Since high school, his passion for film was through the originality and dreamaking forms from storytelling. As it was beyond anything else more than math and science, he believed he had found his passion through film and love for the everyday life of a filmmaker. He had found his destiny in filmmaking, however, his parents had already destined him to being a doctor, engineer, biochemist, or any job unrelated to the arts. As the path his parents laid out for him, he walked his own path till today. Studying film at the University of La Verne, writing movie reviews on publishing mediums, and foretaking positions as editor and camera operator, Jonathan Diep had realized dreams should make their own destiny happen.
For a number of years, Jonathan had believed “the key to sucess and happiness is always money and having a steady job that pays well,” after what his parents had told him.
“There was something about making my parents proud and working towards being the best student, if not, the smartest student that I always thought was the significant factor of being a successful person.” Jonathan soon found that is not the case. “You yourself have to decide who you want to be and what you want to do, as long as it makes you happy and it’s something that gives you a reason to get up in the morning other than just to make money to pay the bills,” said Jonathan.
Colony High school in Ontario, California was where he discovered his passion through his leadership positions as the director, president, and head editor of the school broadcasting program – where he learned various techniques in film and production.
“It’s crazy knowing how things have changed for me over the years,” said Jonathan. “I’ve grown more confidence in myself as a person.”
He shared how it took till high school to realize his parent’s notion towards him becoming something of himself outside of the film industry.
“It was all a part of some irrational fear of not being good enough, and of being a failure to the people that raised me,” said Jonathan.
It’s became a great catalyst for Jonathan to pursue his dream as his “lifelong obsession” with the arts of film and television flourished upon that realization. Whether it’d be analyzing, creating, or critiquing it, he knew I wanted to do something in that field. But still to this very day, his parents still try to drive me in their direction, the “right” direction. As he won’t allow their perception to disrupt his drive toward film. He is a strong believer that “Dreamers and individuals are the masters of their own destiny.”
He recommends people chasing their passion to proving their parents wrong, and often themselves – as it is a growing process to discovering who you are. He states to remember money is not the root of all happiness.
“For me, growing up in the strictest conditions really confined me and held me back from what I really wanted to do. But as I got older and as I’m continuing to grow as a human being and as a student, I’ve realized that you can never limit yourself to your own dreams, because when you do, you settle. And when you settle, you will begin to think about all the other directions you wanted to go in your life. As someone with immense passion for film and everything about it, I say find your passion, go through with it. If you don’t know what you want to do, that’s perfectly fine. No one ever really truly knows what they want or like until they experience as much as they can of whatever passions they want to pursue. It’s a idiosyncrasy of life that leads to always growing and learning new things. At this point, I’m still trying to figure it all out. And that’s okay, because every day as long as what I’m learning and doing makes me happy, there’s no better way to live life.”
Advice: Keep going with what you do. Make everyday a step towards your goal.