If you know me, you know that I went to journalism school. My life revolved around stories. I never really considered myself the best of writers, but I had a passion for reporting. I asked questions, I did my research, I got to the bottom of whatever it was that I was trying to figure out, and I knew how to write it up into some kind of interesting story.

Most of the time, the result ended up as an assignment that I turned in for a grade. Sometimes it ended up published in the student newspaper, the alt-weekly, or as a restaurant review on a local neighborhood blog. Slowly that turned into copy for real estate advertisements, descriptions of houses that showed up on MLS pages, or in fancy publications where luxury homes for sale were printed with full-bleed photographs on glossy pages. Then it turned into "content" for a printing company where I was the head of marketing, but really, was the entire marketing department, from strategy to creative. And after a while, it just wasn't fun anymore; it was work. It wasn't what I envisioned my writing would turn into. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't really have it in me to turn my writing into some sort of actually rewarding career.

I graduated with my bachelor's in Mass Communications, Journalism and Media Studies from the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg in August of 2012. I was a little later than most, which is a whole other story, but I got it done. I got the degree.

I was proud of it, too. A lot of things were stacked against me not to get that damn piece of paper. Better yet, I didn't owe a dime to anyone for it. Gratitude, yes; money, none.

2012 was not the best time to graduate from college with a journalism degree, though. Maybe not the worst, but not the greatest. Especially from a college that no one outside the Tampa Bay area really gave much weight to. At least, that was the kind of bullshit I liked to tell myself.

Looking back, there were much worse times to graduate coming down the pike. All excuses aside, I was not really in the best position or self-awareness to really put that degree to any respectable use. And that was on me, no one else.

Peers in my class did. Some went on to write for the Tampa Bay Times or some other local newspaper, or work at the Poynter Institute, or do something that was actually in journalism, or at least the media industry. So no one had an excuse; it was possible.

A lot of my peers I graduated with were like me. Despite all the advice, training, and such that the school provided to prepare us for graduation, we ended up clueless, unmotivated, and if we were lucky, underemployed.

I really didn't understand what it took to pursue and maintain a career as a "real writer." I found out quickly it took a lot more than I expected.

I figured it out, though. I found a way to take the skills I learned and turn them into a career in marketing. First working for real estate agents, then at a commercial printing company. I had a few crappy jobs in between, but the marketing ones were pretty alright. I even got paid to write, but boy was it boring as hell. It really stressed me out. Most of the time, I was not working with any kind of copyeditor to take a look over my work. Like I said, I'm technically not the best writer in the world; my spelling in particular is not very good—more of a symptom of my eyesight than anything, but bad any way you look at it. Mistakes happened, and I always got really upset about having a typo go to print, or getting a comment on the company blog from someone pointing out a misspelling.

Eventually, though, I went back to school, earned a master's degree from the VCU Brandcenter, and started my career in advertising as a strategist. It's great, and I'm glad I did it. I get to write a lot, and I like that, but the style of writing is very punchy, stripped down, dare I say functional. It needs to be super clear, distilled, and respectful of people's time. You're telling stories in headlines and insights, not prose. Hours are spent getting a single line correct, or turning a sentence into three words that really break down the essence of an idea. It's very interesting and gets you thinking; I do like the work. And that's what it is: it's work, it feels like work, it's for work, it needs to work, and it needs to work well. I'm mostly writing things for people who really don't have the time or need to read everything; they just need to know what they need to know so they can make something cool. So I keep it short, I keep it straight. We like to use words like "punchy," "snappy," or "concise" a lot.

It's way different from how I used to write, or what I wanted to write way back when I was a student on the shores of Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg. I miss that type of writing, and here, what you are reading now, is hopefully a place to get back to it. To tell stories, get ideas out of my brain and into the ether, and do it my way.

Sure, subjects might be work- or strategy-related—I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, creativity, and the wider advertising industry as a whole. The point is, they don't need to be. Some writing I do may be aimed at grabbing attention in the advertising industry, but I also just want to entertain people, make them feel something, learn something, and inspire them to do something.

We'll figure it out as it goes along. The point is, it's about expression, purely beyond work. I hope you enjoy it. I'm going to do my best to have fun writing it.