Four-faced

This semester has gotten off to an interesting start, one reason being it is not my most intellectually rigorous semester. Two of my classes are assistantships, one is a staff journalism class, one is a thesis seminar and the last is a lecture with a group project. I continued to question why I am so stressed without the essays, readings and note-taking I have done in the past, and figured out why. I’m currently living the lives of four people. And it’s the most difficult thing I have done in college.

As you proceed through college, you have the opportunity to take on more and more roles. And if there’s anything I’m learning this semester, it’s important to limit those roles so you can focus on yourself, your academics and not only all the faces you play.

It's hard to develop your personal brand when you're constantly being defined by your organizations. This is my personal Twitter profile from the other day. 

Switching gears is not easy. Keeping track of things is not easy. It’s embarrassing to forget about a reading or busy-work assignment because of meetings and commitments for another obligation. 

In my first life, I continue to work with Mojo as the Career Fair & PR Manager. This job has grown to 25 hours a week and leveled off with the Career Fair on Feb. 14, where I’m happy to announce that 300+ students and 42 companies attended. It was the life of logistics—printing things, running five workshops & hosting receptions before the Career Fair itself. And as much as I am an event planner for my social ongoings, running a production like this was definitely a challenge since you can’t please everyone. Now that it was successful, it's time to write feedback for next year's team. It never ends! 

In my second life, I’m the teaching assistant for a class I took junior year—Management of Strategic Communication. This course is academically rigorous for the students, and a testament to how they research and work on a team.  Like I mentioned in my post about being a TA, these students don’t know what else I have going on, nor should they care. But from my standpoint, it requires full attention to their needs and prioritizing them between other jobs. I am coaching two of the teams so they complete the best brand project they have, and I’m learning to be a “coach” without being an instructor, giving away the direction they need to go. Rather, I’m emphasizing education and trying my best to teach them through this process and not just continually make corrections for them. A lot easier said than done, I have to coach myself through being their coach. Would my TA have given me this feedback? Are you giving them the answers? What can they figure out without you if you nudge them in the right direction?  

In my next life, I’m on the community outreach team at the Columbia Missourian. The outreach team works to serve the city of Columbia with community journalism, constantly asking how we can engage our audience and cater to their needs. Because of my interest in the branding of journalism, I registered for this class to see how journalists and publications view audience development, social media tactics, community events and branding themselves. I work 6 to 8 hours of shifts a week at the Missourian and am completing a long-term research project for the publication over the semester. 

In my last life, I’m a graduate student writing my thesis proposal. And I am absolutely petrified. I'm just getting started, but it's hard to focus on something when homework from two other classes is there to distract. 

What's the point here? Amongst all of your commitments and double-lives, don't forget who YOU are. Making time to hang out with my friends and roommates, go to church and get out has saved my semester. Don't let the worst of things get you!