Identifying what you’re good at

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been attracted to beautiful things. The artwork in my books as a child. The cinematography in the films I watched. The cool packaging of the toys I played with and the creative writing in all of the media I consumed – I absorbed it all.

My imagination was bigger than most of the other kids my age and this was reflected in the games we would play. I have fond memories of role playing with my neighbours. Our generation grew up on Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Gi-Joe and Ninja Turtles. Since we were all impressionable boys, it was only natural that a favourite of ours was the aptly titled: “Fighting Guys”.

“Fighting guys” was our very own action movie where we would play out intricate roles from fighting dragons and adventures into the jungle to fighting crime as hardened cops. One time, I brought sandwich bags full of talcum powder over to my friends house so we could play “Drug dealers”. Man did I get in trouble… I remember even getting an old pair of gloves and cutting the fingers off so I looked like a real “street punk”. Pretty intricate stuff for an 8 year old.

We all loved playing “Fighting Guys”. My friends would always make it my responsibility to set up the story or scenario – which I loved because I always had a new fun idea to play out. It was at this time where I first decided that I would like to do this for a job someday. Whenever the question Of “what do you want to be when you grow up”? I would always emphatically respond with “A director”. Not an actor but a director. This is an important distinction as after testing many different jobs throughout my youth prior to my current job it makes sense that I ended up where I did. While it would have been nice to just hop straight to my current career path, experiencing alternative careers was paramount to truly understanding where my passions and skillsets lie.