Even as January comes to an end, the hunt for the next chapter in my life continues. As I have told a couple of people, there have been a lot more failures than there have been successes. In thinking on it, I don’t think that there have been that many failures, so much as just no success to show. However, I really don’t think that any organization is going to come knocking on my door, asking if anyone knows where they can find an experienced communications professional. So, I continue the job search, utilizing the list of approximately 40-plus Job Boards (yeah, probably overkill and I’m really seeing where certain boards are more useful than others) and checking each twice a day during the work week. With people getting back to work after the holidays, the job postings have started up and the search has been a little more fruitful. I have applied for eight jobs this week, making it a total of 18 since the first of the year. I haven’t really seen too much return on those applications (through activity on either my portfolio website nor my LinkedIn account) but I remain hopeful that, at some point, that effort will pay off.
I did find out some sad news last weekend. Randomly, I started thinking about John Lavoie who attended Lambton College with me, lived in Residence our first year and was part of the Radio, Television, and Journalism program. I started to wonder if he had an Instagram account and, if so, if I followed him. In searching IG, I found a post from the company he had been working for. It was a photo of John and the dates, 1969-2025. The post read that it was with great sadness that they announced John’s passing. It turns out that John had passed suddenly back in October. As you can probably tell, we hadn’t remained in close touch but I’d had a good conversation with him about five years ago, just bringing him up to date with what I knew about the whereabouts and post-college careers of some of our classmates. I think he figured he out of the loop but I told him I only knew this from lurking around social media.
After hearing of John’s passing, I did use some of that lurking-gathered information to reach out to some of our former classmates and residents to let them know where I could. I wasn’t sure if any of them knew and, as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one who had missed the initial news of his passing.
As you might expect, news of John’s passing, the fact that he was exactly two months younger than me, that I hadn’t talked to him for some time and didn’t find about his death until three months later got me thinking about my own mortality as well as how difficulty it can be keeping in touch with people. Even in today’s day and age of social media, emails and texting, it seems that we’re less connected than ever. It’s not like everyone has a blog. (Although I’m a big believer that they should and if anyone out there keeps a blog, email me and let me know, I’d love to give it a follow.) It also doesn’t help that the social media platforms we thought were developed to help keep in touch have turned into just one long “I’m right; you’re wrong” rant. (Actually, from what I am seeing, it’s less the “I’m right” and more just the “You’re wrong!” part.)
Once again, with the weather being the way it is, there hasn’t been a lot of exciting adventures for me to tell you about. I watched a fair chunk of the Rolex 24 from Daytona. I even got to see Tommy Milner lead his division for a while on Sunday morning. Unfortunately his team finished fourth after one of his teammates missed one of the corners and fell back in the pack. Oh well, it was fun and it whet my appetite for racing. Tubi has been showing the old Busch Clashes from the 1980s and 1990s, getting NASCAR fans for the 2026 Cook Out Clash which is scheduled for this Sunday at Bowman Gray Stadium. I say “scheduled” because I’ve been hearing rumours that the weather might force a delay in the race’s running. Of course, it’s Thursday and I haven’t heard anything official so it might just be a rumour.
As always, if you have an opinion on anything mentioned here, drop me a line on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that you drop anyone you know and haven’t talked to in a while a message, even if it’s just a “Hey, just checking in to say ‘Hi!'” message. You never know what conversation that might lead to or if it might be the last time you talk to an old friend.
johnmilner.ca 