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Casey Regan

COM491

Final Reflection

Before Bryant

It feels absolutely insane to say this now, but when I graduated high school in May

2013, the last place I expected to be in the Fall of 2019 was graduating with a degree

in Communication from Bryant University. At the time, I had completely different plans -

I was going to go to a different college, have a different major, live in a different state.

Bryant nor communication had ever crossed my mind.

I had a five year plan. One that I had crafted since my junior year of high school.

I was going to go to Lesley University in Cambridge, MA to become an elementary

education teacher and graduate with a full-time teaching position in a suburb of

Boston. That was my “dream”.

Things don’t always turn out to plan. In the summer before I packed up my

things to move in for my freshman year at Lesley, I remember thinking to myself - is this

really what I want to do? I knew teaching was impactful, and I knew I liked kids - but

did I really want to spend the rest of my life being a teacher? However, I pushed those

thoughts to the back of my mind and moved in at the beginning of September 2013.

A mere two weeks into my time there I knew that Lesley wasn’t the place for me.

I knew education wasn’t the major for me, either. I remember calling up my mom in

tears, telling her that I didn’t think I was in the right place. I initially doubted myself,

thinking that maybe I just had to get used to the change of environments. But after two
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weeks of sleepless nights, I knew deep down that I didn’t want to be at Lesley

anymore.

After a lengthy conversation with my parents, we made a deal - I could leave

Lesley as long as I promised to 1) re-apply to other schools for Fall 2014 admission

and 2) work part-time until then. Personally, it was an easy decision. I had no doubts

that college was the end-game for me, and I had been working various retail jobs since

the age of fifteen. I’d have to go through the stressful, intensive college process again,

but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I spent my gap year working in retail and participating in internships while also

touring colleges. As I was applying to schools, my mom told me I should take a look at

Bryant University. I initially shrugged her suggestion off. I knew Bryant as the college

that was only ten minutes away from my hometown - a business school where people

that wanted to wear suits everyday went to college. I was not interested. I didn’t know

what exactly I wanted to major in, but I knew it wasn’t business - but I sent in an

application anyway.

Bryant

Long story very short, I ended up at Bryant. I applied to be a Communication major on

a whim. I liked talking, I loved writing, and I assumed that Communication would cover

both of those. If not, there were a number of other liberal arts majors that I could switch

into. I was really into Political Science and had toyed with the idea of maybe going into

Law during my gap year. I didn’t intend on making Communication path permanent.

Because I entered as a Communication major, I was automatically enrolled into

my first communication class as soon as I got on campus. The class was Introduction
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to Communication with Professor Kristen Berkos, and I remember walking into that

class on the first day not really knowing what to expect at all. Professor Berkos handed

us a sheet that listed us a bunch of different career paths one could take with a

communication degree. To my surprise, there was a multitude of different types of jobs;

ones that I totally expected (journalist, author, television broadcaster) and ones for

which I didn’t even think a communication degree would be relevant (lawyer, CEO,

human resource professional). Professor Berkos stressed that a communication degree

was incredibly valuable and lucrative.

I never had taken a class where I thrived so much before. I immediately

connected to the content of the course. Communication was coming so incredibly easy

to me, and I was unfamiliar with that feeling. In that class, I learned that the

Communication discipline is so much more than just talking and writing. It is learning

about theory, media, culture. It is all encompassing. Over the course of that semester,

any doubt I had about majoring in communication had melted away. It was the exact

opposite of what I had experienced at Lesley; I knew working in the Communication

field was something I’d love to spend my life doing. Doing what, exactly, I wasn’t sure.

But I knew that this was the major for me.

I was absolutely ecstatic about the thought of being able to take more

communication classes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to add any to my schedule any

until sophomore year when I secured a spot in two classes taught by Professor Susan

Baran; Mass Communication and Media Literacy. I was a big fan of mass

communication after learning a bit about it in Intro, and as a millennial, anything with

Media in the title had me excited.

I’d like to think that those two classes gave me my first inkling that mass

communication and media were my “things”. I absolutely loved everything about both

of those courses. Media Literacy was a class that taught me to be conscious of the

media we interact with daily and how to acknowledge and fix the biases that we are

constantly presented with. Mass communication helped me realize how much influence

corporations, media conglomerates, and brands have on people. I ended up with As in

both classes - two of my highest grades I have ever received at Bryant. I also came out

of that semester with an incredible mentor in Professor Baran, and she gave me high

praises for my participation and work in both classes.

