Dan Wallace – 10th June 2011
Sacrifice
Today is my 21st birthday, the last milestone birthday that I will usher in with joy. I can’t wait to get down the pub with my friends and get somewhat “pixelated” as Cooper would put it. Although this may not happen one thing is certain, I’ll have a late night tonight, but unlike most 21 year olds with any form of a social life, I’ll be at home, smoking myself to death preparing for my biggest pitch to date at 9:30am tomorrow morning. Strangely I’m the polar opposite of bitter, I’m tingling with excitement.
Today is a perfect example of the point I’m attempting to make; if you want to have any chance of making it into this glorious industry you have to sacrifice everything you once knew as normal and apply yourself further than you ever thought was possible.
Growing up in Brighton, I had not a care in the world. I had a misspent youth on the beach with my friends, and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. But one day, in my graphics class, reading creative review, I turned the page and there it was, 1,000,000 neon balls cascading through San Francisco. This was the moment Sony showed me that you can engage and excite the world with an advert.
I remember that very moment when the penny dropped that moment when all that I had, the college lifestyle, a potent social life and money to burn all became obsolete. My sites were set and I wanted a job in advertising. I wanted to give people the buzz I had raging through my veins.
I now feel closer to that moment than ever before. It excites me, it scares me and those things push me to get better everyday. But its cost me nearly everything. time with family, my friends and a life. A life of sleep {when I wanted it}, money and for the most part frustration. Frustration that I wasn’t where I wanted to be, or even getting closer to where I wanted to be.
Now I’m a broke student, putting in crazy hours. I have resolved myself to a non existent social or sex but despite this, I’m somehow happier than ever. When the sun’s flooding into the studio, I miss the lazy days on the beach, or when facebook gets flooded with photos from events that apparently my entire home friendship group went to I miss that too. But all these things, added to the epic lows of rejection and failure, make me think is this all worth it? Then I think back to the moment I was lying in bed, sick as a dog and I opened an email telling me that I’d got in the D&AD annual. I sprung out of bed and danced around the house or to that first moment I buzzed from an advert.
I think yes, every waking second is worth it, every drop of sweat is worth it, every mile cycled or pound spent is worth it.
Why, because I am privileged to have found something I want to do.
Some people never find this, and I found it at 18. 3 years later, I can taste it. I can smell it. Soon enough, I’ll be able touch it and when I do, I sure as hell wont let go.
