Graduated, Finally

So this blog post is slightly overdue and repetitive, since I have been tweeting about graduating A LOT the past weeks, but I figured my college years definitely deserved a blog post. 

So last friday I graduated from college- something I really didn’t see happening. In high school, i had my sights set on being a dancer/actor, and school was not on my agenda. I didn’t even take the SATs, and my GPA was really shitty (I got a F in a class, yeah, that bad). I really had no interest in going to college. But somehow my mom begged me to at least go to a community college, she said having an education can never HURT you, so i said fine and attended Santa Monica Community College. To have time for dance, I went to school from 8-11 every Monday- thursday, which was really brutal to wake up that early every day. But somehow a little voice in my head (mom) was telling me to go and do a good job, cause you never know where it can take you. I really had no plans on moving beyond a community college until the winter of 2007, when I took a film class from a professor who actually graduated from USC. He told us he went there and that his teaching style is extremely similar to that of USCs film classes, and although I thought he was a conceited jerk at first, i fell in love with his class. I never really knew going to school for something like film was an option. He then inspired me to look into USC’s film program, and i was blown away by it- the amount of hands on, real life experience you get, the faculty, the networking opportunities, etc. That’s when I decided i wanted to apply to USC. Although I knew my ultimate goal was to be an actor, I wanted to study film because I wanted something under my belt that wasn’t acting related, but still in the entertainment business. I knew it was going to be tough to transfer, especially when I had horrible high school grades. But somehow I pulled off a 4.0 at SMC, and was accepted into the film school after only a year at a community college. Its so crazy to think that one class can flip a switch on some one like me who had NO interest or motivation to go to a real college. That one class led me to the best 3 years of my life at usc. 

Throughout college, I always thought that I am missing out on dance and acting opportunities because of school, and it frustrated me at times. I’m the kind of person who devotes all of my time and energy on one thing, so juggling the two was hard on me mentally and emotionally, so I pretty much put all that on hold while in school (except for the guild of course). But every time i had that thought of frustration, i would think of all the experiences I was able to have at USC that no acting or dance job would have ever gave me— life long friends, living in a sorority house with 50 other girls, USC football games, making my own short films for class, being in a classroom with hundreds of other people that are smarter and more creative than me, learning from them, learning from my professors, and ultimately learning so much about myself. 

Lets be honest, I may have been able to work a few more gigs if I wasnt in school, but now that I know I have a college degree/education under my belt, I’m not nervous or scared or intimidated to go into this crazy world of the entertainment business. I am going to pursue a career in acting, but knowing I have something to fall back on is the best feeling in the world. I can go into this without the pressure that some people have, that its this or nothing at all. I have the gift of going into this business because I love it and I want to give it shot, not because I have no other option. I feel that this attitude and security is gonna benefit me, and I am so so thankful.

So thanks to my mom who MADE me go to a community college, and also thanks to my sister Lisa who was the smarty pants in my family, and someone I can look up to. 

so all you youngsters, GO TO COLLEGE- its worth it, i swear

okkaaay now off to figuring out how to pay off my student loans….oy…