Crawling Before I Walk

When discussing my many hopes and dreams, my grandma always says to me, “Kaneisha, sometimes you have to crawl before you walk,” to which I hastily reply, “But I don’t want to crawl!” However, I’ve started to think that The Evangelist Beaulah Mae Sholtz may just have a point.

My public access television show is a weekly exercise in crawling. I’m a newborn baby when it comes to being on air, and I’m learning the aspects of being an engaging and effective on-air personality bit by tiny bit. “Oh, I should look in the camera and not up at the television? That makes sense. I can’t yell at the callers if they’re stupid? Okay!” In no time, I’m sure that I’ll be looking right into the camera and being nice to the callers—all at the same time!

Another really fantastic aspect of having a show through Cambridge Community Television is that they offer extremely affordable classes in all aspects of production. Right now, I’m taking a Final Cut Pro class with hopes of getting enough skills to edit some clips together into a demo reel (a montage of clips of me being on air showcasing my abilities to agents and other people who might be able to get me a gig on TV). In our three-hour class this evening, we basically learned how to open the program, establish the correct settings, import a file, and close the program. Now, that’s crawling. But to my great surprise, it was wonderful! I loved learning the intricacies of how to do simple tasks the right way rather than the quick and lazy way. I feel like I’m getting the proper foundation upon which I will build my filmmaking empire! (Okay, so that’s a bit much for someone who now knows how to merely open and close a video editing program).

I have also decided to try crawling a bit when it comes to my writing career. I’ve started reading How to Write a Book Proposal again from the very beginning instead of trying to slap a proposal together and pass it off to my fancy publisher friends in hopes that they will magically get me a book deal. I’m going to learn how to write a book proposal the right way—and then I’m going to write one the right way. It may take longer for me to actually have something put together, but it will be done the proper way—not necessarily perfectly but at least not slipshod and haphazard.

I have also started working out with the heavy-headed clumsiness of a baby. Mr. C was in town this weekend for Valentine’s Day and we vowed to work out while he was here. We braved the cold and headed to the gym yesterday, and he showed me with heartwarming patience and gentleness how to lift weights. “Remember to breathe,” he would say in response to me whimpering, “This hurts! I feel like my neck is going to explode!” Who knew that 5-pound weights could cause such discomfort? I was so proud when he said, “I really like your technique. You are actually lifting the weights the correct way. It’s better to lift less weight with the correct form than to lift more weight incorrectly.”

I’m starting to learn that I can’t just wiggle my nose and magically accomplish whatever I like. When I jump right into things without a sufficient plan or background, I quickly lose interest and end up discouraged that I’m not making as much progress as I would like. However, I am now seeing that I can start somewhere and learn how to do the basics the right way to pave the path for bigger challenges. I look forward to walking and then running in the near future, but a little bit of crawling will do for now.

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1. When You Need a Friend to Slap You

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