Reflective Essay

Initial Reflective Essay

When I first thought of what I wanted to do with my life after college, the first thing I thought of was helping people. The next step in deciding what I wanted to do with my life was to exam how I could accomplish this goal. I started pondering and I was thinking about how much I love to take care of my body. Health care and personal hygiene has always been an important factor in my life. So I decided to major in Health Science. With this major, I will be able to further my education in ways to be healthy and possibly learn how to help others. I decided that being a health physician or nutritionist was something that I was really interested in. This is where communication studies came in. I figured that if I minor in communication studies, I could improve my oral and written communication to better help in my future of nutrition.

Communication studies was a good pick for me because, although there is always room for improvement, I can still garnish some more knowledge and information to better improve my oral skills. My personality will really fit into the communication department. I have been told about how fun the communication department can be, and how outgoing people are in the department. I initially liked this a lot because I am very outgoing myself and love to talk to people. I feel that I can be able to exhibit concise messages to people, clearly and efficiently.

Communication is defined in the book as "a systematic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meaning." (Wood, p.9). The definition can be broken down into four separate parts and they are as follows: process, systematic, symbols, and meaning. Process means that communication is ongoing and always in motion. Systematic focuses on how communication involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another. Symbols are described as abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other things. The key note on symbols is that they do not only include all language, but also include an important aspect of communication which is non-verbal. The fourth and final focus is meaning and is considered the heart of communication. The great thing about meaning is that we create it. With such a broad definition, it is easy to see how communication can directly relate to professional opportunities and have a huge impact on that area of your life.

Communication is essential in certain fields where talking and listening are central. I noticed that the book said that many attorneys, counselors, business people, and teachers have majored or minored, which is what I am doing, in communication before moving on to specified fields of study. I found this to be very interesting. I feel that the counseling job is most comparable to what I want to do, and I feel that this degree will definitely help me in that area of profession. It is very important that people understand that success in most professions is directly correlated to having top-notch communication skills.

I decided to take communications 101 and found out real quick that there was a lot more to speech communications than I had realized. I learned many things in my first class and I am excited to take some more classes in this department. I feel that taking interviewing through the communication department is one class that can really help me in my future career, as I will most likely be interviewing for jobs and also interviewing other people and asking them questions about their health, so as I can help them further and make them a better person, inevitably making their life a better place to live.

Not only did I realize that there were many courses in communications that could help me, after my first class, and glancing through the book, I realized that there was so much about communication that I had no idea was even there. There are many aspects of communication like interpersonal, intrapersonal, argument and debate, persuasion, and multicultural that could really help you in all aspects of life. It is amazing how many different areas of study that the communication department can cover, and I am excited to choose four different classes that will help me in my future.

I feel that taking persuasion will help me in my future career. One reason is because I should have to persuade people to listen to me whenever I give advice and learning the different aspects of persuasion and what is right and wrong will definitely help me benefit me in the long run. Another class that I feel I could really benefit my career is multicultural communication. California stands as one of the most diverse states in the country. For this reason, I feel learning more about how to communicate to different