Once upon a time in a far away country, called the kingdom of Denmark, an ordinary child was born. Or maybe it was a less ordinary child. She grew up telling stories about dragons, witches and far away countries and everyone thought she had a wonderful imagination and a gift for storytelling. The little girl got older and desided she wanted to be a journalist. When she finished High School she took journalistic courses and applied to journalist school. But wasn't accepted. It broke the girl's heart. Instead she was accepted to University to study media science, which she had applied to half hearted as her second choice. How would she be able to tell her stories then?
She started her studies with the intensions of leaving within a year to apply to journalist school again. Journalism would let her tell stories! But as time passed, the girl experienced anomalies. She found answers in media science. She started asking questions more profound than ever before. When it became time to apply to journalist school, she realised that a paradigm shift had occured in her life. She no longer wanted to be a journalist. She wanted to be a academic.
The years went by, and the girl loved her studies. But she was troubled by the fact that she was no longer able to tell stories. Her studies took up all her time and there was no change of her combining her studies with her storytelling. In academia you have to stick to facts and prove your points. You cannot make up things! Eventually the girl forgot her stories. She became nothing than an academic scholar.
When the time came to apply to her masters degree the girl was frustrated. She didn't know what to do with her knowledge. Did it have a purpose in the world? She wanted to experience the world. She wanted to experience stories. She travelled for a while. She worked in television journalism. She worked in radio. She worked in PR. And she had odd jobs where she met interesting people. She found that her knowledge was very much usefull in the real world. Her frustrations disappeared. Gradually her stories came back. It dawned on her, that she could study and tell stories at the same time if she got better at prioritising her time.
She started grad. school with the knowledge that she was neither an academic scholar nor a writer - she was both. As long as she believed in it, she could do what ever she wanted, and go where ever she wanted - maybe even the USA one day? and the girl lived happily ever after (or at least I hope she will!).
The End :-)
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2 comments:
Thanks for your story, Christina. Sounds like you're happy right where you are!
Take care
Leda
I don't know how to post a comment without replying to another one...sorry. Here's my story though
I would say that my journey to communication started with my mom. As a little kid she was always telling me that I shouldn't let people tell me I couldn't do things because I was female. Fueled and informed by this, I would get in arguments with my grandmother (who lives in Hadley) about gender issues starting from about the age of 6. I remember watching family feud with her and a question on the show was "name things that men do better than women." She started listing things: "well, they're stronger, they know more about cars, they can fix things around the house..." I got angry and came up with counter arguments for everything she said. Ultimately she decided that women had better handwriting (I still show her my chicken scratch to this day).
Anyway, my interest in gender issues never really went away. Though I hate the term, people called me a "tomboy" growing up. I was interested in sports and had little interest in shopping (which is still true). When I started my college career, I played for the university soccer team, which I considered my major until midway through my sophomore year. When it came time that I had to pick an actual major, a friend of mine (Rosie) on the soccer team told me that communication was a cool major, so I went with that. Quite amazingly, I think, Rosie is also getting her PhD in communication at the University of Utah.
After I started taking classes in communication I really felt at home. It was reassuring for me to hear people apply technical terminology to the gender issues that bothered me. So, in short, I would say that it was something about the world that my mom pointed out to me from an early age that led me toward an interest in communication.
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