How I Found PR

“Philosophy, nope”

“Pre-vet, no.”

“Psychology, nah.”

“Professional tax minor...please no.”

I painstakingly scrolled, quite literally, through every degree offered at my college, Central

Washington University (CWU) on a Winter afternoon of my sophomore year.

“Public relations,” what’s that?”

It sounded so professional. I instantly imagined myself dressed in smart clothing and standing in a large conference room with floor-to-ceiling, spotless glass windows for walls.

Maybe this detailed (if not idealistic) visualization of professional future me came from watching too many episodes of shows like “Suits,” but it still sent me into a research binge on public relations (PR).

I found out that PR was a profession that had many characteristics I wanted in a career: opportunities for writing, highly communicative, and something I could do in multiple industries. It was perfect!

That was the day I picked my major.

This major would force me to leave my warm and cozy comfort zone, but help me along in my journey to becoming a motivated, educated and professional individual. Today, I am a senior at CWU wrapping up my last two quarters of my bachelor’s degree and although, of course, this comes with fears, I'm incredibly excited to begin my career.

My latest passion has been learning how to become a social media pro.

Running social media is kind of like a puzzle- some posts don’t get any interaction from followers and some get a ton! It’s my job to put the puzzle together and find out what content is the most effective in accomplishing the goal I’m given.

Personally, I’ve never had a passion for using social media as a platform to exhibit my own private life. For a long time, I thought maybe this meant I just didn’t like social media. But that’s not the case.

Social media is actually an amazing tool for businesses and organizations alike. It can be a platform for dialog with customers, a source for how to improve an organization and so many other productive functions.

Although there are so many important aspects to being a well-rounded PR professional, I’m enjoying learning more about social media and how to implement it in my future career.

I’m just glad that on that day of my sophomore year I didn’t say to myself “public relations? Don’t know what that is. Next…”