2017 Year In Review

Wayne Lapasa
November 2017: Work Christmas party portrait

2017 is a wrap! What a year it has been.  This blog is going to be short and sweet compared to other posts.  I just want to take a quick moment to review this past year, highlight some key things that I’m really happy I achieved.

Word Press
Word Press

Blogging

Since the fall of 2016, I started using Word Press again, mostly for school assignments.  Once the school year term ended in April 2017, I still continued to use the platform to share my thoughts on all things digital.  It has allowed me to publish content and to build up my writing portfolio in the process.  Employers can also easily search through the archives to see what my writing style is like and what I can bring to the table.

Honestly, I hadn’t touched Word Press since late summer 2012, so to be able to do this and get reacquainted with this platform was fun.  I will only be using this site to publish my thoughts on a monthly basis.  The reality is that I’m busy and pre-occupied with work and life.  And besides this domain, there’s other social media channels I am on regularly where you can find me as well!

Wayne Lapasa
December 2017: 💪🏻 Kris Kringle friends party

Back to the gym

When you have a celebrity as big as The Rock preaching that exercise is his daily anchor, I totally get it.  For me it is too. I don’t boast about it and publish my progress on social media, I just do it.  People tend to comment how I post a lot of foodie pics, yet I am in great shape.  The reality is, the work is being put in – I choose not to broadcast it.  The gym is sacred ground, it’s like a church to me.  Treat it with respect and you will see the results.

When school finished in the spring, you would think that more time would open up for me to get back into the gym.  I fell into a bad gym funk.  It actually made it harder for me to get back into the groove of things. I even switched gyms in the summer and was not able to motivate myself like I used to.  I regularly keep a gym journal on how many times I go to the gym.  From May to September, I only swiped my gym key 41 times.  That is embarrassing, considering there were 163 total days in that five-month span.  For me, enough was enough…it was time for a change.  There were three months remaining in the calendar year and I was not going to wait till the new year to get my butt in gear.  A light bulb switch in my head went off.  I am proud to say that I regained my consistency in the fall.  I just refocused and rededicated myself.  For the final 92 days of 2017, I went to the gym or did some sort of physical activity 76 times.  I went to the gym on average of five days a week.  This is no easy task given how busy one person’s work schedule can get.  There was one week where I was sick as a dog and I still went five times pushing through.

Going to the gym is a personal challenge of mind over matter.  To be healthy, you must incorporate fitness into your lifestyle.  But to build a lifestyle, you must build consistency.  Those two keywords are synonymous with one another.  To many, doing any sort of physical activity is considered torture.  The true testament is to ensure your mindset overrules any physical limitation you are feeling.  Once you can change the way you think, you will not dread working out.

Graduate Certificate Information Session 2017
July 2017: Seneca College alumni at the Graduate Certificate Information Session

Going back to school

The decision to go back to school has been highly documented in a previous post on this website.  But for me, it was my most favourite and personal post to publish. To add some other insight that I didn’t include in that write up, procrastination was a major factor in such a long layoff on not returning to upgrade my education.  In fact, in the summer of 2014, I almost contemplated towards a career as a realtor.  I started to read a few chapters of the books my mom had and I eventually concluded this was not the path I wanted to take.  I’ve always been a firm believer that patience is a virtue and that good things come to those who wait.  I simply cannot be rushed into something.  And if you don’t have that gut instinct that this is what’s best for you, don’t second guess yourself.

Attending school while working full time and graduating with honours was a great accomplishment.  What I am most proud of the most, was that my whole family was able to come to my convocation – including my dad, who missed my 2004 graduation at York University because he had to work. You are forgiven Dad! Xoxo.

Wayne Lapasa
December 31, 2017: NYE ’18

Outro

These are three highlights that I wanted to mention as this year comes to a close.  All of them are somewhat tied to digital, but more on a personal level for me.  Blogging was something I had done for five years straight…only to take a five-year break as well.  Going back to the gym was inspired from visuals I saw on Instagram and helped me refocus in that area.  And getting a post graduate certificate in social media was the icing on the cake for me.  Having that said, I just want to take this time to wish everyone a happy new year, wishing you all the best for 2018!

What Was It Like Being Back In School After 12 Years?

Buying shoes online or studying? 😀 Photo Cred: Gabriela Oviedo

Today’s post is going to be a little different than some of the posts you’ve read here.  For those who are visiting this site for the first time…Welcome!  I am going to recap my decision to go back to school, the factors that triggered it, my experiences being back in a classroom and what’s next on my plate.

Why I Went Back

In the spring of 2016, I was in the final stages of securing a new job with an emerging tech company.   At this time, I was back again working in the dairy industry, unchallenged and unmotivated.  I returned there after being laid off from a digital marketing company.  While I was very keen in getting back into the digital world, my gut instinct was telling me to hold off.  The title role was a client success specialist and I just felt like I wanted something more specific.  If you have ever been in a position where you took a job just for the money and you knew you’d still be unhappy – well that was where my head space was at.

For those who know me, I am willing to put the work in and bust my tail off if I believe in whatever the concept/idea/value is.   So in between interviews, I started Googling the idea of upgrading my education, to strengthen my resume as well.  My position was if I was going to make a commitment and go back to school, it had to be something that would fit my schedule, that had an interesting curriculum and that I would genuinely enjoy.

After a series of e-mails exchanged with one of the program coordinators at Seneca College, I decided now was the time to make the leap.  On April 22, 2016, I contacted the employer who offered me the client success specialist position and declined.  I now made the commitment to enroll in a one year, post grad certificate in social media, the first of its kind offered in the GTA.

College vs. University

The thought of being back in a classroom after a 12-year absence was going to be interesting.  Some of the questions I asked myself was, could I handle this?  Could I keep up with the other students?  Would I be the oldest fart in the room?  It was an intense, eight month course load that covered all aspects of social media and digital marketing.  After the first six weeks into the semester, I settled in pretty nicely and felt confident that I would be able to complete this program.

Looking back on my time in York University, I felt a four-year program was too long.  You would have theatre size classes that would fit as large as 500 students, yet you would only know maybe 25-30 of them in your tutorial classes.   What I liked about college was that we were the same 20-25 person class for the entire calendar year.

In university, almost all of the teachings were theoretical, which in my own theory is useless because you need practical knowledge in the real working world.  Thanks to Google, Wikipedia and so on, you can search for that theoretical information at any time and educate yourself.

Having the opportunity to work in group projects and do presentations in college was also very refreshing.  I welcomed that with open arms because university didn’t provide much opportunities in that aspect.  In addition, while assignments were submitted in printed paper at York, for this program they were all submitted online.

I remember back in the day, maybe one or two students in the room had a laptop.  That was considered luxury.  Taking notes on a paper pad was the norm.  Today, everyone in the class is equipped with some sort of technology whether it be a laptop, tablet or even a smartphone.

#SenecaSoMe aka SMD
#SenecaSoMe aka SMD

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