adminThroughout this semester, while taking my Careers in Writing course, I feel I was able to grow as a professional and gain many valuable skill that will help me throughout my career journey. One area where my growth was really prominent was in my ability to adapt to change and to new experiences. Throughout this semester, one of our main projects was to build an online portfolio. Being visually impaired, this was a bit challenging due to the fact that e not only had to create written content but visual content as well. This became a learning curve for me, understand what visual aspects keep people engaged and how images, colors, and other visual mediums combined with written content work together to create an interesting piece for the reader. Building this portfolio also helped to challenge and expand my abilities as a writer. Before taking this class, I mostly wrote fiction. I wasn’t comfortable writing things such as articles and blog posts. Creating content in this course took me out of my comfort zone and showed me that I don’t have to restrict myself to one genre of writing. This has also allowed me to explore new career options as well.. One of my main goals is to become an editor of fiction books, but now I am open to other ideas such as writing for magazines and blogs, nonfiction editing, and many others.
The most valuable things that I will take away from this course are the skills that I have gained. One of these is communication, both written and verbal. One of the projects we worked on for our portfolio was an informational interview. This process consisted of finding a person with a specific career se were interested in, requesting an interview, and then conducting an interview with that person. Communication was something I really struggled with. I never knew what to sat and how to say it. Conducting this informational interview project helped me become more comfortable communicating with others. My written communication skills also improved. I learned how to write for an audience an not just for myself. This also helped with my confidence as well. I’ve never been very confident sharing my writing with others. One of our tasks this semester was to submit a piece to a publication. I submitted a short story I wrote last semester called The Charm of Imagination. Once I submitted it, I realized it wasn’t so hard after all and that I actually like sharing my work with others and receiving feedback.
As mentioned above adaptability came in handy this semester. While working on my website, I found that everything wasn’t accessibl. I had to find other ways to do things. Although it took more time and was often challenging, I feel it helped me learn to innovate and be creative rather than give up when I am unable to do something.
Overall, I have learned a lot and have grown a lot in the class and I am grateful for all of the skills and abilities I’ve be taught. I am also grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way. Even though it was challenging at times, the experience was worth it.
