This has essentially been my life for the past year.

Scratch that, this has been my life for the past 4 years in the new media program at Ryerson University. That said, this has never been more blatant to me than this year doing my thesis project. There are a variety of phases in every project that take up a lot of time. In New Media, this often involves things not working for no particular reason and errors popping up enmasse as you try to progress and refusing to accept code that SHOULD fix it or making even more errors. And while I've always powered through every project in life without fail, both figuratively and literally, I won't lie when I say there are times when I'm just like "FUCK EVERYTHING" and begin hating my project with a passion until its done. My thesis is a great example of this. I still have the utmost faith in my project and will proudly stand by it. That being said, given the severe learning curve of making a game, particularly with programming, there were countless "Fuck it" moments during development. As always though, I got my work done and am all the better for it.

What is New Media? Good question. I've learned that there isn't really a definite answer for that. The closest thing I can come up with is "creative combinations of art and technology", which probably doesn't descripe everything it encompasses. Instead, I've learned new media is whatever you want it to be. I've made games, interactive applications, and even data portraits in this program and have dabbled in the world of programming. I've come far from being the bloke who walked into who specialized in video editing/production and graphic design. Now I'm not only better at those but I have a bunch of other skills to add to my list. These 4 years in the program have taught me a lot of things I would've otherwise never learned. Exposed me to things that completely changed my perception of art. Caused me to meet amazing and extraordinary people and gave me unforgettable experiences. I'm grateful for all the joy and all the pain. I'm sad it's (almost) over. I will truly miss it, even though I'm still at the University for an extra year to do my Masters degree.

See you next comic! :)