Conor (August 21, 2018): Well, did you do it?
Conor (May 17, 2020): Do what?
C (2018): Achieve your childhood dream! My childhood dream? Our childhood dream? Semantics. You know what I mean.
C (2020): You’re not going to like my answer. It depends.
C (2018): It always depends, the answer to every question depends. You gotta give me more than that.
C (2020): In probably the most basic way, and the answer to your unspoken question of “are you driving over to Glendale to show up for your first day of work at Imagineering on Monday?”, the answer is no.
C (2018): So it sounds like grad school was a bit of a bust… and you had to live in Pittsburgh for two years. Great.
C (2020): Well, only a year and a half, but we’ll get to that later. And no, not a bust, not at all, kind of like DeAndre Ayton.
C (2018): Wait, so that means the Suns are back? Take that, Reed. So that all sounds pretty straight-forward… you’re not where you thought you were… so why did you say it depends?
C (2020): Because the dream is still alive and well and way better defined than you have it right now.
C (2018): Well, what does that-
C (2020): Nope, not telling you, you’ll get there soon enough.
C (2018): Hmmm, I’m not convinced… and I’m a little offended that you think I don’t know what my own dream is. Your own dream. This is dumb.
C (2020): What you are going to learn is that Imagineering was actually a short-hand for what you really wanted to do because what you really want to do cannot be placed into a neat little box. Don’t worry, the theme park dream is still at the top of the priority list and driving the decision-making process, there are just even more options than you could have realized. There are so many things you don’t even know that you don’t know and that is what the next two years are about - asking hard questions, being asked hard questions, and saying “it depends” a lot.
C (2018): That sounds like a lot of coach-speak.
C (2020): Oh it is, it’s really producer-speak, but it’s still right. You’ll get to make cool stuff -
C (2018): How cool?
C (2020): Really cool. Really cool stuff with really cool people -
C (2018): Ah, so it’s about the friends you make along the way.
C (2020): For sure. But, also, stop interrupting me. Man, improv will be good for you. Anyways where was I?
C (2018): Really cool stuff with really cool people, I believe.
C (2020): Oh yes, thanks. You’ll get to make really cool stuff with really cool people on pieces of technology and stories that you never thought you’d ever get to work on or with. You’ll figure out what you bring to the table, what the weirdest thing in your world is, how you can be helpful, how to learn for the vast and endless sea, and where your place in the industry could be.
C (2018): Could be? Do you know where that place is?
C (2020): I have a really good idea and a plan to get there and we will see what happens along the way.
C (2018): That still seems like a lot of guesswork.
C (2020): Ah yes, welcome to the creative process. Everything is a guess, but all you can be is wrong and you end up learning along the way regardless of things turning out the way you thought they would. Things work out best -
C (2018): for the people who make the best of the way things work out. Thanks, mom, dad and Coach Wooden.
C (2020). Very good, they’d all be proud. But you’re right, there’s a lot of guesswork involved and you’ll get annoyed, frustrated, in over your head, and wrong. You’ll be wrong a lot, but that means you get to iterate - buzzword alert - and that will give you a better chance of being right the next time. I’ve learned all this and it is still a bummer when you’re wrong and feel like you don’t know where to go next. When in doubt, go shoot hoops, grab some Piada, draw a storyboard, play around with your Arduino, sit in the Cave looking for a treasure, jump on Pegasus, or go ride Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure to get your mind right and just keep rowing the boat.
C (2018): Mmm yeah, Piada is really good.
C (2020): Seriously? That’s what you remembered?
C (2018): I was just going in order, calm down. Do you mean like an actual Pegasus? And Hagrid’s what? I don’t understand half the things you just said. Grad school sounds weird.
C (2020): Grad school was weird, man. But weird is good. Trust me, you’ll think so too. So, is that good enough for you for now? I’ve got some other stuff to get back to.
C (2018): Oh do you now? What have you got going on?
C (2020): Well… actually nothing, I’m locked in my apartment, so I’ve got nothing going on.
C (2018): What do you mean you’re locked in?
C (2020): Ahhhh that really is my cue to be going. You good?
C (2018): One more thing, would you do it all again?
C (2020): In a heartbeat.
C (2018): Cool, I’m good. Get outta here. Wait wait, one more thing. Where did you get the time machine?
C (2020): Dad bought it on Amazon last Christmas. Don’t ask.
. . .
Thank you for a great two years, ETC. You helped me grow as a designer, engineer, producer, teammate, employee and person and I am extremely grateful for all of that. I tried to follow Randy’s plea and be a hero like William Shatner, admitting what I did not know and willing to push myself to learn until I understood. While I could not learn it all in two years, I learned more than I bargained for by figuring out how to lead a life, not just achieve a dream.
“If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”