What I would tell my 18-year old self?

I recently met with a college student interested in a career in film and television. It was late in the week, and my energy level was not 100%. Fortunately, her enthusiasm was infectious. I was as excited about her questions as she was about my answers.

We were wrapping up when she said she had one more question. What would you tell your 18-year-old self about where your career has brought you? It's a simple question, sure. I would have asked it when I was a college student.

I was stumped.

My brain returned to high school, my first year studying video at the Savannah College of Art & Design: the movie posters on my dorm room walls, directing my first student video, and learning how to edit on a Sony RM-450. I remember being so excited about turning Peter Gabriel’s I Don’t Remember into my music video.

I remember falling in love with art history and adding a second major during my sophomore year. I created video sculptures. I shattered humongous mirrors in the name of art. I even engaged in a Shakespearean ‘wrestling match’ with my dear friend Laura at an experimental performance art space.

I went to graduate school, determined to take my love of art and become a multimedia art curator. I took classes in non-profit management, copyright law, and interior architectural plans for video and audio art in museums. I worked representing advertising and marketing professionals at some of the biggest ad agencies in the country. I toiled on a thesis that seemed to have no end.

What would I tell that girl?

A few years earlier, my mother had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She insisted I pursue my dreams of a graduate degree halfway across the country. She did not want her illness to hold me back.

As time went by and her condition deteriorated, my goals shifted. I no longer dreamed of running an art museum. I had little interest in the soundproofing needed to accommodate Naim June Pak’s installations. I diverted my life at a time when most twenty-somethings followed a clear career path. I dropped out of graduate school three credits short of a degree and went home.

I was lucky that a dear friend/brother-from-another-mother who worked at Discovery Channel remembered that I was a good editor. He got me a job on the midnight shift. I took a 60% pay cut, and I began my career in television.

It’s been almost twenty-five years since I made that move. I’ve been fortunate to have a successful career working with extraordinary people from all over the world. I’ve swum with sharks, cried with A-List celebrities, been interviewed for my hometown magazine, and won some awards.

What would I tell that girl?

I told the college student that this was a tricky question for me. The most important gift I received from television was the final three years with my mother. She is the reason I am where I am today.

I explained to the student that life rarely plays out how you planned it when you’re 18. Your interests change. Your life will change. Or someone else’s life will change and impact you. There will be roadblocks. You navigate them as best you can and find a new path.

That path may lead you to a lifetime in documentary filmmaking.

I would tell my 18-year-old self that someday, you will start a company in honor of your mother. And you will know that Lina Lisa “Paddy” Malone would be very proud.