I'm in.

"Every history gets reduced to a narrative," he said.

What an intriguing concept. Every history is somebody's story. "Our" history may be a conglomeration of the stories of many, but it's still colored by perceptions, backgrounds, moods.

The cool part of it all is that we get to write our own histories. My history, my narrative, my choices. What a privilege.

....

It turns out I'll be going to graduate school in the fall. This may not shock you, but it's comforting for me. I had a sincere lack of confidence in the application process. A professor from the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University called me yesterday to tell me I'm in. Then he emailed me, and there'll be a letter in the mail. I think that means they want me. :)

I found a quotation recently in a textbook that I think explains well why I'm so very interested in communication theory:

"Communication (human communication, at least) is something people do. It has no life of its own. There is no magic about it except what people in the communication relationship put into it. There is no meaning in a message except what the people put into it. When one studies communication, therefore, one studies people – relating to each other and to their groups, organizations, and societies, influencing each other, being influenced, informing and being informed, teaching and being taught, entertaining and being entertained – by means of certain signs which exist separately from either of them. To understand the human communication process one must understand how people relate to each other."

- Wilbur Schramm in The Process and Effects of Mass Communication

I love the study of communication because it is the study of people - how they interact, how they express themselves, what they do with that space between them. I'm passionate about understanding the narratives, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn more from the experts.