Saturday, January 10, 2015

Skills I Use Learned in College

I was in college for seven years. It was mostly be being wishy washy what I wanted to with my life. I spent one year as music major. I quit that one because I realized that I wasn't not great at music so my only option would be to become a teacher. I knew I did not want to be a teacher.

For three years I was a computer science major. I wasn't great at that either. Computer science was a lot more math than I had anticipated. I struggled and struggled. But I did get a C in Calculus II, which was impressive to me. I don't have a good brain for numbers in advanced forms.

I finally gave up on that and switched to Broadcasting. I loved Broadcasting so much and I was pretty good at it. The writing, doing news on screen, video editing. It was a ton of fun and I wish I had realized that many years earlier.

My last start in Broadcasting and my dying mom who wanted to see me graduate meant that I had to hurry up and finish my degree. So I didn't get to explore it as fully as I would have liked and I didn't get a chance to even try for an internship.

But there are two things that I use on a regular basis that I learned in college. Kind of sad for seven years of college especially since they are kind of random.

Even though I left music as a major beyond after my first year, I stayed in the women's choir as long as my schedule would allow it. I love to sing and it was such a fun class to be able to take. One of the things I learned in there was to memorized the music as you go. We never used our music in performances so this was a must.

These days, I am a part the women's choir at church. Though because of my health issues, I'm sadly taking some time off from that. But I have noticed that as we practice, I am still in the habit of memorizing the music and the words as we go along. Kind of a funny skill to have but I still have it.

The other comes from my days as a Broadcasting major. One of the first classes I took was an intro class and one of the first things we learned was the 'broadcast voice." Even tone but pleasant but also firm and clear. This is a skill I use nearly every day at work. Keeping my voice even and pleasant is very important while dealing with hordes of unhappy customers.

I use a few other skills I'm sure but these two are the ones I use most. College was an interesting experience and I had a lot of fun. Someday maybe I'll use more the skills I gained!

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