Personal Narrative

When I first walked into Room 14, I had no idea how much it would mean to me. At that moment, I only knew it as a classroom where I had to take half a tech credit that was required to graduate in 4 years. It only took a matter of weeks for me to learn that it’s not only the home of all things media, communication, journalism, and sarcasm but also my home. Over the next 4 years, I would spend roughly 2 hours every day in Room 14. Surprisingly, that astounding total wasn’t just due to the fact that I took almost every media class offered, I spent all my free time there as well. It’s a room of creativity, higher thinking, and legacy. I am a part of this legacy and it is a part of me.

My involvement in journalism truly began when I took my first communications class freshman year. My original intention for taking Convergence Media was to fulfill my tech credit requirements. To be clear, it did not count as a tech credit, it’s actually an art credit. But looking back, that mistake was just a happy accident because it started the avalanche of media classes I’d take during my time at Padua.

After taking a convergence media class and learning the basics of video composition and editing, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and join the Television and Production class. As one of the youngest staff members, I was intimidated by the upperclassmen around me. I had a sense of imposter syndrome. I didn’t think I belonged there with all these outgoing confident people. I was so shy that a former friend told me “conversations end as soon as you join them”.

Those words motivated me. It made me want to prove them wrong. I constantly challenged myself to go out of my comfort zone. I signed up to anchor the sports segment of the show for a month without any prior knowledge of sports. I set a goal to talk to someone new each day asking about the definitions of sports terms, how to pronounce an athlete's name, or for feedback on my “scoop on sports”. By the end of the year, I was not only a more confident anchor but a more confident person.

In fact, I was so confident that I applied to be a leader for the class my junior year. But my advisor thought I wasn’t ready. I knew it was true in the back of my mind and yet I was still disappointed to hear it. However, there was a new position that my advisor wanted me to fill; social media manager. I was ready for a new challenge, it just wasn’t the one I had intended. This job proved to be an extremely difficult one. Not only did I have shared responsibility for three school-associated accounts and had no prior experience in design or social media, but I also had to do it all during hybrid learning with only virtual interaction allowed with my fellow social media manager.

But I was determined to grow the accounts despite all the difficulties. I constantly looked for new ways to improve our content, timeliness, design, and audience engagement. I even joined a photography class to learn how to take better pictures. This job became a comfort to me. In a world of changing mask mandates and social distancing guidelines, I had this one constant in my life; the Padua Media Group account. Perhaps one of the hardest things I had to do was give up the account at the end of that year.

Although I lost the title of social media manager, I gained a new, even more, exciting title, PATV leader. As if I haven't already said the word enough, being a leader and having an entire staff relying on me was truly a challenge. There have been good days and bad days. Readjusting to a live show, a full school week, and stricter deadlines made managing the staff difficult. But part of what makes Room 14 successful is that despite these pitfalls, the staff really is a family, and just like real families, we have our ups and downs. My job is to lead us through the downtimes and celebrate the good times.

As I started to receive college acceptances, reality set in. I’m not ready to leave Room 14. I don’t want to pursue a career in psychology anymore, I want to stay in the communications world that I call home. Without my experiences in journalism, I wouldn’t be who I am today, and I wouldn’t become who I am meant to be. When I leave Room 14, I will take its energy, memories, and experience with me to accomplish a successful career in communications.