My Quick Recap: #PRSSANC

Last week, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for the 2014 PRSSA National Conference. I flew out of GRR Thursday night and made the trip to BWI. And let me tell you, that trip was something. Never in my life have I taken so many forms of public transportation in under 24 hours. Shuttles, planes, another shuttle, train and the subway. Talk about a little culture shock from a girl who has never even rode a metro bus before.

Besides the culture shock, this conference really changed me. How you may ask?

Confidence. After this weekend, I feel more confident in myself. I learned that sometimes its okay to brag about your skills, as long as you do it without sounding stuck up. You have the right to share all of the great things you've been doing. I keep telling myself that I'm thousands of dollars in debt from college so its okay to tell people how I'm learning so much and that my major is the bomb. But, this is not the same thing as telling every single person you meet that you are the best candidate for a job. Save it for when it really matters. Like in a cover letter or a job interview. Even then, don't sound like a tool looking for a job.

With that being said, I found out that I really sell myself short of what I can do. For some reason, I always viewed myself as some small town girl with no real chance at an awesome job. After I started talking to some other students, I realized that I'm not just a small town girl, but I am an ambitious small town girl with a great education under her belt that can do anything. And get an awesome job.

Stronger bonds. This weekend brought me closer to my five members from my chapter. I was pretty close with them before, but we got on a whole different level of friendship. After spending almost every moment with each other for five days, you learn a lot about others. I'm thankful for how close I got to my members and friends.

I learned a ton! Name a field of PR and I guarantee you I learned something about it this weekend. I dare you. That's how much I learned. This conference opened my eyes to all of the opportunities that are out there. I also had the chance to listen to some amazing speakers, such as Amy Robach from Good Morning America. She spoke to us about the importance of telling people's stories. During her presentation, I couldn't help but smile. When I went to college, all I wanted to do was be able to tell peoples' stories and I had no idea how I could do that. And I didn't want to be a journalist. Now, I've got the perfect combo of business and storytelling. It's perfect. PR is perfect.

You know what else I realized? I have no idea what I'm doing and that's okay.

When I left for D.C., I was 100% positive that this conference was going to solidify what I wanted to do. I wanted to work in an agency and I wanted to end up in Detroit. That was my goal on the first day of this trip. Things have taken an interesting turn since then. Now, I feel like I can do anything or go anywhere. My heart will always belong in Michigan and my ultimate goal is to end up there, but I don’t think I would be too sad if I relocated to a different state for a while.

I didn't want to bore you too much with all my PR ramblings, so that's my quick recap! Maybe I'll touch on PRSSANC in another post. We'll see. ;)

Until Next Time,

Kaitlyn