April 2017 – Tyler B. Humphries

I was outside of a closed library, huddled in the corner to hide the red glow of the Apple logo beneath my computer’s case. The bugs were eating me up through my polyester work shirt. Every loud car horn or random spout of drunken laughter made me nervous. I occasionally glanced around, making sure no one could see me.

How did I get here? Well, it all started after I got off from work. I wanted to watch a movie to unwind a little bit before I started working on my screenplay. I decided to watch a recently released film that I was sort of excited for, but if I’m being honest with myself, I really just wanted to watch it so I could say I finished the series.

I turned the hotspot on from my phone because I wasn’t at home so I didn’t have access to Wi-Fi. I bought the film for $14.99 on iTunes and started downloading it to my computer. It started downloading pretty quickly and then it slowed down. A few minutes later, I received a text message from my service provider telling me that I’d reach my limit of unlimited high-speed data and my data would start slowing down. Thank you, T-mobile for falsely advertising unlimited high-speed data. Really…

2 hours later and I wasn’t even a gigabyte into the 3.4 gigabyte download.

I don’t know why I didn’t just let it go. It’s not like I really wanted to watch the film, I just wanted to complete the series. I’m a finisher. I finish things even when I know I’m not really going to enjoy it.

Maybe it was because I paid $14.99 and I refused to wait for what I paid for. So I got up and I walked to the local library…at night…while it was closed. I think it’s important to note that I wasn’t in the “best” neighborhood either but if I’m being honest, I feared more for my expensive MacBook Pro than my life. That’s the real secret of the hood: most people aren’t in actual danger but their property is.

I thought the movie download would only take about 5 minutes because when I’m at home, it takes about 2 minutes. But it didn’t. It actually took about 34 minutes and during that whole time I was slightly paranoid. Sure, I was fearful for my computer but I was also just generally paranoid. I don’t know why I felt like I was doing something wrong. I have a library card. In fact, that’s the library I go to when I’m not on campus. And it wasn’t like I’d broken into the library. I was sitting in front of it, just behind its pillars. So why did I feel so bad? Plus, once my younger brother found out what I’d done, let’s just say parents were called…stern talking-tos were given…and everyone was a bit confused.

Yes, even at the age of 21, I was scolded for my actions and it really wasn’t my actions that resulted in the scolding, it was more of the fact that it was just so late at night and I’d went out by myself. Yes, there is a bit of sexism in that but there is also a general concern for my safety.

Anyway, what was the weirdest thing you’ve ever done for internet service?

Let me get the most pressing news out of the way. I will receive honors from the Department of Communications and Journalism at my university.

It was so unexpected and so welcomed. I’ve basically been on cloud nine since getting the news and I can’t see that changing.

The Debate

But in other news: The Media Exhibition. In the span of a week, my world exploded…but in a good way.

Let me tell you about it. Earlier, in March, my amazing academic advisor told me that he’d nominated me for a student award. I was excited but I didn’t feel like I’d get the award. You see, I think I’m a good writer, but I’ve encountered better writers, so I seem to second guess myself a lot when it comes to what I can achieve. It’s something I’m working on. But anyway, he nominated me for the student award a.k.a. a slot for the media exhibition that my university was holding in April.

A few weeks went by and I didn’t hear anything about whether I made the cut or not. So assumed I didn’t. Just when I’d given up hope, I received an email telling me I’d been selected to participate. I was also told that I could choose to not participate. I was leaning towards not participating because there had been a lot of craziness going on in my life and I didn’t have the time to spare to prepare for the media exhibition but on the very last day for sign-up, I decided to give it a go. What harm could come from it?

I selected the three screenplays that were used in the media exhibition. I chose three shorts. The first one was called The Naked Finger and it was a short, dark comedy about a cheating spouse. The second on was called Wedding Day Blues and it was a short, suspense piece about a wife that killed her husband. Yes, there is a theme there. They were both from the same class and I sometimes use themes in order to help me organize my projects. Moving on here. The third piece was part of the paid pieces I’d written for my university for the sexual assault prevention and awareness training.

Before the participants could go to the media exhibition, we had to go through a mandatory meeting to make sure we were prepared for the exhibition. Basically, they wanted to coach us on how to dress, proper etiquette for the event; looking over our sample pieces, critiquing our resumes, etc. Why so serious?

The Media Exhibition

Well, the media exhibition was set up as a reverse job fair. Instead of us shuffling from booth to booth, eagerly looking at what companies were there and what they had to offer—the companies were doing that to us. The horror. The excitement. The sweat. Seriously, I wasn’t wearing any sleeves that day and I still sweated like a farmer chained to his land, forever obsessing over what the land yielded. But I digress.

The media exhibition was exactly like it sounded. I walked in and there were tables and booths set up. Finger foods off to the back of the room on tables longer than the tables we were given to present at. Everyone was dressed in their best representation of what a “professional” for their major should look like. We had the journalists, the video game designers, the audio people, the film people, the public relations people, the advertising people, and then there were the scriptwriting people. I just really want you to picture how amazing everyone’s tables/booths looked. And then picture the writing table.

Everyone had their posters and videos and audio samples—things that drew people in. And we, the writers, had paper. We did alright, though. Instead of selling our product, we had to sell ourselves. I did that by color coordinating. My business cards, resume (which I was using as my visual cue because of how nice it looked), and my outfit was all color coordinated. Even my laptop matched, although people couldn’t see it.

Things I learned from that event include but are not limited to: be alert; be first; be cunning but socially polite, and always have copies of your samples for people to take away from you. Be a shark, essentially. It was a very weird experience but I survived it. I spent two hours standing, pitching my work (thankfully not in heels) and I was actually able to pull people in. But what I realized was something I’ve known all along. Writers do not sell their work. Writers sell themselves. My writing samples speak for themselves. They show vision and the potential for further growth but it was me opening up about myself that really drew people in and made them give me more than just a complaint on whatever sample they read.

By the end of the day, I was told to apply for a few summer internships. I don’t know how they’ll pan out but I’m looking forward to whatever may come. It’s like what I said in my first blog post; 2017 is going to be great.