beginnings

I've always been interested in event planning. My passion was first tapped when I was 10 and saw the movie "Father of the Bride". I decided that I loved weddings. When I was younger, I used to sit in the corner of chapters with bridal magazines, not imagining my own wedding, but dreaming about being in charge of someone elses. This is really stupid, I know. But I don't know how else to put it - it always sounded kind of cool.

Frosh Week was, by all accounts, a practice in event management. I had 4 days, a quarter million dollars, a fundraising goal and a mission statement set by the university that I was expected to exemplify. We used 21 venues and 400 volunteers to successfully pull of the party of the year for 2008.

I was HOOKED. Being in a planning position was like a high for me; now I'm going to do something about it. Humbar College in Toronto offers a Public Relations post-graduate program that includes training in Media, Advertizing, Event Planning and Fundraising. Students get an 8-week internship at the end with companies like Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis Films, and more than 90% are employed in the field 6 months later. I'm in. My HUGE ambivilence about doing my drama degree has told me that something about it isn't right. I want to make my family proud, but I also want a career that I can be excited about waking up and doing. Like Steve told me - if I'm not ABSOLUTLY SURE, then academia is probably not going to be for me.

So I'm going to be applying for the January intake. I'll work between now and then, probably take the 5000 loan from my grandparents to get started in Toronto and complete the program by November 2006. Am I being impulsive? Perhaps. But I've been SO SO SO SO unhappy lately (even considering what it would be like if I crawled into a hole and hid from the world), and I think that I'm finally doing something about it.

World, here I come!