I used to think I was better than most at most of the things
I tried. This is not the case anymore. I thought back to sports and I realized,
the last time I was even a starter in anything was JV Lacrosse Sophomore year.
Then I thought, like o yah, I was a good rapper once. Then I realized I was the
2nd best at an all white catholic school in Indianapolis. Ok not all
white, we had 15 black people and I was cool with like half, remember I used to
wear throwbacks and had massive cz rocks in my ears. If I went on America’s Got
Talent, I would like to think that I have enough talent to get to the Vegas
round at least. But I don’t, what am I going to do, write them a spec? Do a
stand-up routine? I can’t dance or sing. I don’t have any real athletic talent
anymore. Then I came to a really sad realization, my best skill, or the thing
that I could probably beat most people at is stunt drinking. Not even drinking
games, like I’m shitty at beer pong, but I could probably take more shots than
the average American. I know it’s pathetic, but they did put through a guy who
just gets kicked in the nuts a bunch of times so it’s not out of the question.
So I’m a slightly above average American in everything, but
I’m not really good at anything. Let me expand upon the extent of my
averageness. The company Nielsen, responsible for tv ratings selects one family
per zip code or 30,000 people to represent them because it is cost prohibitive
to put a Nielsen box in every house in America. They selected my family as
perfectly representing everything in Geist. My dad has an average Geist income,
I live in an average Geist house, and my brother and I are just average Geist
kids. I represent everything that is 46236 on the extreme northeast side of
Marion county on the southern half of Geist Reservoir. I suppose I’m decent at
being tall, but I can’t even dunk anymore, thus it’s a waste of height.
Although I do think I have an uncanny ability to eat junk food and not get fat
because I have more surface area to hide said fat. But I am 25 with a business
degree from a top 25 school and what do I have to show for it? My most valuable
asset is probably my MacBook. In fact I am considering taking a Greyhound to
Austin this weekend because it’s cheaper than flying. The fucking MegaBus is
awful and it’s only 4 hours. Greyhound to Austin is 28. But there is a float
trip in Austin this weekend and it sounds like fun, this is my commitment to
partying.
Oh to struggle in LA. It’s like being a pledge all over
again, but you don’t get to be in college and there is no bid week where girls
are fed jungle juice and told to have sex with you. That’s my lot in life, if
Los Angeles is a college, I am a Lamda Chi pledge…does not get much worse. The
thing is, people think of California and they immediately think of famous movie
stars, actors, Hollywood producers. In all actuality I would assume maybe 2% of
people that try that are successful. I used to assume that all the people that
did that shit were no talent ass clowns and they just got lucky, but then you
see a guy on the beach shooting an amateur short with his camera that he took a
reverse mortgage out on his house to buy and it really hits you. There are so
many people here with so much talent and most of them will never reap the
benefits of it. I think most people also assume that if you are in movies,
you’re doing ok. I roll with a few “actors” who have been in a couple decent
sized flicks and they are broke as fuck, on a good week get 3 auditions and
don’t get shit, it’s like me with job interviews.
On the flip side there are the serial entrepreneurs. And to
be honest like I don’t fucking get it, and initially this post was going to be
about stupid fucking hustlers in LA trying to make a quick buck by doing any
silly start-up, but once in a blue moon, they explode, make a ton of money and
cash out. And it’s never the really good ideas, it’s the shit that sounds like
it came out of a frat boy blow sesh at 4 in the morning. But whatever, don’t
hate the player, hate the game. And I do hate the game, but for every guy that
comes up with the idea (I invented in-app customer service for iPhone
applications) there are a bunch of people that probably have a genuinely good
idea that fails to gain traction. Then again there are a couple dorks from
Harvard that got drunk and invented a website with pictures of chicks that live
in their dorm and now they are billionaires. The Social Network is probably the
worst thing to ever happen if you loathe annoying little middle eastern kids
that always talk about their start-ups.
So if there are a lot of talented people out there and I
find myself in a sea of average what is there to do? I don’t like working hard,
I don’t really excel at stuff, I don’t like awkward encounters…I know, I’ll become
a professional blogger! Unfortunately, that wouldn’t support my vices, you
probably occasionally read your favorite bloggers talking about how little they
make, I think Google Adsense pays like a penny per click. (I don’t monetize
this but if I had I think I would have made about $200 to date) There just
aren’t a lot of jobs available for people that like sleeping until noon
watching a few movies, reading a script and banging out 10,000 or so words a
day. That is unless you can sell that novel or screenplay, or gain enough
traction with a short video to get signed and thrown in the writer’s room of
some atrocious Spike TV show.
So the moral of the story is, there are talented people all
around you. There are people at open mic nights that will blow your mind, but
then they go back to their day job as a librarian and maybe I just haven’t
discovered my talent yet. Maybe I’ll be a late bloomer. Perhaps I’m only a week
or two from discovering that I can be one hell of a country songwriter. But
I’ll find it, searching for one’s talent is not often an easy journey, but it’s
an important one.
No comments:
Post a Comment