A full week in BCIT’s New Media Design & Web Development program is now in the book’s for me and I can’t be more happier with my decision to travel down this avenue of education.
Following my high school graduation in 2007, I really didn’t clue in on any set direction for my life. I had spent the past three years working for TNA Wrestling out of Orlando, Florida as a web developer, graphic designer, and writer. When I decided to leave the company, I then received an offer from World Wrestling Entertainment out of Stamford, Connecticut to work with them; however, their offer meant I had to relocate and that wasn’t something I was quite ready for at 18 years of age.
So in January 2008, I decided to upgrade my math to an appropriate mark, which opened more options to contemplate a direction and that’s when my dad Kris helped guide me a path. I actually upgraded my math at BCIT because my dad graduated some three decades ago from BCIT in the Marketing Management program and that’s exactly where he directed me to; that same marketing program in September 2008. So I told myself sure, I’ll do it, if my dad is financially stable in life, which I want to be too, then this program must be for me too!
Wrong.
The whole program just didn’t seem to click with me in the sense of collaborative demand. I’m a very independent person so sometimes it was hard for me to rely on others, thus I found myself giving up on slacking individuals far too quickly. With the snap of a finger, I’d like things done, if only that could happen!
Bad quality? Not necessarily because it motives me to get the job done as quickly as possible. So after one semester, marketing was out and BCIT’s Broadcast Journalism program was next on what now seemed to be a path of trials.
The one love I could never cheat on is definitely writing and that’s why I began my part time studies in the journalism field in January 2009. It was a good thing I started out with the part time program because I got to have a taste of the fundamentals behind broadcast journalism as I got to visit studios such as CBC, Global, and CTV while they were live on the six o’clock news. You also have to understand that while I was taking these classes, I also had a pending application for the full time enrollment for September 2009 I was waiting to hear back on, but then I had a change in attitude.
I suddenly realized that while I love writing, it’s merely just a hobby for me. The writer in me is one of spontaneous nature where I get to exemplify the creative juices flowing through my brain. That’s really what my writing was about with TNA Wrestling because that’s an industry of scripted sports entertainment on television. So contorting my creativity to the level of someone’s request with boundaries in place just wasn’t going to work for me. Writing about the latest murder rather than an interesting astronomical discovery is the likes of what turned me away.
Before I canceled my application into the full time Broadcast Journalism program though, I had to have security elsewhere. So I dug deep to the root of what originally attracted me to the Internet society and that’s new media. From the time I was 13 in 2002, I was developing personal fan sites of what interested me most and that was wrestling. I even developed sites relating to hockey, video games, and believe it or not, The Simpsons too.
Everything I did was self taught with a little help from a trip to a local Chapters bookstore for some guides. That motivation didn’t come from anyone’s encouragement, it was self motivation that really sprouted out of nowhere. Then in 2004, my break came when TNA Wrestling hired me because of my expertise as a graphic designer and web developer. Through that process I was developing and maintaining different versions of TNAwrestling.com from the systematic process all the way to the graphical interface. We were a team of three working on the project. Through that endeavor, my skills for writing was also discovered when I was asked to start writing for the company and the rest is history.
I left TNA in 2007 to get myself properly educated and here I am now, full circle with what brought me to the dance in the first place, the aura of new media.
Last week was the first week and it was a series of System Management classes that were basically instructional guidelines on how to use Apple computers. For the majority of our classes, we’re using 24-inch iMac computers, which is what I have in my home. So these initial classes were merely just quick refreshers on functions I already know for the most part or somehow forgotten due to my lack of use. Regardless, I thought the classes were a lot of fun because it’s always nice analyzing the power of a Mac.
The Overview for Web Technology class was our first proper class on Saturday, yes we have classes on Saturday mornings. The homework we were given was to purchase a web domain and hosting account that we could use for the finished product of a restaurant website we will be developing this term. The web domain does not have to be relevant to the make-belief restaurant whatsoever, it’s just a means of learning how to go through the whole process of setting up a website. I don’t know about the other 24 students in class, but I already have my Cygy.com domain and hosting with GoDaddy.com that I use for my personal blog so I’ll just be setting up either a sub domain or directory there to upload this restaurant website.
Fast forwarding to Tuesday, we began our first classes with Information Architecture along with Communications for New Media. The former is definitely up my alley because it’s going to be focusing a lot on writing for the web, which I do on almost a daily basis, along with social media outlets. If you know me then you know that I’m hooked up with all the outlets from Facebook to Twitter and YouTube to Flickr, among others.
One of our main duties in this communications class is to write a weekly blog on our experiences at BCIT in this New Media & Web Development program. So if you’re on the fence about joining this already great program, then sit back and let me indulge you on all the weekly happenings of what will become my lifelong path with regard to new media. You can make your decision when I graduate this 52-week program next year.
Till then, ciao for now!
