Seeing is Believing

Happy Supernatural Day, guys! Okay, I realize that means pretty much nothing to y'all, but tonight is the 4th season premiere of Supernatural and I am so stoked. My roommates caught up with the past season DVDs and now we're all rarin' to go.

Meanwhile, have you ever been in a place or situation where you felt that things oddly and completely unexplainably catered to you? That's probably not quite the right way to put it, but I'm having a hard time articulating this morning. All I'm saying is, aside from moving here and meeting every film-related friend I could ever hope for, several other strange and exciting coincidences (or not?) have occurred. For one thing, it's dawning on me that there might be more short-haired girls in this city than anything other outside of New York. Seriously, everywhere I go I see cool feminine looking girls with wicked short hair cuts. And I guess that does make me feel a little like a poser, but I know deep down that what it's actually doing for me is preventing me from freaking out about my hair as I would anywhere else. Instead, I'm having the realization that this is how my hair has wanted to look for a long time. AND I'm pretty much back to my natural color - how awesome is that!?

Okay, that meandered a little off the path, but basically things about this city just make it seem like such the perfect place for me to be right now (though I don't always see it). There are so many Presby churches that I like, that I literally can't decide which one to go to. And 3 days a week I get to drive past downtown on my way to and from my high school, and everytime I realize how much I love the city. The tall buildings, the Frost Tower, the river. Sometimes I think that if I could morph myself into a city, it would most certainly (right now, at least) be this one. My only complaint? Not enough cowboys. Gotta work on that one.

Another thing that will sound vain or self-obsessed or something - but I have to mention because of my mom - is that I think this town has been very good for my sense of style. Maybe not just the town so much as my crowd and my work environment, but I don't think I've worn my standard jeans two days in a row once since I've been here. And I usually only wear them 2 or 3 days a week - and 2 of those days I have to wear pants for my job. And on top of that, more and more I'm finding cooler ways to spice things up even on the days I am wearing pants - skinny jeans, khakis, cool shoes and necklaces and this really B.A. hoodie. And other days I'm actually having fun finding cool skirtyish outfits to wear. I don't know, I'm probably overdramatizing, but it feels like maybe I'm finally coming into myself a little bit - at least my style.

Here's another thing that this awesome place has brought me in the last few weeks/24 hours. First of all, one of the girls I've become particular friends with at work is Jessica (not my roommate). She's originally from the Bay area I think, but she went to school in San Diego and was super-involved with this grassroots nonprofit called Invisible Children pretty much from when it started. Now I don't know if you know what IC is, (if you want to know, I'll tell you - heck I'll probably tell you anyways) but it's huge on college campuses and was huge at UGA. But somehow, despite my love for both nonprofit work and Africa, I managed to avoid ever getting involved with it during school. But then I came to Texas and I met Jessica, and I found out IC was founded by 3 guys in SoCal around our age. Two of them were film students at USC and they took a camera and went to Sudan in search of a story, and they uncovered this horrible atrocity going on with children in Northern Uganda and they made this very freshman, but incredibly moving documentary about it. They came back, they showed it, and it started something that became huge.

SO yesterday Jessica brought me a copy of the DVD, and last night I finally got to watch it. Holy. Cow. I feel so trite or cliche saying it changed my life, but seriously. Not only was it significant for me because of the reality it uncovered, but also because of who did the uncovering, and how. It was just these kids - my generation - with a passion for film and people. These kids are me. At this one point at the beginning of the film one of the 3 guys - Laren - is trying to articulate why they're making a movie. And he says [something like] media is the way we understand the world. It helps define our perspective and it gives us a means to communicate. I'm not doing a good job of quoting him, but basically he voiced what I've been trying to articulate for years about why I love film. And I realized: This is what I want to do. This is the answer. Not going to Africa - necessarily. Not even making documentaries and starting NPOs necessarily. But I want help bring understanding to this world and I want to do it through the lens. It's so obvious that I feel like it's been right there all the time just waiting for me to notice. The answer to all things (for me at least). Storytelling, and helping people, and film.

Because here's the thing. Once you've seen something like Invisible Children - you can't unsee it. It's there and it's touched you and now this issue that you once felt so removed from has a face. Jacob's face, and Tony's face and Jolly's face. And it becomes a part of you and you realize that it's not their world and our world. One world. One. And there are million different ways to bring this about - to fight for this message - but it seems like mine just might be film. (too bad I got rid of my camera - that was a mistake)

So it's nice to have a little clarity in an unclear time. And I encourage all of you to take 1 hour of your life and watch Invisible Children. And if you want a copy of the movie let me know and I'll see what I can do. And if you don't want a copy or you don't want to know about it, but you're either in my family and or one of my best friends - rest assured. You will see this movie. I will show it to you. Lol.

Okay - well I've got work in half an hour, and I'm rockin' out to Teenage Wasteland and I've sort of lost my train of thought. So I'm going to go.

Peace (not just a word).