Coming Alive at 25
2020 is bringing about a whole new slew of changes. The start of an entirely new decade that has everyone making not only New Year resolutions but new decade resolutions. I too will be hopping on that boat.
2020 has already developed a strange feel to it. This year I will be turning twenty-five. I will be a quarter of a century old. That is a crazy thought to me. But there was something about turning twenty-five that made me stop and think. There have been many things I've wanted to do over the years, from acting, to singing, to writing. Anything my brain though would be a good idea I'd try to chase. I developed a love for film at a young age and dreamed of writing and directing my own feature-length film. Over the years, these fascinations and dreams have come and gone.
But now that I am older, and continuing to get older, I have decided it's high time to zero in on what I want, which dreams I think are important to chase. And I have it narrowed down to two. And the best part? They tend to go hand-in-hand.
Writing, of course, and film.
So going back down memory lane for a minute, let me explain how I came to this conclusion. In 2001, when I was six years old, the first Lord of the Rings movie came out in theaters. Although I never got to the theater to see it, my mom made sure we watched it the moment it came out on DVD. I. like many others, fell in love with the movie. Fell in love with the trilogy. Return of the King was the first non-kids' movie I ever saw in theaters (at least that I can remember). Then the glorious extended editions came out and you can bet my mom was the first in line to buy them. My sisters and I would watch them over and over, all twelve hours of it. We have at least one day a year we marathon all three. They are fantastic movies. And they're the reason I fell in love with film.
Never before had I seen a movie series like Lord of the Rings. It was full of characters and places that were completely new to me. I grew up watching a lot of films that didn't dabble in the world of fantasy, movies that didn't require as much special and practical effects as Lord of the Rings did. I was the kid who would watch all three extended editions, then find all the behind-the-scenes footage, then go back and watch the movies again, this time with the director and actors' commentary. I was obsessed with these movies and the way they were made. Still am.
I fell in love with filmmaking and discovered at an early age that I enjoyed being behind the camera, not in front of it. I tried acting for a little bit, and while I do really enjoy it and will go back and do it from time to time, it's the behind-the-scenes that get me excited. The writing and creation of a story, the filming, the framing of shots and editing them into one cohesive visual story. It's what I love.
And it's what I keep coming back to. I keep coming back to writing. I keep coming back to film. I could try countless other things and know that I will always fall back to these two. I finally found a mold I fit in. I found it a long time ago. I just didn't realize it until now. So here I am at the beginning of 2020, promising myself that this is the year I won't give up and tell myself these ideas and these dreams are stupid. If I keep coming back to them, that means something, and I have to keep telling myself that I can do it.
As a wise puppet once said, "Do or do not. There is no try." 2020 is going to be there year of "do", because I can do it. Here's to you 2020. You're going to be a great year!
2020 has already developed a strange feel to it. This year I will be turning twenty-five. I will be a quarter of a century old. That is a crazy thought to me. But there was something about turning twenty-five that made me stop and think. There have been many things I've wanted to do over the years, from acting, to singing, to writing. Anything my brain though would be a good idea I'd try to chase. I developed a love for film at a young age and dreamed of writing and directing my own feature-length film. Over the years, these fascinations and dreams have come and gone.
But now that I am older, and continuing to get older, I have decided it's high time to zero in on what I want, which dreams I think are important to chase. And I have it narrowed down to two. And the best part? They tend to go hand-in-hand.
Writing, of course, and film.
So going back down memory lane for a minute, let me explain how I came to this conclusion. In 2001, when I was six years old, the first Lord of the Rings movie came out in theaters. Although I never got to the theater to see it, my mom made sure we watched it the moment it came out on DVD. I. like many others, fell in love with the movie. Fell in love with the trilogy. Return of the King was the first non-kids' movie I ever saw in theaters (at least that I can remember). Then the glorious extended editions came out and you can bet my mom was the first in line to buy them. My sisters and I would watch them over and over, all twelve hours of it. We have at least one day a year we marathon all three. They are fantastic movies. And they're the reason I fell in love with film.
Never before had I seen a movie series like Lord of the Rings. It was full of characters and places that were completely new to me. I grew up watching a lot of films that didn't dabble in the world of fantasy, movies that didn't require as much special and practical effects as Lord of the Rings did. I was the kid who would watch all three extended editions, then find all the behind-the-scenes footage, then go back and watch the movies again, this time with the director and actors' commentary. I was obsessed with these movies and the way they were made. Still am.
I fell in love with filmmaking and discovered at an early age that I enjoyed being behind the camera, not in front of it. I tried acting for a little bit, and while I do really enjoy it and will go back and do it from time to time, it's the behind-the-scenes that get me excited. The writing and creation of a story, the filming, the framing of shots and editing them into one cohesive visual story. It's what I love.
And it's what I keep coming back to. I keep coming back to writing. I keep coming back to film. I could try countless other things and know that I will always fall back to these two. I finally found a mold I fit in. I found it a long time ago. I just didn't realize it until now. So here I am at the beginning of 2020, promising myself that this is the year I won't give up and tell myself these ideas and these dreams are stupid. If I keep coming back to them, that means something, and I have to keep telling myself that I can do it.
As a wise puppet once said, "Do or do not. There is no try." 2020 is going to be there year of "do", because I can do it. Here's to you 2020. You're going to be a great year!
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