Today is Thursday August 30th and it is the last day of my internship at IMG Canada Ltd, where I was an intern for the Operations Team. I won't be posting this until after the long weekend, but I thought it would be fitting to start writing this post at work. As I reflect on the craziness of the past 8 months, I am sometimes still in shock that I am in the position that I am.
A few weeks ago, I attended a Wong Fu event to see their new web series called Yappie aka Young Asian Professional (child of immigrant parents, who grew up becoming a "model minority" ... never knowing he had a choice). A Yappie is often described as living a comfortable life who played it safe; they went to university, got a job, and are working professionally. This was ME! I went to the University of Waterloo for Engineering; it may have taken me a little longer than usual but I still graduated from Management Engineering and got an IT Consulting job right out of university. I started working, earning a salary, getting promotions, and living life as expected. I was on the same path as many other Asians as our immigrant parents came here to give us a better life. But that last part "to give us a better life" , what does it actually mean? Do we follow along with their vision of success in life and become Doctors, Lawyers, or Engineers? I always felt like I wasn't destined for the traditional path of a Yappie, who would work then save up, get married, have kids, etc. As I got older and others around me were progressing through life, I was always looking for something...
That something was a passion... a passion for your career or for your significant other or for your business as an entrepreneur; I think everyone needs something that they are passionate about. And it wasn't enough for me to have this passion as just a hobby. I would say that my life was filled with a lot of hobbies and extra curriculars but it all felt fragmented and nothing was connecting. One constant throughout my whole life has been sports. An early childhood memory was watching Hockey Night in Canada on television with my dad on Saturday nights. I was never good enough at any sport to even dream about playing professionally, but I tried to play every sport that you could think of. There was something about sports that always drew me in and eventually this translated to esports as well. Again, I don't play any games at a high level, but I love watching high level competition in video games as well as traditional sports.
A job in sports was always a dream but never seemed attainable as I wasn't sure how I would enter that industry. I tried applying to theScore a few times but I never knew what position I wanted to go for and my skills never seemed to align. It wasn't until my cousin went back to school for Sport and Event Marketing at George Brown College that I finally saw a path to change my course of life. The timing aligned with an explosion within the esports world as franchising and a whole lot of money was flooding into League of Legends and Overwatch. My vision is to utilize the knowledge and experiences from the Sport and Event Marketing program and apply it to the gaming and esports industry. Taking this leap from IT Consulting to Marketing was a major life decision and it came with a lot of scrutiny. Coming from an Asian family, Marketing isn't really seen as a higher level of education / career path that is highly sought after. This was my escape from the Yappie lifestyle and me taking the path less traveled. A lot of people did not understand, but there was also a group of people that were envious that I was able to make this decision. They are in positions where there are too many other external factors that would prevent them from making this jump.
February was an interesting transition as I stopped working and I started school again. It was 5 years since I was last in school and not making an income. Luckily I have saved a decent amount of money and I haven't made any major purchases in the last few years, so I felt financially secure still. Working professionally was much more time consuming and took a lot more effort, so school was very relaxing compared to it. The additional free time was put into networking and exposing myself to the gaming and esports industry.
I started this blog in January as an outlet to be creative in writing and graphic design while I cover esports. I have been consistently posting since then and this is post #100. This blog has been private the entire time but after reaching 100 posts, I feel like it is time to make it public and get feedback from anyone who reads it. To be honest, it wouldn't bother me a bit if no one ever reads it as it has always been for myself and no one else. This journey into marketing and esports has been all about myself and not giving into external influences that may have affected me in the past. This post will go live on Tuesday September 4th, which is the 1st day of school for myself and many others. I am 4 months away from graduating from the Sport and Event Marketing program and then going back to the real world. I have made some amazing connections in the past 8 months and I hope to continue to grow these relationships further. It has been one hell of a ride so far and it won't get any easier, but it will also be a lot of fun. I look forward to continuing my journey and if you are reading this, then maybe you will join me.
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