Spiritual Successor

You know that feeling when you’ve just completed a pretty significant milestone but you’ve got another one to go for right after?

Welcome to my world.

I’m writing this from the other side of my academic career (for the time being). You can believe it. I am a degree’d/diploma’d man, having finished the Joint Communications program at The University of Winnipeg and Red River College. I feel like a phoenix, rising out of Arizona. 17 years of school have brought me to this point.

Wherein I can now go on an almighty job hunt.

Believe me, I know how much of a milestone finishing a degree is. I gave myself a customary pat-on-the-back, as well as this past weekend off (come on, it was my birthday AND my sister flew in from Alberta), so I’ve had some “me” time. Now, I don’t want to get rusty or become complacent. It would be like entering a vortex of nothingness, forever doomed to a life of daytime TV and growing a relationship with the daily mailperson (nothing against mailpeople of course ^_^). It’s just not in me to take too much time off.

So in the meantime, I’m doing some branding work — it starts with this place. This should be a more regular thing regardless of my work status, so that shouldn’t be much of a push. Something that I’m also excited about is  is my eventual purchase of a domain for a personal website. I’ve always wanted one, and now I know what I can do with it, so it’ll be a match made once it goes live — hopefully within a few weeks. A digi-portfolio is on the way too.

To me, a brand embodies everything about something, including pledges. I expect this when it comes to personal branding, too. Something I’ve recently started working towards is dreaming about thinking about running the  Manitoba (half) Marathon. In my current state — probably not the wisest choice. But for next year’s marathon, it’s a real possibility — and I’m keeping it in mind. It’s a great personal challenge, and will keep me motivated to keep my body transformation going. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve lost ~25 pounds or so since September — I feel great, but that’s just pushed me to do better. Having a tangible target will keep me rolling. Also, now that I’ve posted on the blog, everyone will be able to call me a big fat phony if I don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSTEqHxh3fI&w=420&h=300

^Really don’t want that guy following me around.

So why would I bother writing a rambling post about my all-important life and what I plan to do in the near-future? Just to be a reminder that once a milestone is reached, you should go for the next one. School (especially these last 2 years) was the most significant part of my day-to-day life 8 months a year for the past 5 years. Now that it’s over, the next big thing — finding and starting my communications career — awaits. It’s exciting, and that will be who I am now. You could say it’s the spiritual successor to my school career — similar in vein but just not the same (I’m guessing that’s far more cheesy than I think it is).

To quote and parody a milk ad campaign —

Never stop. Mike™.

– Mike

P.S. The Avengers comes out tomorrow. How is this relevant to anything? Robert Downey Jr., that’s how. Go see it, because I will and I might post about it.