The first time I was a student at El Camino College straight from high school, I never knew I would be coming back years later and starting all over again in life.

I attended El Camino from 2010 to 2014 studying film. I transferred to California State University of Long Beach in 2014.

I was so enthusiastic about the movie-making industry and thought my path in life was set.

At CSULB, I took more film classes, worked on student films and graduated in December 2016.

Then I encountered the difficulty of finding a job in the film industry.

In 2017, I began applying for jobs. I was willing to get a job as an editor or camera operator. I was even willing to help with scripts.

No company hired me. I got emails back letting me know someone else was chosen over me.

I could not get my feet into the door and realized one of the reasons was because I didn’t have connections in the industry.

From 2017 to 2022 I worked at jobs I did not want to do. I worked at a grocery store and later as a janitor at my church.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I gave up on my dreams of working in film and stopped applying for jobs.

While studying at El Camino and CSULB, I became interested in national and international politics, news and history.

In 2021, my mother encouraged me to go back to school and study journalism.

She thought I should let go of my film dreams and try a new career path in journalism because I was making news videos on YouTube and blogging on WordPress.

My mother was also a returning student at El Camino, studying briefly in the 1980s with an ambition of working in law enforcement.

She later returned to El Camino from 1999 to 2003 to study nursing and has been a registered nurse ever since.

At 31 years old, I was not thrilled with the idea of going back to school.

I did not want to take online classes during the pandemic. When El Camino started reopening campus and in-person classes, I humbled myself to go back to school and registered for the spring 2023 semester to start taking journalism classes.

I came to campus and was surprised at how much the campus changed since 2014. I felt awkward being in class with teenagers.

It still feels weird. I had to get over the feeling that all my prior education was for nothing.

I am restarting in life, but I have to remind myself all my film education and skills can be used in journalism and reporting too.

I hope I have much more success in a career in the news industry than I did with film.