I’m leaving everything and moving to LA. (anxious 3am thoughts of a college kid)

I’ve lived in the exact same house in Frankfort, Kentucky since I was 2 years old. I’ve gone to the same church for almost as long. For the longest time the plan for my life was to be an engineer, go to UK for my degree, and get a job designing products somewhere or maybe I could start my own company one day.

That was not my plan. So I threw it in the trash.

I started making videos on YouTube. Every now and then I would make something people actually cared about and it would get a few hundred views. Then I made a couple of unicorns which attracted 3,000 views.

Eventually I started doing things my way, and now I even consider myself an artist.

I’m an Entrepreneur at heart, so in December of 2015, halfway through my senior year at age 17… I opened a small production company called Right Ring Media. Since that day I’ve worked on several commercials for local business, and experimented a lot with the business side of content.

Then one day I found my dream client on Twitter. Now, I get to travel across the country to intersting places to film Cy Wakeman giving keynote speeches on how to Ditch the Drama in the workplace. I also really believe in her philosophy, I’ll embed one of our videos below for you to watch.

Now, I’m moving to Los Angeles.

I’ll be attending the Los Angeles Film School for the next 36 months learning how to do what I do better, and making connections in my industry. Film like almost any other industry is all about teams working together, and to be a part of a team you have to know somebody. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way the world works.

I’m a little scared. I’m leaving all of my friends. I’m leaving my mentors. I’m leaving my parents. I’m leaving my mom’s cooking. I’m leaving this awesome Thai restaurant I usually go to at least once a week. I’m leaving my Church and my Bible Studies. I’m leaving my cozy, comfortable little life to go to a big city full of starving artists to try to make it as an artist.

You’re right, I’m crazy.

But the truth is for every ounce of fear I have, I have ten times the excitement. I get to go try to do something worthwhile, and experience life in a way I never have before. I get to make all my own choices, I get to live on my own.

I’m so excited for my biggest adventure yet.

Thanks for reading,

Mason Tompkins

P.S. I finished writing this at 3:01 am because I’m anxious and can’t sleep, but now I’m tired so I’m not going to edit this. Enjoy my typos and funny grammar :-)