Running head: VISION STATEMENT
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VISION STATEMENT — Honors Portfolio John Nelson Kennesaw State University
2 Running head: VISION STATEMENT Vision Statement — Honors Portfolio
Who am I? It hides among the deepest of questions that we ask ourselves. How we fit into the world, our part in the great machinery of it all; it is pressing and terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Growing up, we collect the crumbs, the bits and pieces of answers to the ultimate question, gained through experiences, discoveries, and education. We continually examine and rearrange that paltry collection of half-formed reasons, and eventually, we must draw from it a path to follow for the rest of our lives. It is not a perfect system, but transitioning into adulthood is not either, and we all have to do it at some point. Society holds that we both start and finish the process within four to five years of college. I am not sure that I have successfully met this existential education requirement; the best I can do is to offer a framework, one that I will likely continue to fill for the rest of my life. To start, I am simply a twenty-two-year old undergraduate, working to complete a Communication degree with a focus in Media Studies and a minor in Professional Writing. I was born and raised in Georgia; most of my family lives here. I am one of the lucky few who have remained close to their families and who were born into a household that could take care of them. While my relationship with my parents and siblings was occasionally rocky, as is anyone’s, we always managed to hash it out and keep together, and now I am closer to them than ever before. I have an absolutely wonderful and beautiful fiancée who keeps me grounded — we are planning to get married in May — and I have a handful of great friends. I was raised and still consider myself Roman Catholic, though my belief system takes certain liberties. But these are all facts that anyone could garner with a little research. What of the more subjective? I am a creative at heart, I think. Every passion I pursue involves some act of creation, and my purest joy is storytelling. I like to say that I wandered a bit before I landed there; in high
3 Running head: VISION STATEMENT school I wanted to be an actor, before that it was any number of things. Even in college, I took two years to realize what my brain was trying to tell me all along. Characters and plots constantly bounce around in my head. Every quiet moment ends up either in narrative contemplation or in dreaming about what I will do once my stories reach people’s hands. The only way that I have ever felt comfortable communicating is through the written word. And even then, I do not like writing objectively about myself; I have always felt that the only way my thoughts make any sense to anyone else is if they are delivered through the indirect conveyance of a fictional character’s speech and thoughts, through prose and dialogue. It all gets tangled together otherwise, leaving my audience even more confused than it was before. I am relatively certain that my place in the cogs of the world is in creating stories for others to enjoy. Fortunately, I stumbled into it early enough in my college career that I was able to shape my classwork toward that goal. During my time at KSU, I have developed natural interest into transferable skills. I have explored narrative form and scenic development, dialogic storytelling, conciseness, and revision. My professors have been endlessly helpful and informative. And while I have by no means mastered any of those skills (most authors do not achieve success until middle age), I at least know where my strengths and weaknesses lie and how to capitalize and adapt to them, respectively. Nothing has taught me so much as my Honors Capstone has. It gave me the motivation to actually do what I have always planned to do. Write. The best way to learn to write is, simply, to write, and to do so constantly. Furthermore, and of commensurate value, my capstone allowed me feedback from readers. An author can write all he wants, but if no one ever reads his words, where does that leave him? With a fuller sense of self-understanding, perhaps, but not much else. Sharing my writing was a Herculean task. After all, my most personal and vulnerable self is buried in those characters. Without the driving force of my
4 Running head: VISION STATEMENT capstone, I do not think that I ever would have exposed my work to anyone else, and I certainly would not have done so again and again. Now, facing the world, I see possibility. Work and effort, certainly, but possibility. Sleepsand, the first book I want to publish, is far from ready, but it is exponentially more developed than it was four years ago, or even a year ago. I have built confidence in my ability and in my work, and I even have the forbears of two other (non-Sleepsand) books in my head. I have fantastic job for someone my age, but I have plenty still to learn there, too, skills I must hone to keep the job. But I can see my role; I can see the ultimate destination through all the labor. Five to ten years from now, I want to be a lead writer, overseeing a group of other talented and dedicated authors or screenwriters. Ideally, I would either be the lead writer/director for streaming or cable TV shows based on my books or the lead writer on a BioWare project (a video game company that specializes in character and world development; their mission statement vows to “create, deliver, and evolve the most emotionally engaging games in the world). I love writing stories, but I also love collaborating to push ideas to their absolute best. My résumé will be likewise competitive. Before I even attempt to put my name into the ring for a job of that caliber, I want to have at least Sleepsand published. Meanwhile, I plan to keep practicing editing (both of text and of video) and writing. Not everyone is so certain of their cog, and I consider myself lucky to have found one I enjoy so much. John Nelson is a creative, John Nelson is a friend and brother and fiancé and employee and a hundred other roles, chosen or required This is my outline, the life I have found myself in. Again, I do not have all of the crumbs — I sometimes feel like I barely have half of them — but I am taking the clearest path I can discern from what I have managed to figure out. I sincerely thank the Kennesaw State Honors College for pointing me in the right direction.