Matthew Morgis

Right at the beginning of September I started my freshman year of college - and I was scared out of my mind.

I was moving from the small town of Scranton, Pa., to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the fourth largest media market in these great United States, which is the primary reason I wanted to move there. 

Temple University was the school of choice. Yes, it is in North Philly, and yes it is in a rough part of town, but at the time I wanted to be in a big city with lots of people.

Move in day crept up way too fast and summer came to a halting stop, yet “back to school” wasn’t so bad this time. Instead of walking the same halls at Crestwood High School, I was going to be living on my own with new people. And thank goodness for new people.

Within a few hours my parents were making the two hour drive back to Scranton and I was left on my own in the big city of Philadelphia. All sorts of doubt and apprehension started to settle in on me. Was this the right college for me? Will my roommates be friendly? Will anyone be friendly? Will I survive on my own? I found out everything I worried about in a matter of a few days.

My roommate worries were easily disowned. They were all very nice and we got along with each other great. I instantly had three friends.

First day of classes came way too fast. The very first course of my college life was a Computer Science class. I LOVED it! We were going to build a website, make a video, blog weekly, etc. The professor gave a lecture about Steve Jobs - one of my idols - and used to work for IBM. This class could potentially change my life.

Most of you know that I started writing for a few different newspapers through out high school. Before I even stepped foot on a college campus I was able to interview some of my favorite bands (All Time Low, Blink-182, Yellowcard) and my favorite comedian, Lewis Black. It was the best job in the world and up until that point I thought my passion was journalism. 

Then I came to realize, do I like journalism, or do I like talking to my favorite bands? The answer was easy. I never really liked writing that much. I loved writing about different topics. Criminal stories were always fun and exciting because of the digging involved. Obviously big-name entertainment stories were fun as well, but the average article on a bland community topic never motivated me. 

Another downer I always dreaded to look into was the job market. It’s awful for any communication field, yet, with my thick head, I never failed to say to myself “you were doing this since you were 16, you’ll easily find a job.” Not the case. In a small town, I was a big fish winning awards and impressing people. But in the big town of Philadelphia, no one wanted to take a chance on some young kid who worked for a newspaper they never heard of. 

My second thoughts were always in the back of my head, but now they were so prominent, I lost sleep that first night of classes. I tossed and turned and really wondered if I was doing the right thing. The next day I had a few communication classes. I figured I would compare them to the Computer Science one and presto, I’ll have my answer. 

Media & Society was awful. I couldn’t stand it and wanted to drop it as soon as I could. I set up a meeting with an advisor to discuss the computer science field.

Day 3 of college and I was already about to change my major - one I thought was set in stone. A fun fact about me is I read tech blogs like Mashable, TechTalk and MacLife every night before I fall asleep. I found out with CS, I would get to help develop those very things these blogs talk about. 

The job market for it is AMAZING and it is a topic I am actually interested in. I will never have to write a boring paper, and I get to program all sorts of software. It was right up my alley, and after find this information out, I made the switch.

My schedule got harder, and I had to give up writing for the Weekender - the publication that gave me my start. It was very sad and while I was down, this city ate me alive. Luckily I bounced back quickly.

I still write occasionally for two newspapers, The Times Leader and Go Lackawanna. I cover arts here and there, criminal complaints, and I will occasionally be doing video interviews for the Weekender. I still hope to have roots in the broadcasting/journalism field, but for now I have a new passion.

I hope my Tumblr doesn’t turn into a tech blog!