It finally came, the day I've been working towards and knew was coming but the reality of it hadn't quite hit me until now - I graduated university with my Bachelor of Mass Communication!
Now, technically I finished my degree back in December of last year, however with Covid restrictions and South-East Queensland going in and out of lockdown, our graduation ceremony was postponed, and let's be honest, the ceremony is the thing that makes everything feel 'official'.
Getting a degree is a big accomplishment that takes years of hard work, study and dedication. Honestly, in my mind I'd kind of downplayed it. For a while there, I wasn't even sure if I was going to finish it. I'd previously left two seperate uni's, and decided to give uni a final go after doing a diploma in Public Relations that piqued my interest in studying communications. I had a lot of personal stuff going on, along with having been out of practice with 'studying' so going back to uni was quite daunting. I was always stressing about deadlines, academic research and referencing (I always did great on my journalism and writing assignments but struggled with business), making sure I had enough time put aside for study while also working, looking after my physical and mental health, and making times for socialising and relaxing - it was a lot. But in the end, all of that stress, the all-nighters, the struggle - it resulted in a degree, which is something that didn't really sink in for me until the actual ceremony, where I was like - 'Oh my God, this is real, like, I actually did this, I got a degree!?!'
While I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do from here or if this is the long-term path for me, it's definitely opened doors for me and the ceremony really reminded me why I went back to uni to study communication - my love of writing, reading, news, social media, blogging, etc - and inspired me to make the time to not only actively get back into these interests (step 1: starting blogging again!), but to seek out future opportunities in these areas!
xx Chontelle
