It is official! I am going to be a Volunteer at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) this year! As one of the top 5 goals on my list this year, I am proud of what I have done to reach some of my goals. I have historically never been one to make resolutions or goals. Not until this year when I realized, I had to do some work to achieve my dreams. I started one thing that really got me on a good path this year. That is my DISCIPLINE JOURNAL. I have fallen off with that by at least 10 days now. When I do take the time to play catch up, I am going to have to prepare my writing hand with some strength exercises to endure writing for 5 or more hours straight. If I get to a point of writing more regularly like was intended, I am going to post daily on the blog. When I was driving, this past Saturday, to Crystal City for the University Row, there was a sermon on the radio, custom made for me. The preacher was telling me, that I need to stop procrastinating. He was saying that the devil wants us to procrastinate to keep us from living out our true purpose. I am going to admit that procrastination is something hard to get over for me for some reason, because at times I feel like everyone is fighting for my attention and expecting so much from me. I sometimes forget that I have allowed myself to be in certain spaces and carry myself in a manner that allows people to treat me the way they do.
I was talking to a friend recently and we were having a conversation about “nice guys.” I asked him if he thought I was a “too nice” kind of person. He did say that I have a lot of nice traits that can easily allow people to walk over me. I am working hard not to always be the nice guy that finishes last, but the nice guy that wins as well! Even if the win is not a 1st place victory. At the end of the day, I know my “nice guy” spirit will carry me to my spiritual victory. God has put me in a place of getting ready for something that he knows will not only make a difference in the life of others, but also in my life.
I know this is what is going on simply because of the growth I am feeling regularly with my acting class. I have been extremely focused on doing better, no matter the obstacles. The past few classes, my coach has given us a challenging assignment to get us ready for New York auditions. He assigns us a script 24 hours prior to the start of class. As a working actor, this is something he has experienced a lot lately and he wants us to be ready when we have our New York auditions. I am grateful for this experience, because I am working on developing my characters with the 9 tips he gave us each time. I am evaluating my script and making sound decisions about the character. Each time I am getting better with connecting to the character, no matter how weird they may appear to be after a first read.
In the past when I was given sides before an audition, I would just work to know the lines. I had not developed the skill of building the character. In my last class I realized that I need to practice more in advance with a camera. I was looking into the camera more than I intended to. I was not looking far enough beside the camera, so when I went back and looked at the video, it looked like I was staring at the camera. I will practice using the camera more and more so I can know how to look beyond it.
#MtgMyDestiny 