Things End, But Lessons Last Forever
In just six weeks, my perspectives have changed; my horizons have broadened.
March 20 was one of the hardest days of my 20 years of living.
I had to move all my things out of my second home and say goodbye to the place I spend most of my time — the place where I make most of my memories.
Only two miles after leaving Lehigh University, I received an email from Lehigh University Study Abroad. The email began, “I am writing to update you on the status of summer programming. As you know, the university has been closely monitoring the global outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. In response, Lehigh is now cancelling all international summer programs through July 31.”
These sentences put me into hysterics. My only opportunity to travel the world just got shut down. Bye Prague. Bye Paris. Bye Europe.
Being an accounting major with the goal of obtaining 150 credits in four years rather than five, my search began for summer classes. I frantically searched through Lehigh’s course catalog to find classes that I would be able to enjoy.
I came across Communications 197 Mobile and Social Media Storytelling.
The thought of being able to take class on my phone lifted my spirits. I immediately signed up.
This course challenged me. It made me turn on my creative gears rather than think with my typical business mindset.
Writing has never been one of my strong points. But after completing this course, it is something that I am more comfortable with.
As the weeks progressed, the lessons started to build upon themselves. For example, in Week 1, I learned the building blocks of writing a good story. I paired the photography skills I learned in Weeks 2 and 3 to the lessons on video and social optimization to create a social video assignment by Week 4.
I love the connection between each lesson, because to me, that’s extremely important for maintaining engagement in a course. What I liked most about the course was that I learned the importance of branding yourself on social media platforms to tell the story you want your audience to hear.
My favorite lesson was optimization. Optimizing is something that I have never thought of doing while posting, and now it has become a part of my posting regimen.
I have learned the power of storytelling, how to expand and leverage my network, sell ideas to a specific audience and optimize for the best delivery over different platforms.
Social media storytelling will be different for everyone. As for me, storytelling is the combination of words, still photographs, video clips and audio linked together to present information that tells my story and conveys my voice.
I look forward to using the knowledge gained from my professor, Matt Veto, and carrying it into my future.
I am thankful to have enrolled in such an enjoyable class. It’s a course I will never forget.
