I Think I'm Becoming Positive

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I would never have said that I was a particularly negative person. And yet- my perspectives on myself and what I spend my time doing have, as of late, been negative. I joke that I'm not a real writer, not a real filmmaker, not a real artist, whatever. Lately, I think it's been getting to me.

I'm not a real writer, so why finish my novel?I'm not a real filmmaker, so why struggle to make films?I'm not a real artist, so why call what I do "art"?I wouldn't say it hit me all at once, but I kind of came to realize that my attitude was affecting my work. I always prided myself on not being someone who takes themselves too seriously, and to an extent that remains true. I have no intention of becoming some hum-drum that only talks about how messed up the world is. That's completely unproductive and thoroughly annoying.But I think I ought to give myself a little more credit than I do. I've made half a dozen or so short films, and worked dozens of hours on sets. So yeah, I'm a real filmmaker. I've written hundreds of pages of this damn book and I'm so close to finishing a draft that I can taste it. So yeah, I'm a real writer. Writing and filmmaking are art forms, so hell yeah, I'm an artist.

I think I'm becoming one of those ~positive people~. And not in the way that I have been, which is where I make jokes when things are terrible. (The more terrible things are, the more jokes I make. I can draw a graph, if that would help.) And definitely not in the *everything will be okay* way because that's impractical and dangerously reductive. I mean genuinely positive. Like, I think I know what I want to do with my life? And maybe... how to do it? I know it'll be hard but I feel like I... can handle it?

Halfway through film school and I finally feel like I really know where I am and where I want to be. Maybe it's a passing thing, and tomorrow I'll wake up feeling lost again. But if anything, that makes writing this down now all the more important, so when I start to doubt myself again I can look back at this and remember that yes, I do know what I want to do, and yes, I am doing it right now. Literally, right now. I'm sitting in class as I write this. (Maybe if I were really doing this right I'd be paying attention.)

But for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I feel so confident and so right with what I'm doing. I want to tell stories, and I know how to tell them. And it's a good feeling. I hope that you can find that same sense of purpose, dear reader, in something important to you, whatever that may be.

Not pictured: Me

Pictured: my sister, looking cool on a bench in Greece while I sacrifice proper exposure for that JJ Abrams Lens Flare