Dramatic Drama – Part 6 of 7: Teen Superstar! Not.

Nothing is quite so satisfying as when you finally figure out how it works, where all the pieces fall, and what your real passion is. It’s like waking up from a long dream into Shakespeare in Love. You understand your grand purpose, your modus operandi, your raison d’être. And it takes a long hard winding path with more than one’s fair share of misdirection, sidetracking, and moments of déjà vu from passing Albuquerque too many times to get there. But even then the good fight is not over. Even now after I know my true calling of melding fine arts and technology there are still many kilometers to journey. I don’t know exactly what my ultimate career will be. Do I dare trek into graduate school? Should I create my own independent films with my newly bought prosumer camcorder? Should I continue taking film extra parts hoping to get rich and lucky or should I pursue a theatrical route in community plays? Should I stay or should I go to another state? I end up with more “what if’s” than I started.
I said this week that I was dedicating my blogs to the postgraduates, and I think that we all share a common thread in that many college students don’t know what they want with their life, even when they are in mid-adulthood and beyond. It’s tough for college advisors to tell students that until you go out there and experience life for yourself, you don’t know what you’re capable of and what’s really out there. I sympathize. Like one of my older coworker, and friend, said to me, “wouldn’t it be easier if someone could tell us what decision to make at critical junctions in our life?” Indeed, but then where would the fun/masochism! be in that. One movie that I recommend is “American Graffiti” with directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. It is probably just as true today. It shows the innocent struggles of graduating high school students on the brink of adulthood contemplating what to do with their lives while being set in the 60’s with an all star cast of Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, and Richard Dreyfus.
I recently applied to several things around the neighborhood. A new service I found useful for local jobs is “craigslist” which can be useful for free job searches, ad posting, and acting gigs too. I’m also on several message groups and user newslists / newsgroups. I want to emphasize that these are excellent for finding jobs in the so called “hidden job market” before they hit the newspapers and are posted to the public. Or they are great for smaller local stuff. If you ever get a chance grab some of your local free newspapers at the local grocery store or weekend edition of the newspaper and you can find art and audition leads as well. Many jobs are not posted publicly but hire from within, so if you can get there before the competition, you have a one-two punch of getting closer to working. Internships are great for getting a foot in the door.
I also want to emphasize this: take every single opportunity or viable lead you come across. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. But never leave things just up to chance. Lady Luck is fickle and you have to put the cards in your favor. Even if the job or position isn’t right you’ll learn something to do better next time. For example, I saw another music video channel position for teens that would make their dreams come true. I found it while renewing a book on my local library’s website. It was a position for teens and when I got there, I had to wait around for several hours with a lot of younger kids and feed my meter a few times. I felt extremely self conscious. I finally got a brief talk to the interview before she interrupted and thanked me. I had used the audition also hoping to get hired for a job, but with no luck. However the person was sympathetic as I graciously left. Just as I got to the door handle the person said, “Try looking for a local internship position. There’s several around.” I faced my fear and went for it. It’s all that matters.