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Professional Writing Allowed Me to Find Myself

I'm studying professional writing, but it's not what I plan to do in my future. Sure, I love writing as much as the next English major, but I don't intend to use my brief infatuation with technical writing as a career. I didn't even know that professional writing was an option for a major. Prior to attending Purdue, my dream was to study journalism. I wanted to be a journalist and both write my opinion as well as give current events. Purdue does not have a degree in journalism, so I opted for communication.

When I began at Purdue in 2017, all I knew was that (according to my high school teachers) I had a talent for writing. I liked writing, and I hated all other subjects. After a semester of communication, I decided that wasn't the route I wanted to take. My classes bored me to no end, and my significant other at the time thought I ought to switch majors to something I felt more confident about. I spent hours researching different majors that I could switch to, and I even CODOed into user experience design before immediately changing my mind and deciding on professional writing. After all, I had only chosen to CODO because of my significant other's background in technology. Little did I know that our relationship would end after 2.5 years in a broken engagement, so thankfully I chose to study something I liked instead!

I loved my professional writing classes and felt like it was a good, comfortable, safe career path while I was in my too comfortable, too safe relationship. I was on a path that everybody else had wanted to see me on, but I was not on one that I wanted to be on. Sure, I loved the classes, but I dreaded every moment when someone would ask me what my plans were after graduation. I had no idea. I didn't want to attend law school, I didn't want to become an author, and I no longer wanted to go into journalism. I had changed so much but didn't even know what my options were after graduation.

In December of 2019, I spent a full day touring a large local science-based company and asking questions about how my degree in professional writing would enable me to fit in with such a company. I had taken 2 technical writing classes and decided that that was the route I wanted to explore in professional writing. I knew exactly how writing would match with a scientific field. The employees I spoke with provided adequate answers to all of my questions, but I somehow didn't feel like that was the path I wanted to take once I graduated. I even went to lunch with one of the higher-ups in the company after my day spent immersed, and I somehow knew I would find something else to do with my life.

Fast forward to present day, and I am in the (very long) process of applying to law schools. I know, I know, I did the very thing I said I didn't want to do. But I've changed since then. I've changed since the start of the pandemic. I ended my engagement after finally getting fed up, and I started doing things for myself. I started making decisions to benefit myself instead of planning my life around another person. I took the LSAT early this fall, and I've narrowed down the schools I want to apply to. I'm not saying by any means that my degree in professional writing is useless. I'm not saying that technical writing is too science-y. They just aren't for me. A career in copy editing is rare, and it's even rarer to make a career out of being an author. I love editing more than writing personally, but I feel like that's not a sustainable job for me.

Being a lawyer means that I will be able to use the skills I learned about writing and researching through my degree in order to write briefs and memos. And I will be writing on a subject that interests me significantly more than data visualizations or podcasting. Professional writing has been a stepping stone in my life. It is the path I needed to be on in order to realize what direction I needed to go in. I finally feel as if I'm living my life for me. And never again will I tailor my career goals to fit a man's standards.

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