Five years ago, I had reached out to Dylan Roscover, a highly talented motion designer, through e-mail as a junior in high school with a head full of questions and grammar errors galore. I was in the midst of doing what all 17-year-olds did at that time — wondering what direction I wanted to go in after graduation and whether or not I’m going to make the right choice.
I received an email back from him shortly after and immediately his advice clicked. The fresh perspective was exactly enough to do wonders on the steps I took further.
“Do what you love is the best advice I can give. Don’t limit yourself to one; try them all. Learn them all. You can learn anything that you put the time into. A school doesn’t make you successful — only you can motivate yourself to. As George Harrison of the Beatles said, ‘it’s all in the head, you know?’”
After graduating high school, I went on to study Design and Visual Communications at Tribeca Flashpoint in Chicago. It had been the first year that the design program launched and there were a lot of kinks to be ironed out; nonetheless, I played role of ‘sponge’ and soaked up everything I could out of my experience with an open mind. One thing I didn’t hesitate to do, was use my voice. I asked loads of questions, offered thoughts and ideas, and sought regular feedback from my instructors and peers. I collaborated with students in other programs, learned about film, animation, the such, and took advantage of the resources that were available to me. I never quite grasped the exact idea of where I wanted to go next after college, but the thrill of always creating and always learning was an absolute high to me and continues to be.
“I slept about 3 hours or so a night for months on end, nearly killed my body, but I loved what I did and thus survived the hours.”
I immersed myself into the industry and devoured as much as I could from each experience. I kept his advice in my back pocket throughout those five years — greatly affecting my outlook during college and in the workplace.
“My advice is this — don’t expect anything out of your instructors, no matter how talented or not they are. Expect it out of yourself. Demand it in yourself. You are your success — not your degree, not your school. ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish.’ I didn’t know what those four words meant at first, but I challenge you to discover their meaning for yourself.”