I had never been a stand-out student before. I went to an extremely competitive

independent lower, middle, and high school and always felt that I was a student that

faded into the background. I wasn’t a horrible student by any means, but compared to

my peers, I was just ordinary. The thought of a teacher commending me for being a

memorable student was absolutely mind-boggling. Feeling empowered by those

classes, I was enthusiastic, eager, and ready for whatever college was going to throw

at me.

At some point in everyone’s college career, they get hit with a reality check. That

time where you realize that college isn’t a cakewalk, and not everything is going to

come easy. My reality check happened in the Fall of 2016. I had taken a leave of

absence from college the semester before due to health issues, but felt invigorated and

excited to come back.

That semester was one of the hardest ones I’ve had at Bryant. I had two new

Communication classes on the docket - Interpersonal and intercultural Communication

- in addition to a political science class and Statistics.

I absolutely loved intercultural communication. I was already a person that

enjoyed talking about, learning about, and immersing myself in different cultures, so

studying about how culture effects communication was really thought-provoking and

engaging to me. I always looked forward to that class.

You’d think interpersonal communication would be the same. Humans interact

with each other everyday. It is arguably the most applicable part of the discipline to any

college student. But for me? Definitely not. Interpersonal was unbelievably difficult.

The theories weren’t connecting, the real-life applications weren’t making sense, and

the exams were extremely challenging. I felt completely lost and discouraged, and I felt

like I was the only one. A lot of my other Communication major friends didn’t

understand why I found Interpersonal so difficult. That only made it worse. I felt

extremely discouraged that others in my class were excelling, and I was lagging

behind. This was the first communication class that I wasn’t doing well in. To me, it

didn’t matter that I was doing well in Intercultural - that was an elective. Interpersonal

was required, a class that all communication majors needed to take, one that I needed

to do well in. I dreaded going to Interpersonal because I felt so dumb.

Looking back now, I know I wasn’t dumb. In fact, it was more dumb of me to

think that I was dumb! Not everything can come easy to a person. Over the next few

years, I’d eventually take a lot of Communication classes that I excelled in - global

communication, nonverbal communication, documentary filmmaking - and a bunch I

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just didn’t connect with - film studies, discourse analysis, research methods. All taught

me incredibly important concepts that are essential to my Communication education.

That’s what really matters.

These classes, along with a longterm on-campus social media internship,

helped me gradually narrow down what paths I wanted to take in after college, and I

eventually found my Communication niche my first semester of my senior year. I was

able to combine my love of mass communication and media into a career path - digital

marketing.

During my last year at Bryant, I was lucky enough to participate in two for-credit

college internships, one of which was with SUMR Brands, a juvenile baby product

company, in their digital marketing department as a Digital Engagement Intern in the

Summer of 2019. It was my first full-time job, and it is a complete understatement to

say that it was a great experience.

I am so happy to say that my time at SUMR was hands down the most helpful,

rewarding, and important parts of my Bryant career. As an intern there, I was able to

participate in digital marketing brainstorming sessions, run their social media accounts,

devise social engagement plans, and craft content campaigns. It was the first time I felt

like I was actually contributing to the betterment of a company with my work. I did not

feel like a small fish in a huge pond - instead, I felt like I was actually making a

difference. Seeing my digital marketing ideas actually come to fruition was a huge

motivation for me, and I loved coming to work every day. As I walked out on my final

day of my internship that summer, I knew two things 1) that the digital marketing path
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was definitely the one for me and 2) that I couldn’t wait to start getting paid to do

something I loved full-time.

And that takes us to now - the Fall of 2019, the last few weeks of my time at

Bryant. Here I am, finishing up my final Communication class, and I’m about to

graduate. It’s been quite a long, incredible, difficult journey at Bryant. There have been

a lot of “ups”, some “downs” - all of which I count as valuable learning experiences.

After Bryant

My Communication seminar professor, Professor Berkos, recently gave us a brief

Thanksgiving assignment where we had to write what we’re thankful for in relation to

communication. And honestly? I realized how incredibly thankful that I picked the

Communication major, on a complete whim, five years ago.

I’m not exactly sure where I’ll be five years from now. I’m actively looking for job

placements where my Communication degree will be put to good use, and I am

extremely confident in my abilities. I’m ready to use my experience to contribute to the

digital marketing space. Ideally, I’d like to move to Boston and work in the digital

marketing department of an international brand - one where I can combine my loves of

digital marketing and cultural communication.

It’s still shocking to me that I came out of high school not even thinking that I’d

be graduating with a communications degree, let alone with Bryant University written

on my diploma. The fact that I didn’t even intend on sticking with the major is even

more crazy to me. I truly cannot picture myself having a degree in any other field of

study, or going into any other career path except one in Communication. I could not
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have predicted this is where I’d be. But I am so thankful I’m here, and I cannot wait to

see what comes next.