Cutting Mat

After reading some articles about using tagboard for pressing templates and "permanent" patterns, I thought I would finally get a cutting mat. I've had a rotary cutter and a pile of replacement blades since a Black Friday or whenever they were on major sale. I think I always thought of them for quilting, but everyone seems to like them, so I'll give it a try. For the templates, I assume I'll use an xacto knife. Either way, I wanted a mat for cutting. I thought about getting a larger size since 24x36 didn't sound that big, but when I saw the box on the porch, I was all like, what the hell is that?