University of Tampa Reflection

If I could talk to my senior in high school past self, that version would not believe all that has happened to get me where I am today. From the timeline of my college experience to my career goals and the Coronavirus pandemic, everything would have seemed as if it were from a movie. To start at the beginning of where my trajectory took a turn, I originally applied to the University of Tampa as biology major. I had plans of attending medical school as I spent most of my life thinking that I would become a doctor. Besides the big reason of wanting to help people for a living, I grew up watching Grey’s Anatomy. I watched the episodes repeatedly and was amazed by the strength of the television franchise. Naturally, I thought that if I became a doctor, the show might still be on air, and I could be someone that the writer’s turn to for medical jargon. As the time grew closer for me to graduate high school, I had a lot of time to think critically about what I enjoyed. I concluded that instead of attending medical school to do my dream job, I could make a path for myself to work in television without all the additional years of school. This may have seemed like the clear-cut answer to most people, but I had no clue how I could break into the entertainment field and just magically work with celebrities. I grew up fascinated by all things pop culture and the movie theatre was my safe space, so once I decided to change my major, I had to believe in my passions and begin figuring the hard part out.

When I started my freshman year, I learned a couple of weeks in that I would be graduating a semester early due to my AP credits. This fact gave me a new outlook on college from the beginning as I knew life was going to be sped up. I worked hard in my classes and was always excited to learn, mostly because I fell in love with the Communication department from the very first day. Finally, I was learning about things that came more naturally to me and I was not dreading doing homework or going to class. What excited me the most is that the leap I took paid off and the idea of working in entertainment did not feel as mysterious anymore. However, right as things were going well for me academically, the pandemic hit. I went home for spring break and was unable to come back to school afterwards. It didn’t hit me how difficult things were going to be, but as my classes were moved online, I was having trouble being engaged with my work as I was in school. This was particularly disappointing to me because I loved my classes, and I was getting a version of them that was different from what was intended. At the end of my second semester, I was unaware how far the pandemic was from over, but I did see a light at the end of the tunnel. I got a remote marketing internship at the Pittsburgh Film Office, and I felt so accomplished for moving one step closer towards the future I’ve dreamed of. Although this internship was more marketing based, it was a great experience for me to be involved with one aspect of the film industry. Additionally, I learned more about how I operate outside of the classroom. Because my experience was so positive, I decided to extend the internship into my sophomore year. This is something I would not have been able to do without the remote world, and I was excited to have the opportunity on my resume.

During this fall semester, I came to realize that if I took a couple of additional credits here and there, I would be able to graduate an entire year early. On paper this idea seemed crazy to me, because I grew up thinking that I should be in college for four years, but my internship made me excited for this. I learned how much I enjoyed working on projects for the real world and knew that if I graduated early, I would have a jump start on this. This realization then prompted me to take an even deeper dive into my internship search for the following semester. I applied to a dozen internships and ended up landing one based out of Los Angeles at Studio71 as a Podcast Talent Relations intern. This was another instance in which I was weirdly grateful that I was in college during the pandemic. Remote internships were limited before, but during this time I was able to get two internships and make connections with people who lived thousands of miles away. Looking back at my college experience, my time at Studio71 was the best thing that could have happened to me. I spent 16 hours each week working with a department of truly interesting people and the work I was doing felt fun. I was on calls with influencers and got to listen to podcasts constantly, something that I was already doing in my daily life. I met tons of college students who were interested in the taking the same path as me and was able to learn from them as well. Similarly to the film office, after my internship was over in the spring, I decided to extend the program and stayed through the summer. Although it remained remote, I drove across the country to Los Angeles for the summer and did my internship on the same time zone. Working and living in this new city was scary, but I was surrounded by so many driven people, and I loved every day there. This summer before my senior year gave me all the extra motivation that I needed to decide that I would move there after graduation. From casually driving by movie studios to seeing celebrities, I knew that I absolutely made the correct choice to follow my passion for a career, not an idea of what I thought life should be.

Now that I am close to completing my senior year, my third year in college, I am extremely hopeful for my future. I still do not know exactly what I want to do, but from doing my two six-month long internships and taking classes in which I’ve learned about film, media and much more, I know that it is okay to not know. I have my sights set on certain entry level positions in entertainment and keep in touch with people who have been in my shoes before. One of the greatest things I learned from coworkers as well is that I will probably change jobs every couple of years in Los Angeles and that there is a lot of flexibility. Overall, I know that I had a college experience that not many people can say they had too. The remote opportunities that the pandemic brought my way were crucial to getting me to where I am today, and I know I will be leaving college as both a wiser and more passionate version of myself that high school me would have been ecstatic to meet.