During the dog days of summer 2014 I was left with a decision that ultimately changed my life: Return to CUA for my sophomore year or work on a reality television called Barmageddon. Coincidentally I wasn’t able to afford to go back to school, so this job offer came at the perfect time. Your whole life you’re told to go to college, get a degree, and get a job. But, when special opportunities come knocking at your door, you have to open it and see what is on the other side, even if it scares you. Having the decision between going to a community college or working on a reality show might seem like a no brainer, but to me it wasn’t. I just came off an amazing first year at college and all of a sudden it was taken away from me in a blink of an eye; it meant not reuniting with my friends I just spent a year making, no pre-class jitters, no social scene. I figured if I went to community college I could visit my friends all the time and continue with my education but, with the support of my family and friends I took the job as story assistant on this brand new television show.
If I didn’t take the position I would have never met the beautiful people pictured above, the people who guided me, showed me the way and believed in the 19 year old me who took her first job in the real world. All the credit goes to Cat Pappas, the executive producer of the show, I had met her after she just came off of Executive Producing a series for Travel Channel at Sharp Entertainment. The develoment team at ITV worked on the show with a man named Jeff Gaspin. After they sold the show to TRU, they brought Cat on after the pilot to EP the show, she and I were “pitching episodes”. We were working on episode approval by pitching our strongest casting choices. Impressed with my writing, she asked me my plans for the fall and if I’d be going back to school or if I wanted to take this position. I’ll never forget being called into her office and having her explain the work I’d be doing. My job was to work closely with the producers and post production to give them a sense of what happened each day with summaries, making sure the producers got what they needed to shoot for the day, my life quickly turned into working 12 hour work days and constant travel. And you know those expressions people make in television? …It was my job to write down the exact moments those happened so post production knew where to find them for episodes. I was scared to death of messing up and not living up to the standards of what was needed of me. After a lot of thinking and realizing how much of a dream this was, I knew this was something I HAD to do. I was headed to Manhattan, Florida, and Chicago for the next 8 weeks to begin filming.
(Me and Jake, the head DP of the show in Delray Beach, Florida (aka heaven on earth))
I’ll never forget the day my parents left me in the airport after saying our goodbyes. It was my first time traveling by myself, with practical strangers and staying in hotel rooms alone. It was the early hours of the morning, the sky was pitch black and I was about to go on an adventure of a lifetime. I spent my 20th birthday with my new Barmageddon family; they bought me a cake, sang me happy birthday and made me feel so special. We spent countless hours after shooting talking about what happened that day, sitting around the pool in Florida, or the balcony late at night, or in restaurants and hotel lobbies. The crew would be drinking and smoking, laughing and listening, eating together, getting sick together and congratulating each other on a hard day’s work. We became a crazy, beautiful, dysfunctional family, that will always live on in my heart. They taught me everything I need to know and more. There was many wise words and advice exchanged throughout the process and I knew, from those days on they’d always have my back wherever I might be.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “The only thing to fear, is fear itself,” and he could not have been more spot on. I truly believe that things happen for a reason and maybe we won’t see why right away but somewhere down the line we eventually will. All you need is one person to see your potential, talents, and drive to give you an opportunity and continue to give you opportunities throughout your life. Be someone you never thought you’d be or do something you’d never thought you do- try it out, be nervous, it only pushes your drive to want to do better. I have met some amazing people in the business just from stepping out of my comfort zone and going down a path I never thought I would go down.
Cheers to you Barmageddon crew for showing me the way and showing me the light. I’ve had some of the best memories of my life with you guys and a time that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
Gary (the other story assistant) and I on ou flight home after our last day filming
Some crew members at the Barmageddon launch party in NYC, it takes a village to film a television show and everyone who worked on it is not even pictured!