EM Narrative

A love letter to UGA’s Emerging Media Program

December 2021: One semester left of undergrad

It felt like everyone around me was securing their next steps while I was barely sure of who I was. I made the financially-conscious choice of majoring in the super specific Communications degree and while I had plenty of experience in graphic design from 3 or so internships, I didn’t feel like I knew everything there was to know.

I started looking into grad programs everywhere (like everywhere everywhere) and couldn’t find anything that sounded as good as Emerging Media so I applied (and it was my only application — would not recommend).

May 2022: Under to Grad Whiplash

Starting classes two days after turning the tassels was HARD. I had little motivation but was thrown into the rigorous amount of reading that online courses required. The online facet allowed me to take another internship over the summer to gain experience, but I also felt stretched thin as I would often take my thirty-minute lunches to take team meetings. It was a grind, but it was really rewarding (this’ll be a common theme).

August 2022: Co(dependent)hort

Walking into my first class with Leah, it felt right. I was able to put faces to names that I had seen all summer long and finally meet my group mates in person. As the semester was laid out for us, it felt like it was about to be grueling, but I felt like I had a group of shared experiences around me, ready to laugh and cry and complain alongside me (and I was right).

As for classes, I had surprised myself over the summer with picking up (minimal) coding, and this semester I had to implement it further. While I spent many a long night awake on 4 lattes with the rest of Technically Speaking, getting projects done felt very satisfying and impressive to myself.

October 2022: Let’s Talk Capstone

My team struggled for a while deciding on what to do for our big project. Once we got going, though, it fell into place. We took what we learned in previous EM classes and packaged it into short-form content for social media viewers looking for small-business answers, calling it Technically Speaking. The journey of video research, scripting, creation, and hosting on a mobile-friendly website had its challenges, but ultimately it made us better equipped as teammates and instructors on the topics we were teaching.

March 2023: Winding Down

Nothing really compared to the whirlwind of last semester, but this semester had its own challenges. Being in classes centered around preparing me for the real world put things into perspective that I really was headed out of this grad program.

Our Capstone Project was a well-oiled machine by this point and I felt like I had it all together — which almost made things worse. If there was nothing left for me to figure out, that means it was almost the end, right?

May 2023: Sad

I will be honest: it’s the morning of Emerge as I’m writing this. I think I do an OK job at having a poker face in class but I put off writing the end of this article for so long because I thought if I did then the end wouldn’t come.

I have a lot to be thankful for. EM taught me that I can handle topics and challenges that I would normally count myself out on. Now I feel cool (really cool) showing interns how to use the Google Inspector tool to find what font a client is using on their website or showing my dad (a too-proud GT alum) an app I coded myself.

I am going to miss the opportunities for growth, the puns, and the laughter — but I hope to take all of that with me into the next chapter.

Love you EM,

Julia

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