Nobody teaches kids to use their imagination; it's just intuition. Like their first word, "No," or "Mine," and our instinct to lie when we get in trouble, each of us are born with a unique imagination that begins to fade as we grow older. Somewhere along the way, a nameless person must have said that imagination is not for adults and to throw it away as soon as possible. I did no such thing. I know not whether I was born with a bigger imagination or whether I just never let mine go, but my imagination has grown into what it is today. My playtime turned into my dream--an impossible dream of Hollywood.
Now, the word Hollywood brings up many pre-conceived ideals once spoken, and the first is celebrities. Many people voice their wishes on how they want to be in Hollywood so that they can be as famous as the celebrities of our day, while my dream could not be further from this ideal. It all started back when I was a child. I had a (probably unhealthy) obsession with the TV, specifically the Disney Channel. It was amazing to me that kids my age could be famous for doing what I did every day without pay. To them, acting was a job, but to me, it was just playtime.
As I grew older, I found that I could become just like those kids; I could get paid for doing what I loved. I would even do it for free. I wanted to tell stories that thousands of people would hear. I wanted to make people laugh, cry, and think. Some people only wanted to make their way in front of the camera for the fame, but I wanted to step from my world to the next where I was a completely different person while thousands of people were watching every step I took as this person. I wanted to create relatable characters, I wanted to imagine new worlds that had yet to be explored, and I wanted to draw people in with intricate stories. Somewhere along the way, my storytelling turned into a dream for which I was willing to work hard. After all, it was just playtime.
In the present, television has helped me in the way of studying. Practice makes perfect, but there are some things you can learn by watching others. Dancers can learn a lot by watching other professional dancers, singers can learn a lot by listening to other professional singers, and actors can learn a lot by studying other professional actors. After my dream was set, I began my studying, which was much more fun than studying for other professions, I must say. After all, it was just playtime. I watched shows all the way to the end, watching to see if the character had grown effectively throughout the run-time and if the actor had conveyed this change well. I soon became aware of times when I did not believe the actor or conversely, when I forgot that there was an actor behind this relatable character. I studied the difference between actors creating human characters as opposed to actors doing what they thought humans would do. In acting, there had to be absolutely no acting, and I witnessed firsthand when I was able to spot when the person acting did or did not believe the words that were coming out of their mouths. It all came down to their eyes and whether they believed they were that character or not. All of this, I took in by watching television; it had transformed from a fun activity to a rigorous job in which I took full diligence. After all, it was just playtime.
In the end, my imagination had never faded, but my dream had grown bigger. I want to take all I have learned and go straight to Hollywood. I want to share my stories with thousands of people, and I want to do so in front of a camera. I want to change the lives of people I will never meet. There is something about revealing your soul to thousands of people you do not know that appeals to me. There is something about becoming a different person that calls to me. I feel the most myself when I am someone else, and television helped me realize this. You may not hear this very often, but television gave me a dream. I am indebted to it. My job, my art, is hard work, and the road will be even harder along the way--yet I feel strangely prepared.
After all, it is just playtime.
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