To be honest, I don’t know what sparked me to become a public relations major. I knew I wanted to do something in communications and I love helping people so I figured what better than to help manage people reputations, brand and overall appeal? All through high school I spent many hours planning events for different clubs, planning parties for friends and ball teams and helping with events at my church. I also loved helping others who needed me; it just feels good to help someone else. I didn’t help people to get recognition I helped people because it is what I enjoyed doing. When I took my first introduction to PR class I knew I was in the right place. PR is fun, I know in the PR field I will never have to “work” a day in my life, because it isn’t work if you enjoy what you’re doing, right?
Many people have trouble understanding what public relations is. Most of the time I get the response, “Oooh, like marketing?” I just smile saying, you’re on the right track but not exactly! I tell people public relations is managing someone’s reputation, brand and image. Whether they are doing something great or have done something stupid. With celebrities in the news it is real easy to give examples, Paula Deen is a good example nowadays. I’ll say, do you know how Paula had horrible responses to every question she was asked for about the first two weeks of that whole thing? Then do you remember how it kind of fizzled away after she hired a crisis management team? Exactly. The damage she did was pretty hard to fix, but at least it wasn’t the headline news anymore!
If I was telling a freshman about PR I would ask them two main things, can you write well and can you communicate well? If not, PR is not for you. When representing a brand it is imperative that you have these two essential tools. If a freshman enjoys writing and communicating I tell them how much fun our classes are and how accomplished I feel after writing that eighteen page paper or giving that forty five minute presentation to my class. It is not easy, but it is worth every second.
savannahdozier 
What you said about helping people is super important and is something that many people forget about when entering into a career in public relations. In PR, you’re job is to serve others 24/7 and always give excellent customer service. This is something that cannot be forgotten and is something that PR professionals must value.