So, I commute to work. Big deal, right?

Well, to me it is a big deal. To me, it is a minimum of three hours a day, 15 hours a week, 60-ish hours a month, and 720 hours a year . . . give or take.

To my car? That’s about 300 km per day, 1,500 km per week, 6,000 km per month – and about 75,000 km per year. If you look at the odometer of my 2006 Chevy HHR you’ll see 261,000 km plus. (Ignore the “Check Engine” light – it’s been on for the last 80,000 clicks.)

In other words, I am on the road driving to work or driving home from work for an entire month of the year.

Why would I do that?

That’s the question, isn’t it?

Let’s back up a bit. I’m from rural Southwestern Ontario. West of Hamilton. West of Brantford. Near the towns of Waterford, Simcoe and the hamlet Nixon. I can drive to the beaches of Lake Erie in about 20 minutes. I could drive to Detroit in about the same time as I drive to Toronto.

When it comes to Southwestern Ontario, I am smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

But, I was born there. I met my wife there. My 14-year-old son has played hockey there all his life. When I got my driver’s license the first thing I did was drive the 60 km east to Brantford.

Where I’m from, we drive.

If you didn’t have a car, you didn’t go anywhere. That’s just the way it was.

Since the age of 16, my driveway has seen:

• a little red Chevy S10
• a Ford Aerostar
• a Ford Windstar
• a Pontiac Trans Am
• a BMW 318i
• a Ford Explorer
• a Dodge 2000 GTX
• a Cadillac Eldorado (my personal favourite)
• an Oldsmobile Alero
• a Chevy Equinox
• and a Chevy HHR

So we’re back to “why” aren’t we? Why would someone drive 300 km a day for work?

The answer, in a word, is Advertising.

The industry. The brands. The shoots. The clients. The ups. The downs. The big wins. The terrible losses . . . the excitement of the whole package called “advertising.”

My compromise? I’m not moving to Toronto to get it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Toronto. But I also love the rural life that I’ve grown up with and want my son to have.

But let’s get back to why, specifically.

Back at the beginnings of my career, I found myself at Sheridan College in Brampton going through the Illustration program. We learned how to sharpen our conté with emery boards and all about guache and the line rule.

We also learned about advertising.

I knew then that that is where I wanted to be – somehow, somewhere in advertising. And where do you go to work in advertising? Toronto. It’s the centre of the universe, non?

The path I took to get here was not always direct. I had to work at a local newspaper and as a junior art director at a small ad agency near Pearson Airport. The next few jobs were still in the design or advertising fields, but much closer to home – some flyer design here, a newspaper ad there. Nothing substantial. Nothing that made you proud.

Finally, after the long road the came before, I landed at Grip Limited a year after it was founded. Fourteen or 15 people strong and I was there.

There is no other place I want to be at this point in my life. The people are amazingly talented, the parties are incredible, and the work . . . well, I’m probably biased on that one.

So, let’s recap. Yes, I drive an ungodly amount both measured in kilometers and in hours. I do it each and every day.

Why?

Advertising.