When I was a kid, I loved watching movies. I would get engrossed into the stories and act like I was in them sometimes. My favorite movie was Cars and I can still recite the entire movie from memory. I used to recreate scenes from the movie using my toys. Once I got into high school, I joined the film club expecting it to be about watching films, but was surprised to find out that it was about filmmaking instead. And so… I left the club after the second meeting. It didn’t help that I was just a freshman and didn’t know anyone else in the club. But the idea stuck with me. In my sophomore year, I joined the new filmmaking class. I learned how to create my own short films and fell in love with the process. The following years I took every film class I could, even doing an independent study so that I could continue to make films.

Another event that happened during my sophomore year was that I was dragged along to tour the University of Nebraska - Lincoln since my sister was searching for potential colleges and my parents went to UNL so they wanted me to see it too. While there, I learned about a new program that was going to be offered in the near future. The Emerging Media Arts (EMA) Major hosted at the Johnny Carson Center that was still being built at the time. Since this is when I was just starting my passion for filmmaking, it stuck with me, and as I continued to learn, the program seemed like a better and better fit. When it came time to apply to colleges, I had not even toured any other campuses or applied anywhere else. I knew I wanted to be a part of this program and I was confident in my abilities.