It has been a long while since I have last posted to this blog; nearly seven months to be exact. Time to change that. Now that all the dust has settled from graduation and that school is now behind me, it is time to move onward and upwards.
First off, I want to take the chance to thank everyone that has helped me along my long, ever-changing educational journey. For those who are unaware of my journey, I’ll go ahead and give you the brief rundown of it.
PAST
2008-2009: My senior year of high school was spent the same way as almost all of my other classmates: tired of school and ready to move on to the next big thing as an “adult.” Also like most of my former classmates, I wasn’t sure what my next “big thing” was. Sure, I had aspirations to be successful, well-rounded and have a college degree, but I wasn’t sure in what exactly. I had several interests, such as video editing, music production, writing, but nothing I could see myself doing as a career (at the time). It finally clicked that I should pursue my studies in Japanese and return to my school as the new Japanese teacher when my former teacher and mentor retired. With that in mind, I excitedly applied (late) to Ball State University for their Japanese Education program. After much waiting, I received my acceptance letter to the school, which was a particularly big relief, since it was the only college I had applied to.
2009-2010: my freshman year at Ball State went by without any major hiccups. I excelled in my classes, I made plenty of new friends and I have a better-than-expected dorm experience. I had every intention in returning to BSU to continue my degree, but that’s when my journey took its first turn. My loans were denied due to my father being rejected as a cosigner (also due to a error in other loan paperwork not relevant to my schooling) two weeks prior to classes. With no time to reapply, I was forced to take my first semester off in the fall of 2010.
2010-2011: During my semester off, I took the chance to move out and do a little soul searching. I found that I was still very interested in some sort of Japanese-related career and continued my studies independently. I took this time off to also explore my other hobbies. I made the decision to spend my spring semester at Ivy Tech in Indianapolis to earn additional credits and avoid paying the interest on my college loans. Again, another semester without any bumps in the road. It was during this time that I decided that I would continue my Japanese studies at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis starting in the fall.
2011-2012: Nothing terribly crazy happened at this point in time. I continued my Japanese studies once again, but this time as a general degree. The way the language program at IUPUI worked is that it was considered a Pre-Individualized Liberal Arts degree, meaning that Japanese wasn’t an official major offered by the school, but I could create my own curriculum and get it approved by the governing bodies within the department. So that pretty much sums up that school year.
2012-2013: The fall semester started off pretty well. I was enrolled in my first 400-level Japanese course and ready to talk on the world. The semester wasn’t overly taxing on my well-being and everything was going well, but I began to question my future. “What was I going to do with a degree in Japanese? Who would hire me? I still need an additional certification beyond this point, so is it even worth it?”
I met with my adviser and found out that I still had about two years left in my degree, that was including the year-long study abroad trip that was required for my degree. I was at an impasse. I couldn’t afford the trip and the additional schooling with the remaining loans I had left, and I couldn’t very well just up and quit school. It was at this point that I decided to take another semester off in the spring on 2013 and do another round of soul searching, and it was there that everything changed for me.
In January 2013, I had attended the official unveiling of Indianapolis’ professional soccer team, the now well-known Indy Eleven, as a part of the Brickyard Battalion supporters group. We were on stage with several state officials, sport officials, the team’s president and along with the team’s owner.
The whole event left me awestruck and led me to believe that I too could be apart of something as great as the team. The whole experience had me convinced that was destined to work in Public Relations. Months later, I spoke with my adviser at IUPUI and found out was steps I needed to take to make my new found dream a reality. I was told it would take two years, and without hesitation, I began my new journey.
2013-2015: It was during these two years I discovered more of who I was, both personally and professionally. I met several new friends and future colleagues, new mentors (Bruce Hetrick, Julie Vincent, Ben Risinger and Steve Campbell to name a few) and worked on a plethora of massive, real-life projects from the United States Auto Club (USAC) to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. It was also during this time I interned at the Arthritis Foundation of Indiana and their lead marketing/communications chair for its annual Walk to Cure Arthritis event. It was after these two years of hard, but rewarding, work, I found myself walking down the isle to receive my diploma cover and graduating within the top 10-percent of my class.
PRESENT
At this point in time, I am continuing a job search within my degree. I am actively seeking every opportunity that I have come across. Sometimes, the lack of response can be disheartening, but that will not deter me and my goals. Realistically, I will probably have to participate in more internships, but if that’s the case, I will happily do so.
FUTURE
As for the future, who knows what I’ll be doing. If you were to ask me five years ago what I would be doing after college, I certainly wouldn’t have told you that I would be doing what I am today. I know I’ll be doing something in PR, that’s a fact, and that I will also being doing something with my Japanese major, that’s also a fact, but I couldn’t exactly tell you what. To me, I find that exciting. The fact the future is as open ended as it is, with every possibility imaginable sitting before me fills me with a sense of motivation and inspiration.
For now, I will try to continue to do a weekly blog posting. This could range anywhere between a story, a personal blog or excerpt of my work (writing, photography, video, etc.), but for now I leave you with this. Thanks for reading! I’ll see you again next week.
James T Higdon 
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