All Good Things Must Come To an End...Or Do They?

Saying I'm a procrastinator is an understatement. So it's no surprise that I've waited until the last day to compose my final blog post. But whereas I normally put things off because I'm a tad lazy, this time it's different-- I waited until the last minute because I just don't think I want to acknowledge the fact that our time here at Oxford has come to an end.

I knew I would have a wonderful experience here; I knew I would learn a lot and enjoy the subject matter. But I think I underestimated the impact that our Grady class would have on me.

Before taking this class, my experience in Grady was mostly confined to PR and news writing classes. I found other majors such as advertising and broadcast journalism interesting, but I didn't know much about them. Being in this class allowed me to understand the perspectives of students with different majors and let me learn more about them. I really enjoyed hearing everyone's experiences with their career pursuits and what attracted them to their major. What was especially remarkable was that this class showed me how interconnected our professions are-- whether you're in PR, advertising, photojournalism, magazines, the theories of mass communication still affect your lives. Our careers are all influenced by the mass media and the growing age of social media. Even if you aren't in Grady or aren't majoring in the field of communications, what we learned in class was still relevant to our lives and really changed the way I'll look at the mass media. I'll be more aware of advertisements, how news stories are framed, whether or not ads and commercials perpetuate negative stereotypes or break them, and other issues such as these. I think, if nothing else, this is what we were supposed to have taken away from this class-- to be more cognizant of the world around us and understand how the media affects us and how we can adapt to it. We can all take what we've learned and apply it to each of our professions, and I can tell by seeing my peers' final presentations that this will definitely be the result.

This probably won't be my last post, because I think this blog has been a fantastic way for us to not only document our journeys, but to view the progress that we've made-- so I'll keep composing to show how much this class has really affected me. I know it's a bittersweet ending, because Oxford has stolen most of our hearts and it's very sad to leave, but I can't wait to get back to Athens and continue to experience more of what UGA and Grady have to offer me.