Passion Never Dies by Erica

Passion Never Dies by Erica - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned in high school is fully knowing and understanding what you want to do once you leave high school.

During my time in middle school, I was in the stage of wanting to become an animator or do manga. I would always make new stories and try to bring my characters to life. I knew I needed more practice in my drawings and to understand the work of inking, something I didn’t learn about till I joined Art Instruction School in my senior year. I was really determined to go into this particular field; I even picked out my college. I didn’t think my choice was going to change once I got into high school.

During my freshman and junior year of high school, I was debating between working with my father as an IT worker or continuing the path of being a manga illustrator. At the time I was working for my technology teacher where I was learning more about the computer field. I knew that field wasn’t for me because I couldn’t deal with the stress of rebuilding a laptop over and over again. I still wanted to be manga illustrator over everything else I wanted to do in my life. I was s still writing stories in my spare time and trying to improve my drawing techniques.

In my senior year, my friends convinced me to try a program called Opening Act. This program dealt with acting and improv, something I’ve never done. I was used to writing stories and thinking about my characters, so I never thought about acting. The first semester of acting, I was shy and had stage fright, but the more I went to the program, the more fun I had and the more I understood of acting.

The thought of being an actress didn’t come across my mind until my older sister watched one of my performances. She told me that if I continued down this path I might have a shot of being an A-list actress. I had never thought about it that way before. I always loved writing and now, I was starting to like acting. I could see myself writing screenplays and acting for different roles.

I started to read books about screenwriting during the summer and soon I started to read how to be a good actress. I started thinking of tips and trying to understand of being an actress, which included getting an agent. I kept watching movies I’d seen in the past and took note of some of the emotions the viewers hadn’t seen. Some of those emotions were real emotions and could be reflected on events that had happened to them. Those were things I never thought about or even considered while watching the movies.

My life was always about writing or drawing, but acting changed all that. Acting has become my passion for living; I don’t want to be the shy girl I have been in the past. I want to show the true me through acting. I want to see new places on my journey as an actress. I want to be a role model to others. I want to show that it takes effort, dedication, and perseverance to achieve your dreams.