Working on my Edumacation

BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday I hit 10,000 visits to my blog and I am ALMOST at 100 posts! Pretty exciting goals to hit! :)

I have no fun project today because I spent my evening eating delicious Mexican food and delicious gelato and now I am in a food coma. So I thought I would talk about some courses I have been taking, and that I wish I had started AFTER I started the blog.

In the summer of 2010 I was working as an admin person at an insurance company and I was feeling very stalled in life. I had been there for 2 years and the prospects for career growth were not great. Plus, I had studied Marketing in school and I wanted to work in something more creative, like advertising. But ad agencies were HARD to break into. I had some interviews, but no luck. I started to think about my resume and I felt that my degree was a bit useless because I didn't have any skills- I couldn't use any design-y programs. 

I started researching programs at colleges in Toronto and I eventually stumbled upon the Ontario College of Art and Design and their Digital Media Skills Certificate and it seemed like the perfect program. One factor was that it was a five minute walk from work, so evening classes were convenient. The other factor was the non-committal format of the certificate. You basically have three years to take five different courses and you earn your certificate! There are 25 course options so it was easy to find 5 that appealed to me. I immediately signed up for two that fall: The Art of the Blog and Digital Photography.

By the way, this is the OCAD building. How cool is this??

 

I took photography first and it was really neat- we learned to use SLR cameras and then how to edit in Photoshop. I really wish I had kept up using Photoshop because it is now two years later and I seriously cannot remember how to do anything. But I think if I had an SLR camera, I may be able to figure that part out again. Alas, the money fairy hasn't come

The Art of the Blog course was poorly named because it really was not about blogging, but just about social media in general. It was very interesting in terms of the evolution of social media, and I also wish I had started my blog before because I would have been more engaged in the topic. Now I get it! haha

I then took a break and in 2011 I signed up for my next one- Intro to Adobe InDesign. I don't remember this course at all. Which is kind of sad, because it would be neat to be able to do some design work on the side. This blog has really been feeding my creative side!

After this, in May 2011, I signed up for Intro to Adobe Illustrator! However, right after this happened, I actually got a new job which I love and plan to stay at for years...and doesn't need this certificate at all. But at this point I was so far in so I kept up with my course. I did like this one and we had lots of fun projects in class! 

Then...I just kind of stopped. I was wary of spending another $400 on a course I didn't need and while I only had 1 more left to get my certificate, I knew it was a sunk cost. I couldn't get back the money from the earlier courses whether I finished or not. And I was aware how not-talented at any of these programs I was. It had all seeped out my brain through lack of use.

HOWEVER, now that I have my blog, I thought it was time to do my last course and to pick something that would benefit me with the blog! So I looked up the courses coming up and I chose Intro to Adobe Lightroom! One reason being that it is only 4 weeks long and is only $200. That is about half the price and length of the other courses! It is a new offering. 

The other reason is because of this:

That is just a snapshot of the 500 different albums I have. Lightroom is supposed to be great for organizing photos and light editing, so I hope to vastly improve the "administrative" side of the blog and make my photos a little sexier. C'mon, you all saw how well I am doing with Photoshop Elements.

The other nice thing about these courses is that I get to buy student editions of programs for WAY less than retail from the bookstore. Woohoo!

So that is my big news! My course starts in November and I am very excited to get started and finally finish my certificate. The only downside is that it is ON SATURDAY MORNINGS! Gross. Starts at 9:30, so I gotta roll out by like 8:45. However, I didn't want to pass on it and wait until the spring. It's only 4 weeks, right?