Black Circles and a Starry Night

So while I am still figuring out how I want to organize this blog, and while I am up late writing this due to my ability of non-sleep...Insomnia (I wrote this last night at 1:30 AM). I will write here some thoughts through my dark, sleepy eyes at night, which is nice because I can see stars from my window.

Many of times have I been in a situation where I just don't know what to do anymore. I end up worrying about what is going to happen in the upcoming future. The future I am referring to can either be close by or beyond any eye but God could ever see. It's a shame either way, because I should earnestly be turning away from anxiety and turning towards our Creator. "How am I supposed to know what is going to happen?" That question that I think to myself leads to yet another question. "Should my fear of not knowing what's going to happen in my life dictate my actions and choices that I make now?" That's I think something that tugs at our hearts and we should know how to go about dealing with it, and here is where I will tell you how I have come to peace with it. How I became confident in my choices not based on fear, but in faith.
A dear friend of mine told me to read a verse one day when I was going through a time of disappointment and strife. It is one of my favorite verses in the bible, and has always been, and at this time I speak of, a reminder of who is ultimately in control and who dictates where my life will go.

  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

~Philippians 4:6-7

Through this verse, if I pray and lay my concerns to Him and trust that in whatever I am doing in life, He will guide me and show me what it is He wills of me. Taking away all anxiousness from my weary, weak mind.
This is a lesson that I am always strengthening to this day, and will always continue to. It's not easy, but it makes things easier in the long run if you trust, pray, and have faith. It is something a man should do in life as we men go into the world and begin to start our families. The only way we can be the rock for our earthly families is to have faith and rely upon our stable rock and our ultimate Savior.

And so, I am beat. I hope you found this encouraging as it has and continues to be for me. There are a couple blog posts I will be writing soon on my list. One is a group challenge I have agreed to partake upon and the other will possibly be on my first film I scored for my good friend Todd Kaumans.
Until then, ignore my black circles around my eyes and enjoy the beauty of the starry night!

How I Became a Film Scorer...

So now that you know what my goal is for starting this blog I can begin with what events and people God has placed in my life to make me do what I want to do. This honestly started when I was 12 or 13.
I originally just wanted to do performance. Write my own music and perform in front of people and maybe even concert halls. And this is my big dream I had at this age, and you must know, this is coming from a kid who wanted to be a dentist for 7 years.

It was until my parents and friends I played for started telling me they could here my music in films. "Huh!" I thought, "I could never be able to do that!" I acknowledged the thought but I put it aside. It was until the day I went to an airsoft/birthday party when my gears shifted. That night, my friends and I were all surrounding the piano in the living room singing and fooling around with me at the piano of course. I could never stay away from any instrument and had to play it! My friend, who I will remain quiet of his name, brought a couple more people by and asked me to play this song I had composed, and so I did. 

Everyone seemed to be quite impressed but this one kid, who is still my best friend today and we actually work together towards our careers, Todd Kaumans' mouth was disengaged and open. He then later came to me that day and wanted to know if I would be interested in writing scores for some of his films in the future. I agreed and thus began my slow interest in wanting to do film scores. A year and a half ago he contacted me for a job to score a 9 min short film called, War Torn, that he was submitting into the worlds biggest youth film festival, ages running from 6-22 years old, representing 8,500+ people, 40 States and 12 countries. 

NFFTY is the name of the festival.

With all this going on in the course of years, my family has been the greatest encouragement to me aiming for a goal and something I want to do with my life so I owe it all to them, but I  have some very very dear and close friends who have helped me as well significantly, and I know if you all are reading this I am talking about you and I want to thank you so so much for it! It has meant a lot to me and I will never forget the words and encouraging things ya'll have done and said!
I, most importantly, want to thank God for putting these things in my life to figure out what I want to do with myself!
And so now, I am working on my second project for a film I wrote as well called, The Unknown, and the biggest project I have done so far! I will be writing of that journey very soon!
But now you know how I came to be interested in film scoring! It is a very neat  process and I love how Micheal Giacchino states it, "Music must tell a story...", and I love to tell stories. It's something I fear is losing its touch, and I, like Micheal, wish to restore that!

 (This is me and Todd being interviewed at the red carpet of NFFTY's Opening day!)