How cool is this! A year or so ago I was asked by a fellow teacher if I would be interested in doing some voiceover work for a short animated film. I’d totally forgotten about it until the other day when she sent me an email with this trailer for the finished work.
Even cooler was glancing up to the title of the film after 5 minutes clicking around the website and seeing this:
Hollywood here I come! Michael, you got room on your couch?
My friend Justin once said of me, “Paul may be slow, but he always manages to get there, even if it takes years.” As a person who has seen me through most of my major relationships, my journeys from here to there, both emotional and quantifiable by physical distance, I think he’s pretty spot on.
Some people leap blindfolded into the future on the wings of a trust that all will inevitably turn out ok. Others like to stare at their feet as they shuffle forward baby step by baby step, never risking a misstep that would send them tumbling into “unknown dangerous territory” (aka. New Jersey.)
I think I’ve always bordered on the over-analytical approach to scuttling my way down the yellow-brick road of life. Often trying to wrap my mind around logic-defying situations (e.g. most relationships) until I eked out a grain of something resembling rationality, immobilized until I managed to do so.
For those who endured this futile praxis, I can assure you that I did it with the best of intentions. And upon reflection, if any progress was made in forward directions, baby steps or trans-atlantic steps, I’d gamble that it was in spite of this habit not as a result of it.
Well, years have passed since Justin spoke those words, and I think (and hope) that I’ve managed to pick up the pace a bit. Spending less time stopping to examine the map every time I feel lost (often holding it upside-down) and more time just letting life take me downstream and figuring it out as I go.
Some rather large baby steps have been taken lately and the results have been spectacular. Vanesa and I are now living together, and we’re doing so swimmingly. Got me an office job and I’ll be finishing up my music studies soon. And after five long years I finally have residency and the card to prove it.
See!
Life is good. Period.
I still got some more grown up stuff to do, like things to do with bank accounts and bills and address changes… or things like updating my blog more often. But I say they can wait, I’m still in my 20s, I’m young and I got some more living to do! I’ll leave those responsibilities for when I’m 30.
Peace.
