Now I’m out in sunny California just north of San Diego in a nice beach town called Carlsbad. I started my new job and training went on for a month and a half. It was nerve-wracking because if we didn’t do well we would lose our job, no pressure, right?

One of my co-workers got fired because, after constant critique, he wasn’t listening and kept doing whatever he wanted. I was concerned because I wasn’t getting a good report myself but for different reasons. I wasn’t grasping some things well, now keep in mind this isn’t something that is taught in schools especially where I went.

If anything the guys that graduated from computer animation had a better understanding of it. I started making some friends and we would hang out after work. They helped me out a lot with understanding the program.

The 6-week training was over and we moved into the new building and it was also the new year. We began working on our projects and the film I was working on was Smurfs 2. It was awesome especially with my team we always enjoyed the day with our jokes and talks about food.

After work, I would go down to the beach with my camera and take pictures of the waves and sunsets. This helped me grasp depth of field better along with other camera functions. I was getting better with using different lenses and quickly adjusting the settings.

If I wasn’t at the beach I was hiking and bringing my camera with me because I love nature. Out of the 22 months of school, this is what helped me really get solid with understanding lenses because I was able to take my time. I was taking shots at night and during the day either indoor or outdoor.

Lighting is big for me so I made sure to get shots of what natural light settings looked like. As time went on there was another awesome project I got to work on and it was Man of Steel. I wasnt crazy about watching the film until I saw the one scene in Smallville where he flew towards one of the Kryptonians, tackled him and was thrown up in the air. 

I thought that was so cool and I decided that I must watch the film once it’s out in theaters. I made some great friends out there that I still keep in touch with and I’m saying all of this to tell you that things in life begin to unfold.

Just because it doesn’t go how you planned or thought, doesn’t mean its not going to work out for you. I went from struggling for almost a year to having a big smile on my face the following year. I was praying like crazy for things to turn out better and it did! I never thought I would work on two feature films right out of college but it happened.

I did say to myself before my high school reunion I need to work on a feature film and it turns out to be two instead. No matter what you are going through there definitely is the sunlight at the end of that storm piercing through the dark clouds. Trust me I’m living proof of that.