What Comes Next?

My collegiate career began with me photoshopping my face onto a famous picture and writing about my year, it seems only fitting that it end that way too.

The Final Semester

As far as the collegiate experience goes, this semester has by far been my most tame. My time in PDT is finished, there was no Hippodrome to put on, and I’m in fewer hours than I’ve taken any previous semester. It certainly felt like the end of an adventure, like a Hobbit proudly marching his way back home after tricking the dragon and making off with his share of the gold.

My primary triumph this semester has just been showing up and being a part of this semester. The core of my classes, the ones I was really excited to take, had already been taken. This semester was a side platter of leftovers. However, this also ended up being a very productive semester in terms of portfolio work.

Not only did I (nearly) finish my Senior Practicum short- it has one final round of editing to go before its sent into the world-, but I wrote another and am on track to film that before my college-given equipment access disappears at the end of the semester.

I also got a fair amount of writing done, not just this semester, but throughout the year as a whole. My written portfolio of scripts, blogs, and articles has grown not just in quantity, but dare I say quality.

But, again, this semester has been pretty uneventful. Since it is the end, I think this post is best served to commemorate and comment on the journey, not necessarily the destination.

The Plan

By no means did I have a bad time in High School, but I didn’t quite have the epic, John Hughes directed adventure I had been lead to believe that every American teenager had. I went into college with the same wide-eyed expectations, albeit slightly more nuanced ones. I had a plan, I had two-majors, and I knew exactly what my next four years were to look like.

Here is said plan:

• Graduate with a Double Major in Political Science and Spanish
• Work at the Warren as a Manager
• Stay at home, save up money, graduate debt free
• Become Student Body President

75% of that plan had either changed or fallen apart by the end of my first semester, and only one minute detail of it remained after the end of my first year.

By that time I had dropped the Political Science portion of my double major and replaced it with Marketing. I quit my job at the Warren because Best Buy offered more money to do less unappealing work. I moved out from my parents’ house and into Phi Delt because I had been elected to a live-in position. I then left Best Buy for a job with steadier hours, which I then left four months later because there are few more-unpleasant places to work. And I gave up on Student Body President because A) It was a mess and B) I did not want to divest my time into cleaning it up.

Wide-eyed Collin quickly became tired-eyed Collin and the bright-eyed ambition was soon crushed unceremoniously during what is probably the most difficult portion of my adult life- to this point.

The Empire Strikes Back

The tail-end of Freshman year to the end of the first semester of Sophomore were dismal at best. Why? Because I had two jobs that I was neither prepared for, nor that I wanted.

The Kitchen Manager position at PDT has, for a long time, been considered something between Hell and an inside joke. I, as a wide-eyed Freshman, decided I was up for the challenge of the world’s most difficult boss. I was not. And to make matter’s worse, my day job was under her son working at a demanding, and demeaning police supply company.

Like a dementor, these positions sucked the soul out of me. I don’t consider myself a very depressed person, but those four months where I worked both jobs took me to the brink. The only thing worse than a thankless job is doing another one when you get home and being endlessly-berated just for showing up. But this post isn’t meant to dwell on these things, rather it is to focus on what came from them.

A New Hope

*Now, I understand that A New Hope shouldn’t go after The Empire Strikes Back, but in my life it did.

The one benefit of hating every minute of my day during this time, and from having my mental health daily torn to shreds, was that it forced me to look for outlets. When your soul is daily being drained of all life, you make an extra effort to look for what really feeds it. It was at this time that I began to re-embrace the creative roots I had lost touch with as I’d gotten older.

I looked at the path I was on, said “I don’t like this now, why am I setting course for the next 50-60 years to be patterned after it”. And so the plan changed again.

I dropped the double major and became a Media Arts major with a minor in Spanish. I left the dusky office job and came onboard as the Children’s Director. And I dusted off my keyboard and began to write. Not just the occasional blog post, but real writing that stretched me. I joined on with MovieBabble and began writing creatively in my spare time.

Take 3

The plan I graduated on wasn’t the first plan. It wasn’t the second plan. It was the third plan. It was the plan that my high school self only dreamed of dreaming of. It was the plan that was the least practical, the least secure, and the biggest stretch. But here at the end, I can’t imagine having stuck with Plan 1 or 2 all this time. These were fine plans, but they checked a box instead of scratching an itch.

Scratching an Itch

So what is the plan?

I want to write. I’ve always wanted to write, but it wasn’t until Plan #3 that I began to see that as not just a possibility but a reality. I want to screenwrite primarily, but one form of writing begets another for all serious writers. Currently, I’m taking a break from Spec Scripts and am working on a book that I hope to have finished by the end of the year.

Now that my degree is locked down, save the dots of a few I’s and dashes on a few T’s, I’m focused primarily on building my portfolio. That means more writing and more shorts to come over the next year.

The biggest chunk of my next calendar year, however, will be working and saving money. If you want to break into any kind of writing industry it helps to live in a big city. If you want to break into the screenwriting industry there’s only one big city to get started in.

Currently I’m on track to depart ICT in January of 2022, assuming the industry has stabilized a little post-Covid, and head to the City of Angels.

Hopefully one day you can see my name in the credits or catch a book of mine on a best-seller list, but for now (and the foreseeable future) you can always read me here or at MovieBabble.

Full of Thanks

As I wrap up my collegiate career, I’m thankful. And since this is my blog and I can do whatever I want, I want to take some word-space and thank the people that have made a difference along the way.

I want to thank Mom and Dad for being a safety net when I’ve needed it, wise council when I haven’t wanted it, and countless roles more.

I want to thank the best friends that have carried over since high school and will for years to come. Life just wouldn’t be as fun without Robert and Jered by my side.

I want to thank the new best friends I’ve made during college; Ryan, Zach, Coleman, Abby, Mady, and Emily. Thanks for helping me grow out of my comfort zone and keeping me sane during difficult times.

I want to thank the Professors that pushed me not just technically but creatively and personally; particularly Jeanine, John, and Robert.

I want to thank Scott and Restoration Church for hiring me for a job that not only do I love but that constantly pushes me to grow spiritually.

I want to thank Joseph and Dalton, two men who have greatly invested in and mentored me over the past few years.

I’m thankful for the smooth sailing, for the rough patches, for the moments of doubt, for the failures, the setbacks, the triumphs, the losses, the mistakes, and the victories.

I’m thankful that this isn’t the plan I thought I wanted, nor the plan I had planned on. I’m thankful that this is the plan that came to be, because I can’t imagine committing to any of the others.

As ABBA once said, “If I had to do the same again, I would my friend.”