Reflective Essay

Initial Reflective Essay  

When I first thought of what I wanted to do with my life after college, the first thing I thought of was helping people.   The next step in deciding what I wanted to do with my life was to exam how I could accomplish this goal.   I started pondering and I was thinking about how much I love to take care of my body.   Health care and personal hygiene has always been an important factor in my life.   So I decided to major in Health Science.   With this major, I will be able to further my education in ways to be healthy and possibly learn how to help others.   I decided that being a health physician or nutritionist was something that I was really interested in.   This is where communication studies came in. I figured that if I minor in communication studies, I could improve my oral and written communication to better help in my future of nutrition.  
Communication studies was a good pick for me because, although there is always room for improvement, I can still garnish some more knowledge and information to better improve my oral skills.   My personality will really fit into the communication department.   I have been told about how fun the communication department can be, and how outgoing people are in the department.   I initially liked this a lot because I am very outgoing myself and love to talk to people.   I feel that I can be able to exhibit concise messages to people, clearly and efficiently.  
Communication is defined in the book as "a systematic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meaning." (Wood, p.9).   The definition can be broken down into four separate parts and they are as follows: process, systematic, symbols, and meaning.   Process means that communication is ongoing and always in motion.   Systematic focuses on how communication involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another.   Symbols are described as abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other...