Monica Roebuck (CW, 2021)
I knew I wanted to go to the Brandcenter about seven years before I finally got here.
At the first Info Session I went to, I got a card saying, “if you like making people laugh and always have interesting stories, you might be a copywriter.” Now, I don’t know how interesting I am, but I clung to that thing like it was a BuzzFeed personality test telling me what kind of cheese I am (Not an insult. That’s a very important test). A lot happens in seven years, though. Like one day you’re graduating from undergrad and you get a job working as a designer at a custom apparel shop, and then suddenly it’s 2019 and you don’t know where the time or your aspiring writing career went.
The interesting thing I’ve found about coming to the Brandcenter is that I didn’t have to give up my quaint past life as a designer for copywriting. If anything, having multiple facets to yourself is an advantage at the Brandcenter. So sometimes when my dreaded friend, Imposter Syndrome, comes to visit, I try to zone out and do something low-key and in my comfort zone, like design.
Design is also what I lean on when I’m feeling lost, stuck, or helpless. Watching the news, checking Instagram, and reading articles during Summer 2020 rocked me. I didn’t know what to do with my feelings, so I did what I’d been doing for the past seven years: I designed a t-shirt. I’d never done anything like a fundraiser before, but I wanted to help the BLM movement in a way I knew I couldn’t do financially on my own. My t-shirt sales raised $500 that I donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and Trans Women of Color Collective.
Two years. Sixty weeks. You come to class each day at the Brandcenter wanting your classmates to kill it because it pushes you to try something new and compete–not with them, but with yourself.
I got advice once from a professor to do something just to see if you can do it. At the Brandcenter, you get a lot of chances to do just that.
Monica Roebuck (CW, 2021)