. It must support that audience as they go through multiple stages in a company.
The process of being paired with companies starts in September, right around the corner. However, I haven't given up on my sports journalism dream at all. I still submit journalism applications, but now I’m glad I have another career field I can pursue.
Whether or not I'm a journalist, sports journalist, content marketer, or writer of some kind, my ultimate goal is just to be an impactful force in either one of these fields. I want to be someone that people get content examples off of, for all the right reasons.