I am of the belief that everything happens for a reason. Some people are quick to write this sentiment off as a type of coping mechanism for when life is going down the drain and nothing works out the way you want.
We go to the theater and we watch movies about heroes – as well as average joes – who are kicked down again and again. Regardless, they continue their fight or journey towards righteousness and are rewarded in the end.
In the modern medium of film, every single event in a screenplay leads up to its ending. I believe that no matter how much you’re kicked down, if you continue your journey and live as a good person, you will be rewarded.
Maybe this is my 22-year-old naivete speaking and 20 years from now, when I’m still sitting in the theater, writing reviews in my mind, this belief will have been long-evaporated. But for now, I hold this belief strongly.
Since I was a young child, I knew I was going to make films as an adult. I did not know what I would make but I knew I would make something.
Bad News
I started really taking my career seriously in my late teens and there were many incredible opportunities I missed out on as a filmmaker. For months, even years, these bygone gigs haunted me in a way that felt almost cruel.
Me at 19-years-old, in desperate need of a haircut.
When I was 19-years-old, there was a rapper/musician for whom I was supposed to make several music videos – that fell through. After those videos failed to get past the planning stage, he gained hundreds of thousands of fans on social media, signed a million dollar record deal, was featured in esteemed magazines, etc.
You get the idea. Those videos that could have been haunted me until I was 21-years-old.
Two years after our plans to work together crumbled, the artist was on the run from the police following a psychotic break that (allegedly) resulted in him stabbing his girlfriend with a boxcutter. Thankfully, she lived.
Legally, it is still up in the air as to what actually happened that day but I remember sitting on Miami Beach and opening my phone to see his horrifying mugshot for the first time. I now felt haunted in a way completely different to what I felt before but I was also thankful that those videos never happened. I was thankful for my safety and sanity.
What I really wanted was not what I needed.
Good News and then Bad News Again
What I call my first “religious experience” with a movie occurred when I was freshly 15. Yes I loved movies, but this one shook me to my core and I hated how it felt at first. But that film never left my mind for years, no matter how hard I tried.
A few years later, I was now a super fan of the man who directed it. His art motivated me in a way few other filmmakers had and, for me, breathed life into a medium that many say is dying.
When this director moved to Miami and opened a studio, I was shocked. I was 20-years-old and decided to message anyone I could find who was associated with the studio. I eventually got in contact with one of the head honchos at the project who told me there would be a party thrown by the studio and he could get me in.
All day, I was shaking with nervousness. “I might finally meet him,” I thought. At the door, the bouncer checked my ID and said, “You’re not 21. You can’t come in.”
I pleaded and told him I was on the guest list and that I knew the guys throwing the event. Still, I was not allowed in.
As I waited outside for a possible chance to sneak in, it was eerily cold for a Miami night. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man wearing a mask walk out of the club and into the parking lot. “That’s the boss,” one of the studio employees whispered to the bouncer.
My favorite film director was ten feet in front of me and I no longer felt any sort of nervousness or enthusiasm. He was just a person. I didn’t want to bother him and went home.
But wait, there’s more!
A little more than a year later, some of the employees at the studio noticed an Instagram page I had been running with my friends where I write music articles and showcase my work. So they invited us for a personal tour of the studio.
“The boss” was not there but it was the most inspiring and fun day of my life. I now know that, one day, I’ll meet him.
Everyone has their moment.
I did not want to get into specifics about who is who because I believe everyone has stories like these: events in their life where one door closed and it hurt really bad, but it was okay because a better door opened soon after. Everyone has their “movie moment.”
I do not think it should be seen as silly to believe that everything happens for a reason. Even though I haven’t lived much life yet, this phenomenon has been proven to me more than enough to be believable.
Maybe it’s God, maybe it’s luck. Who knows? Regardless, if you want something, you should try. If nothing works out, wait a little. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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