Introduction to the Pedro Zone

 Greetings To All!

    Hello everyone! My name is Pedro Chavez and I am currently on my 4th/senior year here at New Jersey City University. I am still going strong towards my goal of getting my Media Arts degree.

    It wasn't until high school that I took a proper interest into the idea of media and literacy. I had no clear direction with my sights for the future changing at every possible corner. I thank my teachers heavily during my junior year of high school because they are the ones that truly put me on my path to improvement. I took a journalism class which required me to do a lot more writing for scripts and general research while also expanding my knowledge regarding films. My English class during that time also made me appreciate the hard work and the amazing story telling used in media. 

    It's hard to imagine when my first interest in general stories or books began. My memory has never been a strong suit, but I would imagine I read stories since I was a child. Technology was primitive in my household when I was young, so books from school or library were how I got most of my entertainment before my family invested into a television. I remember reading stories as much as I could back in pre-school. Learning about Clifford the Big Red Dog as well as other popular childhood classics. My parents were always pushing me to read because they aimed for me to accomplish what they never had the chance to, and I still strive for that to this day.

    I never truly began to look deeper into books until school brought up the idea that books can be deeper than what meets the eye. I had read for years up until that point, but my brain always preferred to take things in from the surface level, making the deeper meaning in these stories foreign to me. When I finally decided to look deeper, that was when I truly began to feel literate. There's one thing to have read a story, but it's another to understand a story. Messages and lessons hidden in the vast sea of words that truly can impact a person for the greater. While no one book has reached me deeply, I have grown to appreciate stories for more than just many well written lines of letters. 

    I truly gained an appreciation for literature when I realized how well they tangled with the media I intended to make my goal in my future. During my time in middle school, I joined a forensics club which was essentially an acting club. We'd read off pieces of media, either written by us ourselves or taken from popular pieces of media. I had done it for 2 years and it opened my eyes for what would eventually grow to be my love. My English teacher in my junior year of high school made this even more apparent. We read stories that involved more acting, being able to play roles that would let the story speak more to us the readers. As the classes went on, I grew more and more interested in specifically the script side of literacy, but acknowledged how regular books are their own form of scripts. Thoughts, dialogues, meanings, characterizations. They all brought things that I enjoyed to envision and act out. I can't thank the teachers that pushed me onto this path as it gave me a better appreciation for literature but how it was weaved into film and television.

    My own desires for the future and my hobbies of writing push me forward, keep me interested in media. While I don't read too many books now outside of light novels and comics, my appreciation has yet to die down. There is so much more for me to learn and I remain excited with each passing day.