Maaaaan. I can't believe how fast this year has gone! I guess it's true: the older you get the faster time travels. It seems like it was only yesterday that my cousin and I were kickin it in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl during last year's festivities. I found myself then trying to pick up the blank pieces that was 2008. What the hell happened this year? Where did it go? Why can't I remember?
As I began to piece it together, I came to realize how far I traveled this year alone and all the ups and downs I experienced. Here is my 2008 in a nutshell:
Jan 2008:
Kicked the new year off in style as my cousin, Josh, an I hit up New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. Unfortunately, Hawai'i got their ass handed to them on a southern platter. But we didn't care! Booze and boobs more than made up for it as New Orleans definitely goes on my list of places to revisit!
Feb 2008:
My contract with Microsoft ends and I'm off venturing once again in the land known as the "real world". Not to be confused or mistaken for MTV's Real World, a program that depresses me more and more everytime I watch it and realize that I am now older than every one of these drunken, spoiled off their daddy's incomes, sheltered from life so much to the point where they have to "find themselves" in a multi-million dollar mansion, too beautiful and detached from anything "real" to remotely represent anything or anyone in the actual "real world", drunken whores. But enough about these whores. I'm off to find a job.
March - May 2008:
These three months sucked for me and for those of you who were lucky enough to catch me away from the prison that was my new "job", you can remember how much it consumed my life...like a plague. This was, by far, the lowest point in the year and, come to think of it, maybe my life. I was working a job that was %100 commission based and made about $300 the whole time I was there. I'm not gonna bad mouth the company or anything, despite some people calling it a "scam" and comparing it to one of those "pyramid schemes". It wasn't. It simply was one of those commission based jobs where you get thrown into and you either sink or swim. Needless to say, I sank faster than a naked fat guy with weights tied around his ankles in a fresh water pond...with Superman holding onto the weights pulling him into the depths of the abyss. I fell behind so much so on all my bills that I'm still trying to pay them back. Thank goodness I'm not there anymore!
However, I did get to go back home to Hawai'i in May for my sister's graduation. Class of 2008, Moanalua! Woot woot!
June - Dec 2008:
For months, I've been keeping in contact with the sister of a friend I made while working at Microsoft. Our conversations mainly consisted of the film industry and my expressed interested in it. She finally insisted that if I were truly serious in a career in show business and if there were no incredibly huge reason for me to remain in Seattle (ie. career or girlfriend), that I save up some money and make the move down to Hollywood ASAP. "Cool! Yeah, that's the plan," I told her, "but what about once I'm there? How do I get a job? How do I get my foot in the door?"
"Don't worry about it," she replies. "I'll help you out. Just save up as much money as you can and let me know when you get to Hollywood!"
And that's what I did. I did some work at a fruit stand and with the help of my family, I made the trip down to the land of stars and celebrities. The land where people are just as fake as their boob jobs and face lifts.
Within a couple of days of my arrival I was already working on my first set. How, you ask? My most helpful contact just so happened to be the Assistant Director for NBC's The Office and she helped me out a lot in a town where you can get swallowed just as fast as you can get lost in the midst of everyone and their momma with the same hopes and dreams as the next guy.
Nov 2008:
Obama gets elected. At first I wasn't going to include this since this was gonna be a summary of my year, but this election was too huge to go unmentioned. I'm excited. I really hope he lives up to the hype. A lot of people criticized him of just being a walking publicity stunt who sold hope and change over what he can actually bring to the table. And I say to them: So? True or not, that's exactly what this country needs right now. These past years with the Bush administration, we've become a nation ashamed of their own nation. It was like Bush sold us a brand new pair of shoes and when we went home and opened the box, there were holes in the bottom. Enter this election, which, to me, felt like we were at the customer service counter with the bullshit shoes Bush Jr. sold us, trying to get our money back. Obama's at one side of the counter telling us "not to worry, it'll be OK, if you're not satisfied with your shoes, I will change it for you myself..and here, you can even have your money back", all the while McCain's over there like "come on! Let's go stomp out those motherfuckers who put holes in your shoes! I heard Iraq did it!"
But I've digressed. I'm glad the man won and I'm looking forward to how things are going to unfold in the next couple of terms. And honestly, I don't think Bush Jr. is a bad guy. He actually looks like a pretty cool and fun guy to hang out with. But definitely NOT someone you want managing anything, let alone running the country. I wouldn't even let the guy operate the controls on a ferris wheel! Cool guy though.
And that's what I've been doing ever since. I've worked a number of times on The Office, some independent movies, and some student films; and in between that production stuff I've been doing some background work. Interestingly enough, doing background work has recently reawakened an interest that I've had since I was younger and have never really shared with anyone until recently: acting. I know surprise, surprise, I'm pursuing acting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna pursue making my own stuff, but the way I see it, especially since I'm here, I don't want to limit myself to just one facet of the industry. I wanna keep my hands in both pockets and see which one takes off.
And I guess here's where things lead into 2009. I'm in a new city, pursuing a new career path, one that I'm actually interested in and passionate about. It kinda sucks that it took me so long to finally bite the bullet and commit to this career talking so much about it, (not many people know that Freshman year at UW I was in the process of transferring to an SC school to pursue film but opted not to cause my dad wanted me to study CSE since I was already at UW..go figure) but I wouldn't change anything because everything I experienced on this journey made me a better person (or so I'd like to think).
So here I am, playing chicken with 2009. I got 2008 behind me coughing up the dirt made by the car that is my life. Next month I'll be taking my headshots, which will lead to auditions, which will lead to who knows. On the production side, I'm in the early stages with some people I met on trying to get some stuff that I wrote shot. So I don't think I'll be veering off the path anytime soon, so 2009, I'm just gonna have to bowl right through you.
I'd say things are looking good. Especially relative to eight months ago when I was eating a couple scoops of peanut butter for dinner. If my life was a represented by a line graph I'd say that it would steadily be going up. I don't know what's in store for me for 2009, but I can honestly say that I've never been more excited for an upcoming year than this one.
Happy New Years everyone! Let's do it big for 2009!