Returning volunteer, Meg Jocson Ong discusses her journey on choosing her degree.
Before choosing my A-levels back in 2014, my careers counsellor tasked our year group to think of where we want to be after college and after university. More specifically, what degree we wanted to take in order to take us to our dream career. Easier said than done, it was a little hard for me to pick a degree I wanted to commit to for the next 3 to 4 years of my academic life.
I’m not going to lie; I had a very hard time picking a degree. I kept changing my mind and came across many degrees I wanted to take. To be exact, I was torn over 5 fields: Mathematics, Music, International Hotel Management, Economics, and Primary Education. None of which was the final degree I ended up with: Communication and Media Studies.
Why did I choose Communication and Media Studies? I still ask myself that question every time I’m in a rough spot or when I find something difficult in my course. I always come back to the same answer – and that’s versatility and universal applicability.
Due to my indecisiveness back in 2014, I ended up picking a degree that can relate to almost all the fields I was choosing from. Doing Communications and Media Studies allows me to learn how to interact with those around me in an effective manner. Making use of the different platforms that I, and the majority of the population, are exposed to (such as social media, printed media and digital media) is something that can be applied to a range of professions I could possibly take on in the future. Whether that’s in the office, at a hotel, or in the classroom if ever I end up deciding to take a teacher’s certification.
Being able to apply what I’ve learned in the lecture hall and apply it to real life situations is something I enjoy about my degree and is aided with the wide range of optional modules we are given such as Criminology, Politics, and Sociology.
At the end of the day, I believe that it’s all about transferrable skills and how I can apply what I’ve learned in the lecture room to my everyday life – whether that’s at a workplace or in general. Taking up Communication and Media Studies gave me a new perspective on my surroundings and, to an extent, life.
I am not usually so sentimental about things like this, but when you have a realisation you can become passionate, and it was only recently that I’ve had that eye-opening realisation and growing passion for my degree.
Featured image by Omeiza Haruna
