It Begins!

This blog is a requirement of the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College (Course 3100 - Foundations of Adult Education)

To My Fellow Students (& Karen):

I am the lucky husband of Melissa and the father of five amazing humans  - James, Jennifer, Ricky, Connor, and Leo. As a screenwriter, producer, composer, instructor, and now VP of Academics at SC Institute of the Arts, I get to do and teach what I love every day. I adore my family, my job, and pretty much everything about my life. Yes, I do know how incredibly fortunate I am and try to take none of it for granted.

Because I vividly remember seven years ago, when I was a rig worker and training supervisor in Alberta oil and gas industry. Surrounded by great people, I was nonetheless in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, making buckets of money and feeling miserable, wishing I could pursue what I really love: telling stories and making movies.

And then in 2011, my daughter had the audacity one day to ask me why I was preaching to her about following her dreams when I wasn't following my own. (She was 13. I know, right?) So on a wing and a prayer, and with the incredible support of my more-than-incredible partner, we packed our bags, headed west, went back to school, and never looked back.

For years now, I've had a blast writing and scoring for film, web series, comics, and more, and now I get to teach what I love. I'm not just a provider of adult education, my life has been radically changed and improved by it, as have the lives of the people I care most about. In fact, being silly enough to chase after my own dreams later in life has played a big role in inspiring my kids to go after theirs.

So when I meet people sitting on the fence about pursuing a lifelong goal, I get excited about encouraging them to do just that. No matter how old they are, where they've been, or how impossible it might seem. It is truly never too late!