Yesterday I received an email from an old college buddy, Chris. He and I became friends in the theater department at the University of Florida. He played my father in the departments theater production of The Tempest and we both had a passion for films. When I left acting to work in TV, Chris was the one who got me my gig at Nickelodeon, which was some of the most satisfying jobs I've ever held.
Over the years, Chris and I have led parallel corporate lives, him in television, me in manufacturing. We've both been very competent employees and able to utilize our theater training to assist us in the "real" world... and this has led to consistent promotions and greater responsibility. Our passions are still with filmmaking, but as we've gotten older, our lives have gotten more complex and our time more precious. Because of this, we will find that months have passed without communicating, but we have the type of friendship that when we talk to each other, it is if no time has passed.
Chris is part of that group of friends that are part of my formative years.... there is a time in all of our lives where we define ourselves as people, where we leave our ignorant plans and parental hopes behind and become who we will be for the rest of our lives. For me, that was my theater experience in the University of Florida. There was a small group of us who came into our own in that department, grew together, succeeded together, became adults together, graduated together.
For some, their formative years are in high school, for some its in a frat or sorority, for some it was their highschool or college sports team and for others its in their first real job. It always surprises me how those connections made during our formative years are retained for so long, almost indestructable. Seventeen years have passed since all of the 1988 UF theater grads were all together and, yet, I would like nothing more to attend a reunion of sorts with those old college buds.
Whenever I get a chance to take a detour down memory lane of my formative years... well, I welcome the journey.
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1 comment:
I agree that we continue to grow, but there is something about the time you become the adult you're going to be the rest of your life that is special... especially when you do it with others your same age.
As for the posting time... when you create a post it sets it at that time, which is pacific time (3 hours behind). Also, the posting time can be manually adjusted to whatever date/time you want.
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