2022

2022 was a blurr, honestly.

    

    Another new year is just a few days away. I think I need to take a moment to sit down and catch my breath. I swear it was just April! Eight months. It's been almost a year since I last published an entry on the blog. LOL the gaps in between each entry keep getting longer and longer, honestly. My baddd.

    I spent the summer writing a lot to stretch my storytelling skills. After my attempt at adding more footage to my actor's reel, I invested a lot of time on this one script but ended up scrapping it for another story that I thought was more interesting to explore. Eventually, I stopped streaming as auditions picked up nearing the end of the summer. I finally received what I'd prayed for and got swept away in the work I wanted to do! After booking some projects consecutively, I just kind of let the whirlwind of it all take me wherever it wanted to take me.

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"My support system was everything. Without them, I don't think I would have felt as okay as I did this year."

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    So this year, COVID-19 happened.  After three years of avoiding it, the sickness finally caught up to me. I got sick a lot this year but COVID was just terrible. It was so difficult to breathe. I had ongoing fevers for days and my entire body was so sore, even after I had tested negative and all other major symptoms had disappeared. I quarantined for a really long time and as a result, my mental health was absolute shit because I missed being with family and felt a sense of inadequacy being unable to give my all during self-tapes.

    I was so relieved that I decided to get fully vaccinated and boosted beforehand. I honestly think the worst would have happened if I hadn't. Thank goodness for vaccines and resources to comfortably and effectively quarantine from others.

Progress looks different for everyone. Remember that.

    As soon as my body healed from it all, I was so happy to jump right back into my routines. I'm glad I waited as long as I did to regain full energy because the following deadlines really did require a lot from me afterward. I needed a lot of energy to prepare me for the roller coaster of auditioning again: the roller coaster of rejection.

   Learning to come from a place of gratitude has helped tremendously in processing rejection. I feel so grateful for all the callbacks- grateful to those who saw something in my work and called me to further the audition process. Because of that, I was able to work. I got to be an actor. 

    Rejection used to be so difficult to get over in the beginning. Receiving so much of it can be so overwhelming and it definitely still gets to me from time to time. I've been doing this for a little while now and I think I've learned how to pull myself back up. Don't get it twisted though, rejection still fucking sucks. Some days just get a tad easier as you go and you just learn to trust that "what's for you, will be for you."

I got this top several years ago on ASOS. I think I got it because I wanted to treat myself. I'm glad I did.

    My support system was everything. Without them, I don't think I would have felt as okay as I did this year. I'm so grateful for the friends who continued to forward breakdowns and for those who hyped me in the rooms where I was not present. You create opportunity for me and for artists like me. You understand that it's about the bigger picture too and I love you for that. I'm especially grateful for those who offered and provided their homes as a safe place for me to stay when I was booked for overnight gigs out of town. Ya'll are wonderful and I hope you are reminded everyday of that.

    Thank you to the friends who sat and listened as I rambled on and on and on about the films I wanted to make, how I wanted to make them, and who I wanted to make them with. It all meant so much to me. Your kindness means so so much to me. 

Q: Would you purchase my photography to put in your home?

    Things don't always work out the way we envision them but we always try to be present, right? I thought I would be able to document these adventures on set more as I was experiencing them but I always just chose to put my phone away. As a photographer, I tend to get caught up in taking "the best shot." It would've been too much of a distraction to be doing all that while making sure I retained pages of dialogue before cameras started rolling. "You've been hired as an actor, not a photographer," is what serves as my reminder now.

'Don't Worry' by JMIN, Mirani, Park Hyeonjin

    Taking the opportunity to talk to other artists on set and connecting with those who 'get it' meant more to me than worrying about having something to post about online (every time, I just hoped that production set aside a budget for BTS. People really do underestimate the value of good BTS). I guess it makes it a little easier to cope when post picture blues come around because you can't hold the smiles or the goofiness of the people you bonded with. But I would rather have those memories than not.

"Change is an opportunity to grow." At least that's what I hope for.

    To get over said post picture blues, I decided that the rest of the month would be spent (mostly) on photography. I know, funny.

    I prepared sets of new portraits, each with a different look and purpose. This particular set of shots (the one within this entry) is going to be released in two different parts, each through this blog. I've also prepared an in-depth actor's bit about a particular experience I had this year for my artist page on Buy Me A Coffee that might spark some ideas (read here on Dec. 29th). 

I'm so excited to share more with you in the following days!

Talk to you very soon.

xoxo

Be your strongest protector.

Marr Aragon, Creative Director & Photographer

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My name is Marr Aragon.

I'm a Filipino American actor, photographer, and aspiring filmmaker in Dallas, Texas.