Wow. March?? That was my last post? Tsk tsk tsk. I was blogging...but unfortunately not on this particular blog. That being said...and now that the summer days are closing I'd like to take on more attempt on this little blogger spot?......I would advise not to go back too far on this blog as there's probably broken links, pictures and just a cornucopia of mess.
Well...where have I been? Where am I now? March.... I believe back then I was beginning to come up with the crazy idea of leaving Trapeze Animation. The days became long and boring, and the initial idea of working there was just until the end of the initial contract. Well...by March / April the contract had been extended twice. Although work is good, my dream job wasn't Trapeze. I severely want to get back to print design....with a bit of interactive as well.
So I left...but where to? With a bit of savings, I decided to take Halifax as a stop. Now...I lived in Halifax about 7-8 years ago. At that time, I had just left college and was trying to make a name for myself. Kind of difficult for a newbie designer in a big city. So I figured things would be easier 8 years on. The slight mistake I made is 2-fold a)summer time: NOTHING going on in summer. No hiring....big mistake, b) lack of knowledge about the Halifax scene; Where I was getting a lot of work/little pay in Charlottetown, I was getting no work/no pay in Halifax. That's the trade off...
I might have been working in Halifax...if not for a foolish wild goose chase I took on about 3-4 weeks into my job hunt. I happened upon a posting for an art director position with none other than the mighty CBC! Well....to me that'd be the job amongst jobs.... print creativity galore.
Well, they wouldn't look at a simple black and white print resume from some hick from the Maritimes. So I took a week to create a full-colour book and DVD package. This did indeed impress them and I got the call to visit the mighty CBC tower in the centre of the universe....Toronto. Now I'll be honest...I've wanted to move to Toronto for sometime...so this would be the perfect life change. Then the lockout. Although that wasn't the reason I didn't get the job, it is the reason the interview was pushed forward to just a day before the lockout. No...it seems 2 others with more studio experience were up for the position. So...the summer was spent pining for a position that I wasn't even sure I'd get. I spent one week on a massive project to get the interview...and then another week developing a brand new website to further impress them.
Broke and frustrated, I returned to Charlottetown. I've had this happen too many times to me. Go off...try to create a foothold in another city, and then get pushed back. Not again. I'm sending all resumes from here from now on. The chances are reduced quite a bit as a company would rather hire locally...but it's also less costly from here.
So...as you can see...my career has taken a beating. What of my social life? It was probably my loneliest summer ever. It was pretty harsh. Brand new place...hard to make friends (I did make a couple). But for the most part, it was very lonely. And that would also include my love life. But these set-backs only tended to thicken my skin. This also led to a sense of being jaded towards society and the way it works. It's funny...my Grandfather is very old Scottish....very old advice...very old in thinking. I destinctly relect 2 pieces of advice he gave me....that I just shrugged off, saying sort of.. "no no I'll live by my own idealistic way". The 2 pieces of advice? "You have to have contacts in this life". Now another friend gave me this advice and I now believe whole heartidly it's who you know. The 2nd piece was "you have to be fit to get anywhere in this life". Now wow....for 30 years my whole thought process was "why care what the world thinks of me?". Boy was I naive. The world functions on image. The idealism is right out the window on this one. I agree 100% on this. If you aren't fit, you don't get anywhere....jobs, relationships....forget it..if you're overweight it's over. Now I started to see this a year ago when I weighed 320pounds. I've now lost 90 lbs and I still have a ways to go. But let me tell you, it'll be great being in a controlling position in my life when I do finish losing the weight.
Jaded view you say? Yup. But I'll debate with anyone who differs with what I just said. Trust me...I've had 30 years to see the "fat kid" side of things. Now if only I could have transfered the amount of experience in this subject to the CBC job interview, everything would be set.
So...where am I now? Scarred...bruised...metaphorically speaking. I'm picking myself up and moving on. It's all you can do right? I'm at the gym every day now...so far it hasn't caught up. My confidence level is up some because of the weight loss...but I have a ways to go on that. Unfortunately in the end nothing concrete to report. I will try to update this blog regularly though. Until next time.. |
