Introduce Yourself : Hello, I would love to introduce myself... by Jennifer Lynn

Hello, my name is Jennifer. I joined Stage32 in April. I had to take a couple of months off, but I have been posting in the Screenwriting section regularly ever since my return. I don't think I ever really introduced myself properly yet, and would love to do so. Hi all! I'm beyond happy to belong to this website, and I love talking about Screenwriting. Screenwriting is my passion, my love, and what I do every single day. It's something that I've had in me (for what feels like) forever (as early as my earliest childhood days). I'm blessed that I found this inner passion, and that I'm working really hard towards and for. I love networking, I love talking, and I love love love writing! I started writing in the Second Grade. I never fit in anywhere. I was always so different than anyone else. I always stood out (never in a good way). I spent all of my school life being heavily bullied. I used reading and writing as an escape. Movies were my passion and escape as well. Actors, Actresses were my idols. I was blessed with the right teachers and curriculum in anything writing related, and I luckily flunked Math! Why is that a good thing you ask? lol By failing Math, I had to go to Summer School a lot. My friend and I were always forced to do both the Math work AND extra Writing/Reading classes. Fast forward to College, my favorite class by far was Advanced Reading. That was probably the highest grade I have ever gotten in school. I kept my tests, my final, and all of my text books. =) Along the way though, I more or less just wrote what the teachers told me to. I had fun with it though, a lot of what we were able to write was on us. They gave us a little description of what it should be like, but then they let our minds roam free. I wrote short stories, essays, and just about anything you can imagine all through my school years. I didn't just write about people, I was always the one in class writing about Aliens, Pirates, and places only a great imagination can go to. When I wasn't asked to write something for my classes, I did it on my own, for fun. I also wrote letters to my cousin, and I kept more than one diary at a time. During my year long run in College, I got too tired and too drained to continue. By this point in time, I suffered from severe depression and anxiety. Doctors, Therapists, and Parents did not know what was wrong with me. Even though that was only 10 years ago, depression, addictions, and anything related were so far shoved under the rug...and it was almost too embarrassing to talk about (on their end). I told a doctor what was wrong with me at one point, he looked the other way because it was easier. I'm so happy that things have changed since then, and people are getting better care now. I ended up finding a website on my own to help me, then I helped others when I felt better. I actually still help at times. I love giving free therapy sessions. I never actually call them that, but I do help the people who were in similar states as I was. I even cured my own panic attacks (with the help of books of course). I had lost someone that I truly adored that year college started, so it was seriously a really bad time for me. I wasn't happy with the curriculum on top of all of that, and I was not able to major in anything that I had a passion in. I dropped out for health reasons. I majored in Psychology, and part of me will always regret not finishing that, but I couldn't deal with being around what I had to be around. School was so bad for me bully-wise, that anything that had to do with school made me sick. Seeing the desks, the boring classes that we didn't even want to take, the fact that I had to go to college with the biggest bullies that I had to endure. It was like they knew I was going there, so they all met up and decided to go to the same school...lol that's not really the case, but I couldn't stand being there. I took some time to mend, heal, and figure out what I wanted to do (all while working 2 jobs). I started working right out of high school. I love working, I love writing, and I love learning. That's the only thing I miss about school, the books...the notes...the paperwork. I do that now though. I spent the last 6 years teaching myself how to be a Screenwriter. Hours upon hours of work, days scheduled much like college, and I put a lot of money into buying anything I thought would help. Anytime I watch a 3 minute video on YouTube, I take notes. I treat it as a class, as if someone else was teaching me...which in a lot of ways a lot of other people have taught me. It's been fun. I've grown a lot, and I've grown out of my really bad depression and anxieties. Believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't know what Screenwriting meant. I kept writing and it became second nature to me. I would write, but I wasn't even sure what to do with it all. I knew this writing talent was meant to go somewhere, and I didn't want to waste it...so I then started to try to write novels. Even though I was getting the words out, something still wasn't clicking. I spent months trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Frustrated, sick, hating that I didn't have school to back me up. Then one day it hit me. I wiped my tears away, then re-read a lot of my work. Everything sounded like a movie. I've always been a huge movie lover. My Father got me into movies as early as my diaper days. My Mother always read to me. I combined the two, and Googled, "How to Write A Movie..." That was 6 years ago, ever since...I've drowned myself in all things Screenwriting. I can't help it, it's become so second nature it almost interferes with daily life! I've managed to allow it to interfere...interfere so much so that it's now my career choice, and it's something that I'm working very hard towards and for. I wrote a story that was near and dear to my heart this past year. An Animated Short that really felt right. I felt like it was a story that I've wanted to tell since I was a kid. I'm going to be re-writing it. It will no longer be short. Too many people said that the story is too big to be a short. I'm also currently working on a year long Action Script. This...this has been my baby for sure. A lot of me, my own story, and my own life has been incorporated into the characters, the theme, ETC. I'm also thinking of Acting because that was always something that I wanted to do as well. I figure, if I can juggle the two of them, both career choices can help each other out. I wouldn't be surprised if they clashed and I went towards being a Director! =) We'll see. I need to get some more Scripts done before I overwhelm myself with other goals and ideas! =) Thanks for your time, if you even got this far down LOL!! I appreciate it. =) -Jenn