Salut, my name is Ryan Antooa and #MyCanada revolves around doing the write thing.
Writer by trade and obsession. South American background. Born and raised in the quaint-but-lively city of Guelph, Ontario, and spent almost 2 years living in Vancouver, working as a writer/photographer/dancer. For me, my work has always involved words on paper. The smattering of ink onto the white space of blank pages has turned from passion and pastime, to passion that pays the bills, and allows me to create further with photography and design. My current work and musings can be found at ryanantooa.com - whether it was valedictorian speeches, Def Jam-esque poetry, short stories or essays - I was always putting pen to paper for maximal expression. Only now, working within the marketing world allows me to fund my success with the same words. Graduating from the University of Guelph in 2013 from an Honours Program in Nutrition meant two things: 1. I'd be unknowingly jobless like the rest of my peers and 2. the creative energy was at an all time low. So I did what every creative does when they're in a bind - I ran, to the far reaches of Vancouver, where I worked and lived for almost 2 years. Prior to that, the farthest I'd ever been was out of my mind!
"It's being damn near delirious, and chasing your goals with tenacity. It's knowing that you have something to offer to the creative stratosphere around us"
#MyCanada is the use of my platform as a Canadian citizen to paint whatever picture I can, and leave my mark as a writer on the world–changing the perspectives and actions of others for the better.
The concept of chasing passion, and the beauty of #MyCanada, is that we live in an environment and time where we can express ourselves however we want–a privilege that many others are denied elsewhere in the world. Never take that for granted. As such, chasing passion means having a vision that is unshakable by societal constructs. It's Alexander McQueen with his Dress No. 13. It's Mark Rothke's abstract vision. It's being damn near delirious, and chasing your goals with tenacity. It's knowing that you have something to offer to the creative stratosphere around us, and executing on the day-to-day tasks that piece together your vision. Chasing passion is drinking copious amounts of coffee, watching Akira, and re-sparking the energy on your craft–whatever it is.