A Wrap on College

May seem hard to believe (probably moreso for me than for anyone else) but I graduated, and even got a picture to prove it!

That's the face of a man who had slept in an actual bed for a handful of days in the previous few weeks, and had endured a couple 14-hour editing sessions to get his movie done on time, as well as a surprise lack of submitted grades needed to actually receive his diploma. I literally got an email from our registrar the morning of graduation saying that my diploma had been processed. Shoutout to that guy for coming in clutch at the most clutch moment possible. Luckily, everything came together, and now I can stop and take a deep breath. For a while, I just assumed that once everything was over and done with, a wave of suppressed exhaustion would cause my body to collapse into dust like the end of Infinity War, but here I am still kickin' it for long enough to write this blog a few days later.

I'm pretty sure I've gone into detail before about how I probably shouldn't have been financially able to go to BU, and that the only reason I finished was due to a generous loan from a family member, so I don't want to get too into it. I'll just say I feel like I did everything in my power to do right by the people that made this possible for me and make the very best of my limited time and resources at BU. It's always at least worth the mention to express how lucky and grateful I am to have the people around me that I do, as I wouldn't really be anywhere without them.

The results of that final semester and the tale of perseverance that was my thesis film culminated in It Came From Above, my most ambitious endeavor in writing, directing, and production design among various other positions I was required to fill. I definitely learned some huge lessons from this project: one being that true friendship can be a huge factor in motivating people to work on a project for you, as I came to find I lost many of my desired crewmates to other projects, but you can't really be mad at people for committing to help those they have a stronger relationship with. The other big lesson was to hold those who work with you to your own standard of quality. Very early on, I made a mistake of assuming that everyone is our thesis film class had the same level of ambition and standards as me, and at the risk of sounding egotistical, that was not the case, and it came back to bite me on more than one occasion.

​Better I do it now than a few years down the road, though. I feel that the ways I've failed on this project have prepared me for the future in ways that you can't learn in a classroom. Something I hear athlete's talking about a lot, this idea of failure strengthening you and setting you up for success down the road. It's definitely something I buy into, and use as motivation to stick with things and not give up. Anyway, here's a picture of some of the people who made the movie possible. Love these people and hope to work with them again soon. Shoutout to Ernie Wu on the left for being the only person to make it to every single shoot from start to finish (the final pickup shoot was literally just the two of us and the actress).

Ignore my inability to look normal on camera, I'm much more comfortable behind the scenes. Also shoutout to Emily Bennett for giving our movie the strongest poster game by a longshot.

To have finally made it to graduation at last is almost too surreal to process. It's a moment that I've contemplated for years, and now that it's come and gone, I don't know what to do with myself. It's a very bizarre feeling of numbness. I guess with a couple of days' rest, it's time to look towards my next project, whatever that may be. There's no more school structure to dictate my life and creative work now, and I haven't found long-term work yet, so I have an intimidating amount of freedom for the time being. I'll jump back into the artistic swing of things in no time, but for now, I think I want to have a beer, sit by some water, and do nothing else. Gotta keep livin, man. ​

Here's a picture of home I took on a boat.