This is my first semester being a graduate student - honestly this major has nothing to do what I learned from college - I was studying media and all I did those years was staying in the local TV station and do the backstage editing.Being a journalist has alwas become my dream. Technical Communication and Information Architecture, this major has brought me lots of challenges, I think I have tried so many things that I never thought I could try, and complished so many things that I didn’t think I could have done.

This course - I took it as an elective - the primary goal was to give myself a little bit challenge, and try to figure out if I want to persue Ph.D degree - since this course COMM601 is required for Ph.D students in COM to take. I have learned not only the knowledgment part, but also the self-study part. As a graduate student, I have more flexible time to do my projects, the professors are not going to “feed” me like when I was in college - which is another challenge for me, because it is new. After this course, I think to me, it’s not how much I learned about the knowledge matters - of course I learned and it matters - but most importantly, I grew up step by step.

Had a gap year between college and graduate school makes it harder for me to get used to being a student again, I have tried my best and I’m glad that I had this chance to explore different areas and fields in academic world, and meeting nice professors and smart classmates. This is a wonderful journey to me.

I still remember at the beginning of the semester, Dr. Hemphill said, “Remember, process is the new God”. We are all going to fail a lot while we figure this out”. I failed a lot, but I finally figured this out.

I’m thankful to all the people who helped me in this class, every discussion we had were meaningful, and I’m glad I didn’t miss them.