Running head: REFLECTIVE SELF-ANALYSIS 1

Reflective Self-Analysis
Hilary McKeon
Kent State University
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For as long as I can remember Ive been an extremely hard worker. My
parents always taught me that nothing short of your best was okay. I live my life by
their advice and strive to be my best in everything I do. However, throughout middle
and high school I didnt have the correct focus for my strong drive and motivation.
Since I was big enough to run, my parents made me participate in at least one sport
every season. I was driven to excel and work as hard as I could to deliver the best
results. Before middle school I participated in softball and competitive equestrian
on a national level. In middle school I started cheerleading, playing soccer and
volleyball, and continued playing softball. My freshmen year of high school I played
volleyball and cheered football in the same season. I cheered for basketball in the
winter season and played softball in the spring. Sophomore and junior year I joined
the flag corp. and continued volleyball, basketball cheerleading, and softball. Senior
year I continued softball and cheered football, basketball, and competitively. All of
these activities were on top of the list of extra curricular activities I was involved in.
I strived to be the best possible athlete. Also, through middle and high school I
struggled with my confidence. I had some very awkward teen years, including five
years with braces. I also had three best friends move away in the same year. I
struggled to fit in and it set me back in life because I was just as motivated to fit in as
I was to excel in sports. I wish that I had the same drive and motivation for my
studies throughout those years.
Somewhere in my tween years I lost track of how important my education
was. Although I knew it was extremely important for my future, I was living in the
now. I was desperate to be a great athlete and to make people like me. I would do
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what I needed to get by in school and put all of my energy into my extra curricular
activities and making people like me. I passed all my classes and got mostly Bs, but
I couldve excelled far beyond what I achieved. After graduation, I was still more
focused on sports than my education. My strong passion for cheerleading motivated
me to learn to tumble. Tumbling gets harder to learn the older you get, so everyone
told me I wouldnt be able to learn to tumble over the summer. I had narrowed my
college choices down to two: Ohio University and Thiel College. I knew that if I got
my back handspring that I would have a good shot at making Thiels cheerleading
squad. If I didnt make the squad, then I planned to go to Ohio University. I proved
everyone wrong by getting my back handspring and making the squad. I spent my
freshmen year working hard to be one of the best on the Thiel College Spirit Squad,
but had no clear direction in my education. I knew that I wanted to one day be an
event planner, but didnt know what major to choose. Thiel is a very small college
that has few majors in comparison to the big universities in Ohio, so I majored in
business. After talking to my family and some friends I decided that I was interested
in public relations and could still go down the event planning career path with a
degree in PR. The issue was that Thiel didnt have PR and I felt that I was wasting
my time and money. I first looked into KSU when I decided to transfer. Kent stuck
out to me because it has an amazing journalism and mass communication program. I
fell in love with the campus on a transfer student orientation visit over the summer.
Thats also when I found out that cheerleading tryouts were approaching. I knew
that it would be a stretch to say that I was good enough to make a division I squad,
but I thought it was worth a try. During my year at Thiel, I worked very hard and
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vastly improved my cheerleading skills. If I worked even harder and made the team,
then I would be able to have both of my dreams come true: my event planning
career and my collegiate cheerleading career. I trained every other day until tryouts
and made the team! I couldnt wait to start the next chapter of my life at KSU.
Unfortunately, nothing works out the way you plan. Two months into the
season I injured my knee and couldnt cheer. I had to see the trainer every day at 7
a.m., and for some reason the coach believed that I was faking my injury to get out of
conditioning. Ive never been so insulted in my life. I pushed to heal my injury, but
my efforts seemed ineffective. It was also very hard for me to have a coach that had
no hope for me. I felt that my struggle with cheerleading was taking away from my
studies and decided not to return after football season.
Cheerleading wasnt my only issue my first semester at Kent. I was taking
public relations classes and didnt feel as though it was what I was looking for. One
of my friends recommended that I make an appointment with Lorrie Hopp, who
asked me what my dream was. She blew my mind when she explained applied
communication to me. Ive always been computer nerd, so visual communication
design sparked my attention immediately. I didnt want to give up PR completely, so
it was perfect that I could still take journalism and mass communication classes that
would also count towards a PR minor. Lorrie explained communication studies and I
knew it was the perfect major for me. Once I started taking classes towards my
major and minor I took just as much pride in my schoolwork as I always had with
sports. My grades improved significantly, and I made the deans list senior year. I
finally found my place in this puzzle called college.
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My classes in applied communication inspired me to take pride in my
education. My first VCD class, visual design literacy was the most fun course. I
couldnt believe that I would actually enjoy schoolwork. I began producing quality
work and spending more than the bare minimum to complete assignments. I found
myself working on assignments in my free time. Another class that inspired me was
gender and communication. The summer before I took this course, I did a summer
job at Lincoln Electric, a welding company. That summer I was discriminated
against because of my gender and age. Taking gender and communication helped
me understand the history of gender discrimination and the differences in men and
woman in regards to communication. Multimedia techniques helped me learn how
to use technology to get ahead in my career and how to market myself as a
professional. Public relations case study taught me how to work in a group for an
extended period of time and how public relations works in a professional setting.
This course caused me to reconsider my PR disinterest from my intro class. Media
writing and newswriting helped me discover that I never want to be in journalism,
but helped exceed my own expectations in my writing ability. High impact speaking
taught me how to be comfortable with myself in front of an audience and conduct
myself in a professional manner. All of my classes at KSU taught me one very
important aspect of professionalism: best practices and ethics. After working in
several environments that didnt follow best practices and appropriate ethics, Ive
come to value them more than I can put into words.
I have never been as proud of myself for anything as I am for the growth and
maturity Ive reached after three amazing years at Kent State University. The
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struggles of confidence and athletics caused me to lose focus, but Kent State
University truly turned my mind straight and helped me pave the path to the best
version of me.
As I reach graduation I have the most bittersweet feeling. I am ecstatic for
what lies ahead; however, I am dreading the idea that this amazing journey is
ending. I couldnt have dreamed for a better college experience full of good times
and hard work. My only regret is not choosing KSU my freshman year!