Full Circle

Nearly a decade ago I took a quarter off from school and came to Venice Beach. "It's just something I have to do" is what I told the various people who rightfully questioned my decision. I realize that sounds a little melodramatic. But, the fact is it was dramatic for me, a 20 year old kid from Ohio, to drive across the country with no job and just the idea to spend all day every day reading and writing on the beach. It was my first true adventure. I had hardly any money. My budget was about $3 a day. And nearly every day I spent $1.25 of that at a wonderful little coffee shop called The Cow's End. I could get a small french vanilla coffee with one refill (the first and last time I had a "usual") and write until my laptop battery died. I really feel it's where my desire/need/joy to write was born.

So today, Joe Boyd and I flew out to LA for a week of meetings about our upcoming movie. We are sitting in The Cow's End now. He is writing our investors. I'm about to work on the final draft of the screenplay. This "full circle" moment is just about the craziest thing my brain has had to process since a road trip to Emmaus, PA in 2008. If it's not a God thing it's a pretty unbelievable coincidence for me to finish my first major project where "it" all started. I'm gonna give God credit for his ability to craft complex plans that we'll never understand or predict. We don't have to understand them. All we have to do is step out and take a risk when we feel deep down that there's something we have to do.