Dear Holder of My Future,

Dear Holder of My Future,

In a world where your parents are lawyers, your sister is headed to med school, your grandfather is a chemical engineer and everyone around you seems to be working from the left side of the brain, where the world is cookie cutter and black and white, you tend to cling that much harder to those who are on the right side of the brain, the gray side... your side.

Movies, media, photography, stories. All of these things have been seen as “forms of entertainment” or “ways to be side-tracked” by most everybody who knows that these are where my interests lie. Growing up, however, one person always seemed to have the mindset and passions that I did. My grandmother. It is through her that I’ve come to appreciate the fact that every person isn’t just a scientific being made of cells and atoms, but a living story to be seen and heard. Every photograph isn’t to simply document an event, rather a memory of the stories that lie in the moments around it. Every song is not background noise, but a way for people to connect through feeling the beat of the music or relating to a lyric.

At least this is how I view them. Being interested in wanting to provide these types of inspiration and appreciation for story-telling has led me to an ever-lasting search of how I can be a part of getting these stories told and heard. Taking the position as a photographer for the Clemson Athletic Department seemed like the perfect start. Capturing moments of happiness, defeat, and everything in between and letting people relive these moments have been riveting. As years pass and I see that capturing moving pictures can show a larger part of a story. Freelance video projects and brainstorming ideas for what story lines could be filmed and how has become my passion. Bit by bit I have tried to relate my studies, jobs and internships to my search for making story-telling a life-long career. A goal that is difficult a difficult and to some considered an absurd goal to try and achieve.

Scrapping out a few of the last available film-related courses at Clemson, I decided to take the course “Structure of a Screenplay”. Screenwriting. The root of a story. The person who gets to choose where a story blossoms and where it meets its end. This is where I found that my passion of fully creating a story, and not just capturing one, could be achieved in the form of a script. I have specifically found that my interests lie in writing for television. I have written three total pilot episodes in the areas of comedy and drama. While I hope to continue to pursue this area of writing, I would also love to learn about writing feature scripts and plays. Now, what to do when the lone screenwriting course ends and your interest of learning more is just beginning? Take it again. Learn as much as possible. And then when that’s over, hope that this never-ending process of learning and creating can be continued.

Learning and creating are thankfully things that can always be done, especially with all the technology and YouTube... Oh man, thank God for YouTube. But I don’t want to just learn, I want to get better. What better way to get better than to be surrounded by the best? I want to be in an environment where my peers can teach me just as much as my mentors. I have enjoyed my time at Clemson because it has gotten me to where I am now, but to be in a community of writers and creative minds is where I desire to be. This is where my story continues and can blossom in the direction that I want it to, which is into the door of a Screenwriting MFA Program, with the continuous help of those around me that are knowlingly jumping on to a plane that is known to crash and have lots of turbulance. Here's to hoping the ride is worth it.

Sincerely,