About a Week Ago: This is The Way
By popular request, this is the return of About a Week Ago — a public journal entry where I can take a look back this self defining time of my life and update all my friends from the various corners of my life in the process.
You can read the last entry here to catch up on how we got here.
The hyperlinked videos are important for context and understanding my mentallity throughout these various times of my life.
Thanks for reading.
-Seb
To understand where we are now, we must look back to know why this moment life matters so much.
Growing up as a kid, I never really fit in as a kid until I found other misfits and creators whom spent the vast majority of their time dreaming about what the future could be. I struggled through school, barely passing, and spent most of my watching movies and YouTube, listening to music or gaming.
Little did I know, I was attending the best school that was setting me up for my life as we know it today.
For the past 26 years of my life, there has been one consistent factor — Star Wars.
My happiest memory from childhood and earliest memory watching a movie in theater is seeing Revenge of the Sith (2006). Naturally, I went home right after to choreograph my own lightsaber fights with my childhood friends imagining we were Anakin and Obi-Wan.
From Revenge of the Sith onwards, a life without much Star Wars I lead a life without direction and struggled to define myself. Movies were the only thing that continued to get me excited and motivated in life.
It wasn’t until 10 years later with the release of the Force Awakens (2015) that I started to find my Ikigai (Japanese for purpose) in life. In some way, all roads in my life connect back to the franchise.
I found the 501st Legion and was lucky enough to experience what the first time finding ‘my people’ in life was like. I built my first costume in Kylo Ren. Then, my life as we know it began.
A desire to share what we were doing and reach more people — building film accurate costumes and taking it towards charitable causes — led towards my current career running in house community management, publicity, and social media.
A desire to explore the world of film production and set photography as my major in university was discovered thanks to a behind the scenes reel from the film and the following impact that TFA had on me.
A desire to understand how the fights in Star wars were choreographed led me to discover my love for mixed martial arts — my styles being Kali and Muay Thai.
[Hey, Mando!]
Ever since discovering Jon Favreau through Iron Man (2008) and falling in love with him through his passion project Chef (2014), little did we know as a fandom just how much he was going to change the franchise forever.
I remember watching the final episode of the Mandalorian’s first season with pure joy — not only because I knew half of my friends in California were the stormtroopers used on set — but because I had experienced a new kind of motivation that I have never had before.
By the end of season 2, we knew that it was going to be leading what was best defined as a new golden age of Star Wars, introducing the franchise to a new generation that could then pass it down to their kids like my parents did for me. The show also happened to be an important aspect of how I got through the pandemic.
[To the haters…the doubters…to everyone who’s ever told anyone with a dream: “they can’t]
I grew up my entire life being told “you can’t.” Whether it was from my parents, who wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer, my educators who told me I couldn’t follow a practical career in stunts or photography, or people who I thought were my friends who told me I wouldn’t be able to make it in the industry.
After I graduated already being jaded from the industry, what couldn’t have been worse was a three year long pandemic right after I had recovered from depression and suicidal tendencies as a result of some critically character defining life mistakes. During this time, I was once again given hope through Star Wars, this time by the friends I had met through my involvement in the community and stuck with me, believing in me when I did not believe in myself.
I luckily had a fallblack plan in HiFi and managed to mentally survive the pandemic by exploring my love for YouTube and discovering Corridor Digital’s Stuntmen React — a youtube series that taught me that action film was in fact a practical and possible career path. With a whole lot of time on my hands, I started picking up the different pieces of my past life and I realized I had found the next steps in discovering my purpose in life.
[Preparation, luck, consistency and being in the right place at the right time = your first job.]
Knowing how much closer I’ve gotten to my Chinese heritage, a dear friend in San Fransisco gave me a last minute invite to shoot Golden Gate Garrison’s first showing at the city’s Lunar New Year Parade. Knowing the stakes were high, I was confident. Then, I got a call to shoot an honorary membership ceremony inducting a member of Lucasfilm that was need to know.
The experience of that day and the resulting work helped me become on of the 501st’s dedicated staff photographers and most importantly meet a mentor that would become influential later that in this year long story. Releases of Shang Chi, the Legend of the Ten Rings as well as Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, as well as a friend turned second mother passing in the same time frame made me realize that this was my own “now or never” moment in life.
[Life ain’t short…you just gotta do more…]
If I did not take the leap of faith and restart the journey back into film, I knew I was going to regret it the rest of my days. I moved to LA on nothing but hope, somewhat calculated risk, and despite the best wishes of my mentors a stubborn inability to compromise. Instead of choosing one, I decided I would find a way to combine my talent for unit set photography and love for action film into one career.
I started doing the thing and in a matter of two months:
- Undertook my first intensive stunt training program at Joining All Movement, accidentally meeting my first group of film friends out in LA (yes, new friends are possible here)!
- Shed 30 pounds, healed from my first major injury and started MMA again, returning to Kali, Muay Thai, and added Balintawak Arnis.
- Quit my day job and moved to full time consulting to support flexibility for my next career, moving towards founding the first agency/firm of it’s kind in my other industry/passion, the audiophile/HiFi world.
- Started building costumes again and fell back in love with the process that started my life as we know it today.
- Became the most healthy, happy, and self aware I’ve ever been.
As icing on the cake, I got a another call, almost exactly a year later from last one that begun this journey. It was from one of my commanding officers, Bill Holmes, who told me I had been selected to go to the world premiere of the Mandalorian. Knowing how special of an opportunity this was, I very quickly said yes and as soon as I got off the call burst into tears.
[This is The Way.]
Nothing beats watching the first two episodes of new Star Wars will people that value the franchise in ways that don’t need to be explained. Cheering at the Lucasfilm logo, reacting at the same time in the same way to certain things that happened in the second episode, and seeing tears fall down the faces of fellow community members was already priceless.
What mattered most to me was getting to experience with my people there, including my longest running friend in the community that I’ve known since we were wee babies meeting for the first time at Celebration 2017 Orlando , Alexandra Vann, who was a north star in getting me through some of my darkest times in my life that I mentioned earlier.
On top of that, my most unexpected connection turned friend made throughout the year, Clayton Sandell, took the time to accidentally introduce me to the only person I wanted to meet in person that night being Doug Chiang. After stumbling through thanking him for literally leading my hopes and dreams of the past 26 years of my life, and after accidentally making him feel old, I also got the shake the hands of Paul Lee, or better known by the Asian film community as Appa.
They say never meet your heroes…
[You’re going to make it into this crazy business…and will love it. — L.H. ]
The future? That’s up to the will of the Force and the work to create the next journey. Whether that leads towards unit photography on set or a role in studio what’s certain is that all roads start with and lead back to Star Wars. The other thing? This is only the beginning.
Thank you to Lynne Hale & Bryce Pinkos for your willingness and warmth to help a kid with a crazy dream that popped up out of nowhere in your life.
And, thank you to Pete Vilmur & Alejandro Vargas for all your coordination to make experiences like these possible for the community in past and present as Star Wars was meant to be shared — with your family whether it’s by blood, or by choice.
