Jack

I have always kind of considered myself a Jack of all trades. Unfortunately the rest of the phrase applies as well, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. When I look back at all of my interests in different things, I would work on new topics, get the gist of things, become bored, then move on to something else. I know a little of a lot, but not a lot of one thing. This is definitely a curse of mine. I especially realized this as a curse when my childhood was ending and I had to pick something I wanted to specialize in for the rest of my life. I absolutely had no clue what I was going to do. Nothing had held my attention long enough for me to become really good at. So when I was offered the opportunity to move to Orange County and saw that OCC had a good film program I figured film was my best bet.

I looked at all of the things that I dabbled in and picked out my favorites. I like being creative, working with my hands, meeting new people, and liked movies. Sounds like a film maker to me. I reinforced this decision of mine with the memory of my best friend and I making little animations and short adventure films from Jr. High. I remember I edited one of our movies with two VCR’s. I would hit play with the master tape then hit record on the blank tape. A lot of fast forwarding, rewinding, and re-recording was done and made the quality get worse and worse, but we enjoyed the final cut and had received a good grade on it.  Little did I know this was my first introduction to linear editing. This would lead me to Video Tech in high school, then eventually lead to Avid editing in college, then finally end up in cutting for Extinct Attractions. Where there I would come to the conclusion that I hate editing other peoples stuff that I’m not interested in.     …..lame….    I just spent a couple years getting really good at something that ended up to be a hobby.

So where’s Jack now? I’m dabbling in new things once again. At work I’m a camera operator, certificates guy, and backup graphics. I’m working on drawings, paintings, and have been wanting to glue stuff together. I read up on news that involves board games, sports, video games, world news, art, science, and pretty much anything that’s out there.

Sometimes I feel like I’m back to square one. Like maybe I could have been at this state of mind right when I got out of high school. Maybe I should have set my mind on something else. And if I had, then maybe I could have been much further in life right now. But who gives a shit? Right? I am where I am right now because I made the best decision that I could have made at that time. I trust myself enough to be happy with what my “past me” decided. And also, with the decisions I made, I have the coolest friends, the coolest job, and the coolest girlfriend. Yeah, maybe sometimes there are a few bumps in the road, but isn’t it like that with everybody? And money doesn’t determine your quality of life, I think people choose what to surround themselves with to determine their quality of life. And I surround myself with hard work and great people.

So, “Jack of all trades, master of none”? Maybe so, but I guess that’s me.

I’ve heard a little about what you’re telling me, but please, tell me more. I love learning new things.

Tags: complaining, film, Jack, jack of all trades, life, not funny, now i'm late for work, occ, up my own ass