Article by Brendan Flanagan |Owl Staff
Brendan Flanagan is also a Spring 2023 HCC graduate and is currently employed as a technical advisor at Owl Media.
Blinding lights & a roaring crowd filled Towson University’s SECU Arena on Friday, May 23rd, 2025. Friends & Family cheered as graduates from the Fine Arts & Communications program filled the empty chairs placed before the stage.
Before I knew it, I was lined up to walk across the stage for the first real time in my life. It was never something I worried about in the past. My senior year of high school was cut short due to the pandemic, and I opted out of walking when I got my associate’s at Harford. I figured it’d be more meaningful to save that for when my student years officially came to a close.
What I didn’t expect, however, was for the emotions of the moment to hit me all at once. It’s still hard to believe, even now, that I’ve made it this far.
Spring 2023 was Brendan’s first semester on the staff of Owl Media.
I walked into Harford Community College four years ago without a clue as to where I wanted to go. With the help of my family, friends, and professors on campus, I eventually found a path forward.
The road to get here was filled with twists and turns, but I made a lot of friends and connections that I cherish to this day, and made things that I can look back at and genuinely say that I am proud of.
“I’ve done a lot over the last four years, and I’m a better person because of it.”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time as a student, it’s that things aren’t as daunting as they seem. I went into almost every single project or opportunity worrying about whether or not I would be able to perform or create something that would be good enough to pass, and in working through each one, I found it wasn’t ever as bad as it seemed, and I even had fun along the way.
Between working with colleagues to create student short films about basketball, putting together documentaries about a local business, visual effects projects, and everything here with Owl Media, I’ve done a lot over the last four years, and I’m a better person because of it.
As I prepare to move forward, I’m still unsure of where life will take me. No matter what happens though, the last four years have been some of the best I’ve ever had, and I feel prepared for whatever comes next.