What I Really Learned While In College

Today is my lucky day, my special day, a day I will forever remember! Today is my graduation day! I, Taylor Walker A.K.A. Doc, is officially an alumna of University of Baltimore. Not, UMBC! I’m a graduate of UB. I am leaving this school with a Bachelors of Science in Corporate Communications. Man, am I proud of myself.

I don’t think many people understand how hard it was to get through college. It was not easy, especially when majority of the lessons that are learned and will stick with you throughout your entire life, aren’t even school related. These are lessons to help you grow into a brighter and much smarter adult. What I’m saying is that I’ve learned how to become an adult more than learning how to actually market an idea or commnicated for the media, which was what I came to school for in the first place. Attending college was nothing like I expected.

I wanted to highlight four of the most important lessons I’ve learned while attending University of Baltimore. Here are my favorite:

Lesson One: It’s better to ignore negative people than to continue to prove that you’re correct when in a dispute about something very useless in arguing about.

I cannot stress this statement enough! During my freshman and sophomore year of attending UB, I had to learn the hard way. Two instances taught me this lesson but I’ll speak about one. I hung out with a group of friends. We had disputes quite a bit. A lot of those disagreements could have been rumors. I don’t understand why I felt the need to explain or defend myself when dealing with issues in that group. But I know that every time I chose to argue with whoever I was disagreeing with (and I disagreed with everyone in the entire group at least once), it never came out in my favor. Like I was the predestined enemy, I would never win. It actually got to the point where the entire group turned against me. I wasn’t anyone’s friend by the time I started my junior year. By going through my trials with them, I learned friendship offers compromise. No matter how much I reached out to someone to mend, compromise was never accomplished. I was fine with it, too. I don’t have to be anyone’s friend if they don’t want to accept apologies or seek to move pass useless grudges. 

We would argue over childish things. It wasn’t until I realized that my word didn’t matter, whether we were cool or not. I decided to move on from that group of friends and the childish things we were arguing about. Afterwards, I made a promise to myself that I’d never be in a situation like that again. I wanted be positive so I made the choice to put all that energy into starting Doc’s Castle Media. I’m really glad that I went through all those problems with those “friends” because all that stress made me turn my anger into something worth my wild. Now I can say to any of those “friends”  if they’re reading, thank you for helping me become better than what I use to be.

Lesson Two: School only teaches you the formula for how to do something. It doesn’t mean you know how to do it.

Like for real, this is a very important one. Majority of the academic lessons I supposedly should’ve learned in my major classes, I already knew from being prepared by a team of awesome teachers at Milford Mill Academy. Seriously, I literally question the purpose of taking up corporate communications as a major sometimes. I don’t want to take all the credit away from UB but the only stuff I can recall learning are from my general education classes because those classes taught me something I was far from interested in studying. Like in my African History class, I learned a lot about different African cultures that most Americans don’t take the time to learn about because of excessive exposure to stereotypes. I’m very appreciative for taking that class. But that wasn’t my plan. It was thrown on my schedule. Another class I could give credit to is my graphic design class. I knew nothing of it. So it was worth taking.

I learned more from my internships and volunteering for small businesses around Baltimore City than sitting in class. Working for multiple companies taught me the life of a professional corporate employee. I was taught through experience how to navigate the business world. I took it upon myself to value what I could be taught through first person encounters. I’ve gained so much wisdom and I loved every second of each opportunity that was given to me. I can’t wait to apply my new skills to whatever job that hires me!

Lesson Three: In many cases it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. But what you know definitely gives a little push.

While working at all of those internships and volunteer opportunities, I met some very important people who led me to more important people. Their recommendation pushed me further along with my dedication and hard work. I guess, because I worked so well with them, they wanted to see me do better. I was never lazy when it came to learning from my opportunities so I know my dedication gave me that extra push. My drive meant something to those people I’ve worked for in order for them to recommend me to others. I would never say it was solely their word that opened doors for me. But when it comes to applying to jobs, I find myself seeking to build relationships and not only submitting an application. I do this while continuing to show how dedicated and hard worker I am. Relationships are very important. But that extra push shows credibility.

Lesson Four: Love can wait.

This is a more recent lesson I’ve learned that I feel may have to be a separate blog for me to expand more on. Love is too complicated sometimes at such an early point in anyone’s life. It’s definitely something a person shouldn’t draw a conclusion on if they’re uncertain of the love for their self. I’ve spent so much time with my attention on so many guys that I thought they loved me when I should have spent that time loving myself. Instead of seeking satisfaction from them, I could have read an entertaining book. A lot of those emotional roller coasters I put myself through could have been avoided. Trial and error taught me it wasn’t worth it in the end. I don’t have to add their sadness and unwillingness to be happy into my life to ultimately bring me down with them. Gah!

I’m way ahead of a lot of people who I tried to drag along with me. I can’t bring people with me who don’t want to willingly come, or I can’t want better for someone who doesn’t want to improve on their own. I learned to let things go. You can’t force anything! What’s meant to be, will happen so I’m free, I guess. I’m single and not ready to mingle at all. I talk to no one and I’m not lonely. I’m really happy. If a guy wants to join in with my happiness, he’ll have to prove that he’s not trying to force love for himself either. If he is, I’ll see straight pass his phoniness and push him away to keep myself content. I’m over being pushy LOL.

Mmm, check out my graduation cake in honor of Doc’s Castle Media!

With all these lessons, I’ve become humble and grateful for making mistakes. I’m not afraid of what’s next. But I do wonder why college molded me into this more than taught me marketing or communication. Oh well, it’s over! Amen to that!