The Importance of Self-Reflection

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? Second-grade Grace wanted to be a baker. I pictured myself wearing a cool apron and a chef’s hat and making dozens of cookies for customers. I even wanted to own my own shop!

My oh my, how the times have changed. Now as a graduate student, I am looking to work in social media and marketing. And honestly, I don’t even bake that often.

My journey throughout elementary school, middle school, high school, and undergraduate has given me the opportunity to grow and reflect on my future aspirations. I could have never even imagined that I would end up in graduate school, but here I am studying Strategic Communications and loving it!

I want to dive deeper into the topic of self-reflection as it was a major part of my undergraduate experience. At first, I thought I was going to work in museums. I even had two internships. One was in archives and one was in public programming. I loved the subject of history, but after spending nearly half a year in museums, I could not see myself working there long-term. Even though it was fun, I was soon able to see that my interests were in communications. I could see how the Lord was calling me into this field.

The transition of focus from one subject to another was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I still worked very hard in both of my majors (History and Communication Studies), but I was glad to be able to start creating content and establishing my own brand. Even though I did not realize it at the time, the photos I was taking and the poems I was writing would become so important to me later down the line.

I even went into my freshman year of college with little to no perception of what I wanted to do. I was certain I wanted to be a History major but added Communications as a safety net. It seemed like a good field to be involved in, so I thought it could be useful at some point.

It certainly was, as it got me to where I am today. The process of my self-reflection involved a lot of praying, pondering, and journaling. If you feel like you are stuck, I encourage you to sit with the Lord. Pray to Him. Talk to Him. He cares about you so much. Like my story, He is writing yours too. In time, you will end up right where you need to be.