Prairie Revelations

I realize I haven't been a very good blogger. My posts have been, well, lacking to say the least. I promised myself I would do a better job. It just seems like right now, the work I am doing, what's going on in my life, just isn't very exciting. Still love my job but it's a lot of the same from day to day - phone calls, emails, more phone calls. The pace will be changing soon and I hope to be more diligent with my updates. For the time being I thought it would be interesting to post some journal entries from earlier this summer. Beginning in May, just after graduation, and up through my trip to Spain. During this time I began to contemplate a lot in regards to what it really means to grow up and what kind of grown-up I want to be. I hope you enjoy the departure, I'll be back to blogging about my current movie making adventures soon enough.

May 13, 2010
How quickly the change from child to grown-up happens. Two weeks ago all I worried about were finals, using what was left of my Sodexo Bucks and watching Lost. Although Lost remains a priority, I am now confronted with grown-up issues. In the last 48 hours I have driven to Kansas City and back, interviewed and accepted a job, made living arrangements, and am currently on my way to the airport to Spain. The rapid succession of life changes has sort of left my head spinning. I think the strangest element is the aloneness. Maybe it was the solitude of the drive up Highway 169, with only a few semis and farmers to keep me company. Somewhere on the prairie I realized that for the first time I will be on my own. In a new state and a new job. The quiet hum of the car a silent "Amen."

Wyandotte

This is my favorite street in Kansas City. Wyandotte. It is my favorite because I am convinced none of the other streets want me to learn their names. For example, Broadway becomes Penn Valley Parkway becomes West Pennway then back to Broadway. But Wyandotte is my oasis. It stays the same all the way through the mess of downtown. I still haven't learned what streets cross Wyandotte where or if it's really even the street I need to get to my destination, but every time I see those white letters against the green, it makes me happy. I think it's because it's one of the few streets I recognize, one of the few I am becoming familiar with. For most of my life I have thought of nothing but moving away from my home town. Of getting out and exploring the world. Of living in downtown lofts or nestled against a mountain. I do love to travel. Like any good college graduate, my first order of business was to hop on a plane and fly to Europe. Given the opportunity I would go back in a heartbeat. Oh to explore the streets of a new city, there's nothing more electric. But, there's something to be said about the familiar. About knowing the names of the streets, the shortcuts from one neighborhood to another, the closest coffee house, and the worst traffic spots. It's the love of the familiar that lands me in Target at least three times a week. No matter where in the U.S. I go, Target is my beacon of home. I know that the Target in Tulsa or Kansas City or L.A. or Minneapolis will have that same feeling, like at any moment I could turn around and see Mom picking up some shirt she thinks I would love but I would never even try on, even though she's a state away. Familiar. Family. We love the things that are close to us, that we know without even thinking. All this to say that on this adventure in a new place, I love it. Really I do. But it's so nice to know that when I'm away from home, away from the friends and family and places I know without even thinking, that there's a Wyandotte.

Responsibilities

It's amazing working some place where everyday I have to pinch myself that I really get to do this...really! I found out yesterday that my official job title is "production manager." Although this will go through many transformations over the next 6 months, my current job responsibilities have centered around reading through the script and dissecting each scene to determine what props are needed to make that scene happen. Boy am I thankful I took that scriptwriting class last semester! It may not seem like an intense job, but 284 scenes later I am beginning to realize that every detail matters. Which is good since a majority of my responsibility on this film, will be in the details. So if you're wondering, all those picky professors who make you redo assignments until they were right (ahem, Cristi Freudenrich and Chris Putman), they really are trying to help you understand how important it is to have the details in order; they may not be the most important elements but without them the whole project is off. In addition to learning my job responsibilities, I am also quickly learning about the basic life responsibilities of adulthood. Today I began the process of applying for health insurance and figuring out car insurance. These are the parts of being an adult that no one thinks about when they're 16 and all they want is to drink and be rid of curfew. How fast our priorities have to change.

Grown-up: Day 1

"Welcome to the real world she said to me condescendingly, take your seat..."

As of today I am seated, strapped in and ready to go. This was my first day at my new job, in a new city, in a new state. There's been a lot of change in my life as of late. As I pulled out of the hotel parking lot weeping yesterday, I felt less like a grown-up and more like a girl who is going to miss her family a lot. And although that is true, I am so excited about this next stage in life. I am going to spend the next 6 months working on the set of an independent film that's being shot here in Kansas City. It's a dream job! The kind of job that could be one of those fork-in-the-road, never-looking-back opportunities in life. At least that's what I'm hoping. This blog is how I hope to keep track of the adventures and misadventures in my newly adult life. Here's to hoping for a good start and a great ending, cheers!