This is it! The end is neigh! Today is Thursday, June 9. This time next week, I'll be unloading my truck load of shit into my new house in Charlotte, NC. This time next week, I'll be a North Carolinian. This time next week, when I get hungry and don't have anything in my fridge, I can't just go on Seamless and order from one of the amazing restaurants at my disposal just blocks from my current apartment. In a week I won't be able to take classes at HB Studio anymore. I will leave behind some great friends to move on to the next chapter of life.
In a week I'll be auditioning more. I'll be able to watch my nieces grow up. I'll reunite with old friends. I won't be able to so easily have fattening food delivered to my door. I'll have central air conditioning. Life will become easier, financially. I will have time to write more. I WILL get my webseries filmed and online! In a week I will have to/get to mow my own lawn. I have to/get to build a fence so Ellie can run around in her own back yard. If I fart on one side of the house, Amanda won't be able to hear it on the other side of the house. (Let's be honest, she'll still be able to hear it. I have loud farts.)
I've spent the last several months weighing the pros and cons of leaving. It makes sense to move. It really does. But I won't live in Brooklyn anymore. Being here for the last five years has really changed me. It's been such a learning experience and has helped me grow as a person. I had grown so used to moving around when I was younger that living in NC for 18 years left me feeling claustrophobic and trapped. My dad was in the Air Force and that meant we moved every three to five years. From the moment I was born (almost literally, I was born in Honolulu, Hawai'i and left when I was one month old) I had the life of a nomad. I lived in Maine, Nebraska, Germany, Texas and then the family settled down in North Carolina. With each move came a new school. New friends. New surroundings. New bullies. Each one shaped me. Each move crafted me into the person I am today. But I felt like I was missing something along the way. I left Charlotte in 2000 to go to college in Wilmington, NC. Four years later, I was back. It wasn't the move my mind and body needed. It wasn't until I moved to Brooklyn with my wife five years ago that I felt like I was where I wanted to be. It was the move my soul had been craving since moving to NC in 1993. It was independence. It was a way for me and my wife to grow as a couple without the direct support of family. (Yes, we still received occasional support from the parents. There's only so much you can refuse from two sets of parents who want to do everything for you!) Personally, it was proof that I could do it. And I did.
As I move on to the next phase of life, I will always look fondly upon NYC. I've lived in a lot of places, but only a few of them ever felt like home to me. Brooklyn was my home for five years, but it might as well have been five decades. "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." Maybe I didn't quite "make it here" the way I wanted to or originally set out to, but what I learned about myself has made me a stronger person. I never signed with an agent or a manager. I only auditioned once for a commercial. I never sold a script or had my webseries produced. But I honed my craft. I wrote. More than I had in years! I wrote sketches. Even produced a few. I wrote the first season of a webseries. I wrote about three quarters of a feature length script. Who knows if I would have done any of this had I not moved to NYC.
I will take everything I learned from HB Studio and Upright Citizens Brigade and I will continue to grow as a writer and an actor. And I'll do it all from my new home.
No comments:
Post a Comment