Sarcasm or honesty?
Yes. I did 3.5 semesters of college at NYU - Tisch - Film/TV. I dropped out halfway through my spring semester in 2010, worked in NYC on set until November 2011, moved to Sydney, Australia until April 2012, got a job at this company, and just got my first promotion and raise. I do web design, code, graphic design, and produce and edit our company and product videos. We also now do videos for the client, so I have produced and edited 11 videos for a massive brand in Atlanta. I'm happy.
Do you regret leaving so late in your college career? How much debt had you amassed?
Debt wasn't an issue in my case. My dad only did a couple semesters as well and the fund his mother started for him 70 years ago was transferred to me and my brother when we were born. It literally has been sitting and growing for 70 years. I don't regret it at all. I was overly stressed and working too hard and doing way to many drugs to cope with the lack of sleep and lack of passion I was feeling towards film in general. I worked my ass off on projects I wanted to, kept close with my peers in my class, and continued to work with them. I just didn't do the classes anymore. I was still part of the community, which in a field like mine is a huge thing. Connections are everything in Film. Plus I'm a huge believer in "doing and creating to learn" rather than "study your butt off to learn." The classes like "Italian Cinema in the 1920s wasn't helping me in producing or editing films. NYU's film program, especially for the first 3 years, requires you to direct your own film. However I didn't want to direct I wanted to produce so I was juggling writing and directing my own shorts while producing or assistant producing on thesis projects. I got more out of producing for these projects than I ever did in the classes. Plus, my mental health was severely impacted by the workload I had taken on. If I had continued down the path I was taking, I would've definitely lost it. Something had to give and I chose to give up the piece of paper and classes over the thing I valued more - the set work.