Drown out the noise....
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"~Dr. Seuss
Last week, I made it a point to sit through the entire Golden Globes ceremony from start to finish, and some people found that strange being that awards shows seem to be loosing some luster in today's instant society. Who has time to sit through three hours WITH commercials just to see someone get credited for doing their job!?
Growing up, I used to love awards shows....or more truthfully, ONE awards show. The Oscars. Growing up in a third world country, our viewing choices were limited to three to five channels except when it rained when the static coming through the bunny ears cut our choices to one or two channels tops.
Luckily, the Oscars were always in one of those channels because it was brought to the audience by the biggest television company in Mexico and the Oscars were worth paying royalties for the tv company because of viewership bonanza.When we moved back to the states, basic television was more reliable, but choices were still limited to maybe seven channels. Awards shows became more prominent because there were so many more to choose from.
As I sat there (and tonight here watching the Critics' Choice Awards), I reconnected with what I used to love about the show. While some people look at them from the prism of "spoiled stars congratulating themselves and throwing themselves a party", my family viewed it more from the standpoint of all the hard work they had to do to even be nominated.
A lot of the speeches tend to focus on the struggles the actor, director, writer or producer's faced throughout their careers, even more so now with the huge focus on the #MeToo movement for women to even BE on the stage or the lack of Black representation in the industry until Black Panther became an incredible financial hit. That's what makes these awards so much more fulfilling, because in life you will face a lot of negative voices and criticism every day, and the person that won the award has their own story to tell which we all should keenly learn from and listen to.
When I started acting again after a seven year hiatus, there was one particularly loud and insulting person that wanted to "bring me down a notch" on Facebook. He googled my name, and took screen shots of interactions I had with people in the industry on FB and then would comment on any status that related to my acting. He would get more and more offensive and demeaning the more projects I got involved in, and even when I tried to send him private messages explaining behind the scenes things about what a producer or director told me on my involvement, he only got more and more mad. The last straw was when he mockingly said "Yeah, ok. You're a big Hollywood star. Keep living a lie in front of everyone." Coincidentally, that was the same day that I first appeared on National Television for NBC's "Revolution".
After that opening scene, my oldest sister called me and told me how my mom (who passed away a short time later) got really happy and exited and they both jump out of their seats as soon as they saw me a recognized me on tv. Right after I hung up with them, I logged back into Facebook....and dropped that guy from my friends list. I missed my opportunity to go to Harvard straight out of high school because I had listened to a negative voice back then, but through my Track and Field career as an Olympic hopeful, I learned that people like that you drown out and focus on the positive people who love you and support you. You don't make it in life by letting someone else define your role in your life's story.
Last week, I made it a point to sit through the entire Golden Globes ceremony from start to finish, and some people found that strange being that awards shows seem to be loosing some luster in today's instant society. Who has time to sit through three hours WITH commercials just to see someone get credited for doing their job!?
Growing up, I used to love awards shows....or more truthfully, ONE awards show. The Oscars. Growing up in a third world country, our viewing choices were limited to three to five channels except when it rained when the static coming through the bunny ears cut our choices to one or two channels tops.
Luckily, the Oscars were always in one of those channels because it was brought to the audience by the biggest television company in Mexico and the Oscars were worth paying royalties for the tv company because of viewership bonanza.When we moved back to the states, basic television was more reliable, but choices were still limited to maybe seven channels. Awards shows became more prominent because there were so many more to choose from.
As I sat there (and tonight here watching the Critics' Choice Awards), I reconnected with what I used to love about the show. While some people look at them from the prism of "spoiled stars congratulating themselves and throwing themselves a party", my family viewed it more from the standpoint of all the hard work they had to do to even be nominated.
A lot of the speeches tend to focus on the struggles the actor, director, writer or producer's faced throughout their careers, even more so now with the huge focus on the #MeToo movement for women to even BE on the stage or the lack of Black representation in the industry until Black Panther became an incredible financial hit. That's what makes these awards so much more fulfilling, because in life you will face a lot of negative voices and criticism every day, and the person that won the award has their own story to tell which we all should keenly learn from and listen to.
When I started acting again after a seven year hiatus, there was one particularly loud and insulting person that wanted to "bring me down a notch" on Facebook. He googled my name, and took screen shots of interactions I had with people in the industry on FB and then would comment on any status that related to my acting. He would get more and more offensive and demeaning the more projects I got involved in, and even when I tried to send him private messages explaining behind the scenes things about what a producer or director told me on my involvement, he only got more and more mad. The last straw was when he mockingly said "Yeah, ok. You're a big Hollywood star. Keep living a lie in front of everyone." Coincidentally, that was the same day that I first appeared on National Television for NBC's "Revolution".
After that opening scene, my oldest sister called me and told me how my mom (who passed away a short time later) got really happy and exited and they both jump out of their seats as soon as they saw me a recognized me on tv. Right after I hung up with them, I logged back into Facebook....and dropped that guy from my friends list. I missed my opportunity to go to Harvard straight out of high school because I had listened to a negative voice back then, but through my Track and Field career as an Olympic hopeful, I learned that people like that you drown out and focus on the positive people who love you and support you. You don't make it in life by letting someone else define your role in your life's story.
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