The Decennium

For those hardcore followers of this blog, if there are any, you might remember how I recently declared myself not to be a real Californian because I woke up during the 4.4 magnitude earthquake. This Friday after class I met friends and classmates in the hallways freaking out over «that crazy earthquake in middle of class!», and I didn’t even know what they were talking about.

I honestly thought it would be a longer process, but I’m happy to announce that I might already be a real Californian. As soon as I have a minute to spare, I’ll go and pick up my new passport and ID (that probably won’t be in another ten years anyway).

Although I thought I’d reached the top (or one might say the bottom) of insomnias misery last week, it seems that it’s not fixed just by a single night of good sleep. After a full day of school, I had to talk my friend into committing suicide for the camera from 10 PM Tuesday evening. Such takes time, of course, so I barely closed my eyes before next morning’s class at nine.

After weeks of night work, my body clock is now so shifted that I’m more awake at night then at daytime – which is quite inconvenient when I finally have time to sleep. The result is the zombie version of Petter; he keeps forgetting his keys in the door lock, keeps slumbering in class, spaces out during conversations and forgets his lines during shoots. Not much different from the normal Petter, actually, except that this one has so little energy that he practically turns around in the doorway at gym, and has an insatiable urge for calories in all shapes and forms.

As I look at the number of this weeks post, I realize that I am already in my 10th week of school here. I think that’s a good time to sum up a little; what did I learn so far? Was this whole of thing of quitting my job and chase my dream a good idea? I have got to admit that there are moments when I miss living as a wealthy young man in Norway, with a good job and enough money coming in to buy myself a decent piece of freedom. Freedom, as in the option of getting a new pair of pants at times, go to the movies, or even just to own a bed.

Those are the same moments as when I look at my utterly uncomfortable air mattress on the floor, the wholes in every single pair of pants I have, the missing soles on my old leather boots, when I say no to eating out with my friends, or when fantasizing about how my former wealthier self would be all over LA to discover its secrets and adventures – while my discoveries so far has only reached back and forth to school.

But if I can only manage to pay my next rent (which is a legitimate question), truth is I don’t mind struggling for a while. As much as I loathed it when I was a kid, the number of audaciously long hiking trips with my dad in the Norwegian wilds taught me some useful lessons; when we were finally at the top, all the struggling made sense. «To get to the top, you must climb the hills, my son».

Without them, there would be no heights – thus nothing to reach for, and no view (read: victory) to enjoy. Not to mention, that huge meal (read: reward) on the top never tastes better than after a ridiculously exhausting journey.

As much as I miss my family, friends, the beautiful nature, the freedom and the secure life back home, there is not a second where I regret being where I am now. To start all over, reinventing myself, at the most international school you can imagine, the financial frustration, deconstructing and rebuilding my idea of acting, even learning how to walk and breathe, has all taught me much more than all my time in front of that computer in my office all together.

Honestly, I don’t care about getting famous at all, and of course I probably never will be. But if I can have a job where I can be everything and anything, whether on a small stage or on a screen in Hollywood, there is nothing else I’d rather be. In fact, I no longer think there is anything else I even could be.

So, at least with half of my heart I can say I actually don’t want this to be easy. I don’t know what kind of top I’m going to reach (it could be located in an office back in Norway, for all I know), but I want to stand there, tired and content, looking back down and say; it kind of sucked for a while, but I tried. I gave it even more than I could afford, and now my piece of the cake could never have tasted any better.

Life 2.0 is one of Khrono’s blogs, and will be presented with new blogposts every week. Petter Egge is a former student from HiOA and journalist at Khrono.no. He has decided to do something quite different. This is his stories.

Mars 25th 2014: 
Chronicle #9: «The Wake Up Call»

They say you’re not a real Californian until you no longer notice the earthquakes. This week started with something of a wake up call. As mentioned in previous posts, sleep is quite limited for me over here due to lack of time. That one night when I finally managed to enter deeply into those psychedelic lands of dreams at the right time, with no alarm set for the next morning – THEEARTH decided to shake me out of bed at 6:25 AM with a 4.4 magnitude earthquake.

The whole chronicle #9 here.

Mars 18th 2014: 
Chronicle #8: «So You Think You Can Act»

Do you know how to walk? No, you don’t. Can you sit, crawl, or lie down? No, you can’t.  You can’t even lift your arm up in front of you. I know you can’t believe it – neither could I. But every day here, I am proven wrong.

The whole chronicle #8 here.

Mars 11th 2014: 
Chronicle #7: «The walk of Shame»

Ever had the feeling that your duties seem to pass by like a super fast train and you just can’t catch up with it for the life of you?

The whole chronicle #7 here.

Mars 4th 2014: 
Chronicle #6: «Teaser»

I was a journalist, a gymnast and a musician. I had everything I needed – except what I wanted. Thats why I decided to quit my job, say goodbye to my friends and family, and leave for acting school in Hollywood. The Video presented in this blog is a small taste of what life has been like the first few weeks.

Here you can see the video-blog.

Feb. 25th 2014: 
Chronicle #5: «In a cold sweat»

For a guy who has lived all his life by the rules and routines of a gymnastics regime, there is no doubt that life here is a tad more divergent. Having nothing to do at one moment is just as shockingly unfamiliar as it is to run from a film shoot to my roommates’ baptism in the next. At any point earlier in my life, the degree of variation stretched from sleeping, through eating and practice, to toilet visits, school and back to sleep. The circle of life has definitely taken a new shape.

The whole chronicle #5 here.

Feb. 18th 2014: 
Chronicle #4: «The Proposal and the Valentine’s»

Real life, as we will know it the next eight months (though dreamy it may still seem to me), is about to blossom. As the hassle of settling down slowly dies out, challenges of school is coming to life, growing over the heads of its students.

The whole chronicle #4 here.

Feb. 11th 2014: 
Chronicle #3: «Life’s a like a box of chocolate»

As we still can’t seem to get friendly with our apartment (at least our rent), it took my roommate and me no more than three days to decide to move out again. Already stretching our comfort zone with one bedroom, we are now downgrading to NO bedroom.

The whole chronicle #3 here.

Feb. 8th 2014: 
Chronicle #2: Move-in Day and monologues

When gas, water, power and insurance companies got back in to business on Monday morning, Murphy’s law did the same; what could go wrong – well, you know. For the landlord to let us move in, they needed confirmation letters faxed from all of the above – which should be no problem, since we asked them all to do so when opening our new accounts. After half a day of waiting by an empty fax machine, we dared to call them back with a friendly reminder – only to discover that they’d forgotten all about us. When they eventually faxed it, only one name was on the paper – and we’d really prefer that both of us could move in. 

The whole chronicle #2 here.

Feb. 5th 2014: 
Chronicle #1: «I need a dollar, dollar is what I need»

Ok, just to make it clear right away: I am NOT a blogger. Since the dawn of the blogosphere, my prejudices have kept me far away from its kind. But as we all know, the first unwritten rule of a struggling actor in Hollywood is that «Everyone must accept some kind of prostitution in order to survive up until the big breakthrough.» So, I could have fulfilled the stereotype of waiting tables between my auditions, or I could do a «Sylvester Stallone» – but instead I am now spreading trivialities about my still-to-be famous self. Oh, the irony.

The whole chronicle #1 here.