Tim Morawetz:  

As a boy of about six (the mid-1960s) living on the farm just north of Peterborough, I dreamed of one day becoming an architect. A few years later (in the years when I rode the school bus to Fairview Elementary School), my friend Billy and I spent Saturday afternoons building computers -- made out of shoeboxes with glued-on buttons -- that delivered cryptic answers handwritten on slips of paper. For Grades 7, 8 and 9, I attended Lakefield College School (the 'Grove'). Not being a strong athlete in team sports, Junior School was a better fit for me than Senior School, so for Grade 10 and beyond, I attended Adam Scott Collegiate & Vocational Institute in Peterborough. In Grade 12 at Adam Scott, I worked a couple of evenings a week in the camera department at K-Mart (thanks for connecting me with the job, Mr. Haensel!) while discovering publishing as editor of the yearbook, the Ascovian. During these years, I spent my summers as a camper and later a counsellor at my parents' business, Camp Ponacka. Upon graduation from Scott, I began studying architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa. It eventually became clear that my talents lay more in solving realistic architectural problems than exploring conceptual design issues. And, I was better talking about my design ideas than drawing them! So, I transferred into Carleton's Interdisciplinary Studies program, and designed my own B.A. curriculum under the lofty theme of 'theory and application of visual communications.' My new career goal was to work somehow as a writer in advertising or marketing or communications. Searching for my final summer job, I pored over the list of ad agencies in the Toronto yellow pages, then set up appointments to meet with their creative directors or writers. Though I didn't land a copywriting position for the summer, I did receive plenty of encouragement ...Expand for more