My Digital Media Adventure

The Early Days

This blog is going to be about my thoughts throughout my Digital Media experience. Before I jump into my Digital Media experiences, I'm going back even further, back to 1983.  My first experience with AB Tech started with me throwing the school catalog open and picking the first program I saw, Mechanical Engineering.  Yes, I really did not have a clue of "what I wanted to do when I grew up".  After about three years and less than an stellar GPA, I completed the Mechanical Engineering program. That was about the time Top Gun the movie came out and suddenly I got the desire to see the world. Long story short, I joined the Navy, saw the world and ended up retiring 20 years later ( by the way, the Navy was nothing like Top Gun).

Post Navy

I was back to "what do I want to do now that I've grown up". I had worked with electronics in the Navy so I decided to work at getting certified as an electrician. After about two years I decided that being an electrician was not my "cup of tea" and I had the GI bill (money for college). Once again I grabbed a AB Tech catalog and threw it open. I' m kidding, it wasn't quit that degree of a clueless decision (but close). I enjoyed digital photography and making slide shows so the Digital Media program seemed the logical choice. After all, how hard could it be?

The Beginning

My fist class was DME-110 that was completely full, at least for the first week. The class was a brief (very brief) introduction of what was to follow throughout the program. About half way through I started question my choice of majors and the realization started to set in, this was not going to be the "cake walk" I had envisioned. Little did I know at that time that the Digital Media program would be, in my opinion,  significantly harder than the Mechanical Engineering program I had squeaked by 20+ years ago. The program has three tracks that students can focus; Programming, Video and Artistic. Unlike many of the other students I did not have any idea which track I would focus my efforts. My instructor, Jonathan Ross assured me that I would figure it out later.

Half Way There

By the end of the first summer semester I had concluded that the programing track was not "my cup of tea" and the struggles with the animation classes were making me think that the artistic track was not looking promising either. By now I was  thinking that crawling under houses or in attics running wire was not that bad vise sitting in front of computer for long periods, struggling with code or being creative. However, to my surprise I really enjoyed the the DME-140 Introduction to Audio and Video class.  I was staring to think video may be the track for me.

Light at the end of the tunnel

I'm about to finish the spring semester which included the big scary DME 285 Systems Project class. I have a DME 270 Professional Practices and a couple of electives to finish the my degree. Its been very difficult journey, not the "cake walk" I anticipated. There have been some stressful times involving both school and family. I'm sure there were times that my instructors ears were burning when I'm at home struggling with homework.  Looking back I see this program is/was a difficult one to teach and I know my instructor Jonathan Ross had/has a sincere to desire for us the students to succeed in a field that is extremely complicated and competitive.

Conclusion

I'm proud and happy I stuck it out. I commend my fellow students that also stuck with it and will graduate this coming Friday.  Now I look forward to using all the tools that I have been given to hopefully make my mark in the videography business. Its a little scary but I know without any risk, there are no gains. Hopefully I've finally figured out what I want to do now that I'm grown.