Ashton Jones
5/14/18
Storytelling Without Pencil and Paper
At one point I loved what I now hate. That thing I hate is dance, ballet specifically. I can’t
explain why I despise it now but if I tried, it’s a mixture between being burned out from doing
ballet everyday for the past eight years of my life, non-stop, and constantly being told I’m not
good enough for my age. The more I started to hate it, the harder I searched for what my true
passion was.
I started dancing because it was fun. I did all different types of styles of dance including, ballet,
tap, jazz, and contemporary. My dance teacher talked to my mom about enrolling me into more
ballet classes somewhere else so I could better my training. I ended up auditioning for the Prep
Program at University North Carolina School of the Arts, and I got accepted. I was then told that
if I didn’t take this opportunity I would regret it but now it’s probably one of the biggest regrets I
have. Getting sucked into strictly ballet also sucked my interest in dance, out of me. I started
dreading everyday and going to ballet class had now become a task. All I would ever do in every
single class was fantasize about doing what I actually was passionate about, making films. This
was only one of the many things I found to keep me stable.
I have found many things that kept me sane over the course of eight years but mainly the most
recent three to four. Music has impacted me in a way nothing else has. I listen to it all the time,
in all of my free time, in the car, and whenever I possibly can. I also have a thing for taking care
of things, I’m not allowed to have another animal in the house so I decided to buy lots of plants
to take care of. They all have names and they’re all different species of succulents, hanging
plants and cacti. Youtube is the last thing I could say that helped me. That sounds crazy, but
that’s what lead me to making short films.
As time went on, I got more serious about this whole thing but didn’t lose my love towards it.
This is now my main hobby that helps me through long weeks at school and ballet. I usually
come home and either watch a film on a film festival website, plan a new film, or edit one that’s
in progress. The thing that gets me the most excited is seeing the story I once had just floating in
my head, transfer into a visual representation on a screen that I can then share what’s been going
on in my head, with other people. Especially when it’s a message you have that’s just too hard to
explain in words, but perfect to construct a film around. This is how I want to share stories and
spread messages for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t be able to say that if I hadn’t spent most of my
life doing something I dislike.
