The Importance of Finding Your Community

When I came to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew a few things: I love animals, I am a people person, I am a strong writer, and nursing is most definitely not for me. That was all I had to work with. During registration for freshman year courses, I chose biology as my major, thinking that if I still wanted to go into health services, I could do so with a biology degree. Or, if I wanted to go the animal route, I could still use that degree.

After my freshman year, I felt beyond lost. I had even taken two different classes related to career searches and still didn't know what I wanted to do. I decided that my love for animals could be shown in a different way versus being a veterinarian so I chose to change my major to business with a writing minor.

My sophomore year was rough: I was struggling with my business classes, it was my first time in a classroom post-COVID, and once again I felt completely and utterly lost. At the end of my sophomore year—you guessed it—I changed my major yet again to advertising and public relations. I told myself that even if I didn't like this new major, this was the last time I could change it if I wanted to graduate from my undergrad in 4 years.

Needless to say, it was the best decision I have ever made. I went from dreading classes every day to not wanting to leave them. I went from having fear of missing out because I didn't have the friends to get invited places to not having enough time to make plans with all of my friends. I went from feeling like I would never find a career I liked to now go to conferences surrounding my passion and love for advertising and public relations. My first two years of school were already challenging enough with moving away from home for the first time, living alone, and experiencing the all-isolating COVID-19 pandemic. I didn't need any other factors making my life harder.

I already struggled with making friends during those first two years. There were no options to get involved due to the pandemic. High school Maddie was freaking out. What was all my hard work and involvement in high school for if I couldn't show that in college?

When I changed to advertising and public relations I decided to make up for lost time and throw myself into any clubs possible. This is where I found Grand Valley State University's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (GVPRSSA) and Grand Valley's student-run communications firm, GrandPR. Soon after my first year, I found myself wanting to get even more involved so I ran for GVPRSSA President after only being a general member for a year and I won.

As I am writing this I have only around one month until I am done with college, which is the wildest sentence I have ever written. All I have ever known is being a student. Although it is very bittersweet to graduate college and leave all of my experiences behind, I know that the advertising and public relations community will never leave me. I will always have a group of people and the community I belong to. I am forever grateful for changing my major and pushing myself to be involved. Without Grand Valley's advertising and public relations program, I would truly not be the person I am today.