Last Day of Film School

At the end of April in 2008 I closed the chapter on my student life.  With an empty dorm room, the last of my things piled into my Buick, and one last look back at the University of Regina campus, it was over.  There was no telling what the future had in store at that point.  All I knew for certain was that it was time for something new.

Centre of the Galaxy

At the first sign of spring my friends and I used to take long walks around Wascana Lake.  The University of Regina was directly next to the giant lake and park that featured the Legislative Building on one side, downtown on the other, and a lot of nothing on the far end. 

If you ventured out to the far end of the lake it meant that you'd have to abandon the paved paths.  This wasn't always ideal as the snow melted and the rough trails became deceiving patches of mud.  I ruined a few old pairs of shoes this way, but it was a small price to pay to reach the 'centre of the galaxy'.

A concrete outlook perched on the edge of Wascana had been spray painted with this appropriate title, which my friend Daunean and I first stumbled upon in 2006.  More than just a clever name, the concrete bowl had natural acoustics.  If you stood in the centre of the bowl marked by the drain, anything you said was amplified into pitch perfect surround sound that only the person standing on that drain was able to hear.  If you stepped just outside of the centre it wouldn't work, and only one person could get the full effect at one time.

This novelty was made even more special by some of the best views in Regina.  Whether it was a cool fall evening or a warm spring afternoon, Wascana proved to be the ideal place to unwind and initiate long talks about nothing time and time again.  I guess you wouldn't really expect anything less from the centre of the galaxy though would you? 

Steven Spielberg's Autograph

I've never met him or even seen him in person, but the impact that Steven Spielberg's movies had on me as a kid only further encouraged me to pursue a career in media production. What can I really say about Spielberg? His name has come to define the movie business, symbolize the pinnacle of what it means to be a Hollywood director, and instantly conjures up images of pop culture iconography.

I bought this hand-signed autograph in 2006 for $100, which at the time challenged my modest student budget. I think there's also always skepticism about whether stuff like this is actually real, although it was purchased from a specialty memorabilia shop in Los Angeles with a high-rating for authenticity. It's kind of a moot point though.

This wasn't an investment or a piece of memorabilia that I bought to store in a UV protected case hidden away from sunlight to sell at a later date. I've kept it in plain view for as long as I've had it, and even hung it on my dorm room walls in film school.

For me, the value of owning Spielberg's autograph is that it reminds me of that dream I had as a kid to make movies. I look at it and think that in some small way I have a link to one of the greatest film directors of all time. Spielberg was famously quoted as saying 'I dream for a living'. As it turns out, so do I.