If you're new here, you may want to subscribe. Thanks for visiting!

I am a Filmmaking Major, and after I say this, I will pause to hear the gasps of “oh my god! you make movies?!” and “are you planning on being a star?!” The answer to these questions, of course, is heck yes, but that’s not precisely what this blog is about.  I’ve spent the last four years focusing on f-stops and lighting writing my essays in the standard screenplay format, and discussing how there’s no harm in shooting in a 2.8. Now, in my last semester of college, something happened.

I was told to take a studio art course in a concentration that wasn’t my major.

I was thoroughly  scandalized, my entire being up to this point was devoted to the process of film, everything about it! And now I must take another class? The answer to this of course, is heck yes.

Armed with nothing but determination, I immediately signed up for a class called Intro to Cartooning. This decision was influenced by my favorite hobby, the occasional watercolor painting. “How bad could it be?” I thought to myself. “It’s just an introduction, clearly it won’t be too hard.” Boy, was I ever wrong. My fellow classmates could create masterpieces armed with just a pencil and some india ink, I was proud any time I found a pose that didn’t require the liberal use of hands. My painting, which up until that point, had been more in the abstract range, and mostly of flowers, I did not seem to comprehend that we would have to not only draw character designs, but also draw these characters doing things beyond standing still and looking vaguely sassy.

This all might imply that I absolutely hated it, this could not be far from the truth. Here I was, in a class that was clearly meant for people who knew how to illustrate, drawing vaguely lumpy people, all with the same sardonic expressions. I grew to fiercely love that class, because not only were the people amazing, but it offered me a refuge from the ever increasing pressure of the Film Department.

“But Cat,” you all might be asking. “This is all well and good, but what does this have to do with me?” Well, Reader (May I call you reader?) I’m here to explain how this can work for you! I’m here to challenge all the history majors to take a course in botany. I’m here to tell all of the business majors to take a sculpture class. No longer in school?  Well, I’m here to tell all the doctors and lawyers and kindergarten teachers to find a class in yoga or thai cooking. We have to break out of our comfort zones, because only then can we truly truly truly appreciate what we’ve been given, which is our calling.

The comfort zone, while cozy, can also be a cage, doing what you don’t usually do? That’s picking the lock on said cage.

Share this Post!