I had a lot of time during the gap year, just having moved, so I was looking for a job, volunteering at an animal shelter and whatever else I could find to fill up my time. One of which being a non-committal acting workshop, offered once a week. You pay for the day you come – if you like it, come back next week, and if you don’t, it was nice meeting you. It took me two whole weeks to rack up the courage to get into my car and start it up so I can try out the acting workshop. I was so nervous, I wanted to turn around and try again next week. The reason I didn’t turn around was because I had already driven about a quarter of a mile and thought, “Well, I started… I can’t waste the gas now…”

I get to the workshop location, still reconsidering turning around. I stick my head through the curtain of a small theatre, heart pounding. The instructor stops talking to the class to address me, asking me if I am here for the acting workshop. 

I say yes. 

I went back the next week. And the week after and the week after that.

I started taking private lessons with the instructor of the workshop, Ed Claudio, who turned out to be more than just a teacher to his students. He was a mentor, a friend, a person who always seemed to get the best out of people by pushing them to places they never thought they could be pushed. He cared for his students more than just “students.” 

Now, during the gap year, I was still helping the graduate student but I had also applied to UC Davis’ Forensic Science master’s program. After about six months since I started going to the acting workshops, I got a letter from UC Davis, informing me that I got accepted into their master program.

Ed had also tried to talk me out of becoming a professional actor. Not because he didn’t want me to or didn’t think I could, but because pursuing this path is going to be filled with tiresome work, rejection, and pain. He said that if there was any one thing that is not acting that I could think of doing and living with the rest of my life, do that. Don’t act. 

Could I see myself doing anything other than act? I thought about that. Briefly. 

No. I couldn’t. 

So, I declined my acceptance into the graduate program.