It's the day after my last post. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new trend. Hopefully.

I start school tomorrow, and I'm excited in some ways. I've been lolling around too much, hating my part time job (in the service industry), and hating the way my life has turned out so far. I've had friends that I have lost, so my life has become very small. I work with people who are much younger than I am. They are just beginning their lives and starting post-secondary school, while I'm at a wholly different transition point.

But I have good feelings about this transition. Unlike my first round of education and the subsequent "career" that resulted (graphic design), this time, I'm preparing in advance. I went into graphic design with a portfolio and an open mind. I didn't have any connections, or goals, or much of a clue what graphic designers do. I applied to the program on a whim, with an attitude that if I got in, then it must mean something. There were approximately 400+ applicants, and I did get in. At first I struggled, but by the time the program finished, I believe that I was one of the top graduates. During the two-year program, I had had a summer job in a small design studio, which was something that none of my classmates had done. It boosted my confidence, and I believe that it boosted my prospects.

Upon graduation, I returned to that same, small studio. I should have known that being the new guy to a group of two who had already worked together for about 10 years would be difficult. Instead of realizing my own worth and abilities, I let this jack-ass who really enjoyed the "rush" of a looming deadline (which meant that he screamed a lot, and berated me) destroy my self-esteem. Instead of moving on to another graphic design studio, I decided, with some help from "fate" to switch careers.

One of my graphic design instructors contacted me about a new program that was being created jointly by my former school and another large post-secondary institution here in Vancouver. The idea was to train artistically gifted people how to use computer animation software, because people in the computer animation industry realized that the other programs were producing technicians, not artists. There was to be a practicum, and a bunch of the prominent animation and special fx studios in the city were involved. I got suckered in, and halfway through the program, the prominent studios decided to back out of the deal due to "security reasons". This meant that they didn't want students working for them and stealing their secrets. How stupid was that? We were spending $5,000 on this course (a deal at the time), and then they thought that we would risk our careers by being thieves!!! They mustn't have thought that we were very smart.

Turns out that I wasn't. I got a couple of interviews with a couple of studios, who wanted to see more, and told me to come back after more schooling. At the time, I was dead broke, so I went back to the golf course where I had previously worked. In fact, it was another "fate" thing, in that one of the managers phoned me to see if I was busy on the weekend because they really, really needed someone to work. Considering that I had less than double-digits in my bank account, I said that I would. I continued working there while I tried to figure out my next step.

While figuring, I did some research on the internet, and came up with technical writing as an option. Words had become more interesting to me, especially when working in graphic design. Some of the documents I had to work on were written so poorly...it was difficult for me to ignore. Now, I'm no expert, but I certainly do know when the incorrect "there, their, or they're" is being used. I looked into technical writing, and found out that I can still utilize some of my graphic design training (especially if I got into information design).

However, my research did indicate to me that there are many more advertisements for writing generalists, rather than specialists. A technical writer would be considered a specialist. So, I've enrolled in a business writing program at the first post-secondary school I ever attended. It sounds like an excellent program. The progam head is extremely passionate about her program. And there is an extensive work-experience session over the summer break. I'm looking forward to getting back into a professional setting, as well as meeting new people and making new friends.

And that all starts tomorrow.

And I'm a little bit scared, which is stupid, when I think about what the people are going through in the southern United States. But I'm not going to get into that, because there are many more smart, educated people who can comment better than me.

So for now, I'm going to sign off. It's like Christmas. The sooner I get to bed, the sooner tomorrow comes.

Good night.