Things that I am most proud of...

I recently took on another personal development exercise and I have to admit it too was harder than I thought. I was asked to write about the personal accomplishment that I was the most proud of. When I really thought about it, there are a lot of things that I've accomplished in my life. Many that I'd really taken for granted over the years and just wrote off as "Well, yeah. No big deal." The truth is they really are a big deal. To list just a few:

• Marched for 15 seasons in competitive junior and senior drum corps
• Worked three seasons for the Baltimore Orioles
• Judged my first parade at the age of 15
• Worked as one of the youngest professional Santa Claus' in Baltimore retail history
• Photographed a variety of events for McDonald's Baltimore regional office before I was 21. Including Ronald McDonald appearances, store openings and McDonald's crew competitions.
  
• Took a three day temporary staffing assignment as a courier and stretched it into a four month project as a team member of a task force on mortgage banking, a subject I had no prior knowledge of before the project.
• Invited to apply for two positions at Maryland Public Television after serving several temporary assignments. Used the second invitation to secure a position in the copy center that then opened the door for my position with MotorWeek.
• Created the position of Manager, Strategic Alliances at Drum Corps International.

I'll stop there, but there are more. With all of that said, the accomplishment that I am the most proud of is that I did all of this without a bachelors degree. I have been blessed with the capacity to intuitively offer solutions that create cool environments and unique experiences.

I don't advocate not getting a degree as it will open even more doors when I'm finished, but remember that the lack of a degree should never stop you from pursuing what's important to you.