If James Franco Can Do It, Why Can’t You?
If you look through any tabloid you will see celebrities and the luxurious life they live, but do you ever wonder how they got there? In today’s culture it is a rarity that people become famous through hard work. We see individuals slipping into the spotlight for outrageous fads, but when Hollywood comes across a celebrity that has worked hard in not only their career but education as well, they should be an inspiration to others. Franco lived a standard life growing up and attending school in Palo Alto, CA. Much like your typical teenager Franco found himself slipping in and out of trouble.
Franco had a passion for many things and one of those was acting. After graduating high school he attended UCLA for a short period of time. Against his parents’ wish he dropped out to pursue that passion he yearned for back in high school. Soon enough, Franco found himself working late night shifts at McDonalds. It was a good thing he had determination to succeed as an actor and fight through the rough times because he had his big break only a few years after dropping out.
Franco was scoring different roles, and even a Golden Globe Award in 2002, but that was not good enough for him. 10 years later he decided to re-enroll himself back into UCLA where he found himself so enthralled in the curriculum that he convinced his advisers to let him exceed the limit and take 62 credit hours a quarter.
While he was taking these extensive hours he was still acting and filming movies, but his education was so important to him that he had fellow classmates video tape lectures and send notes. In two short years he graduated with a 3.5 GPA. Franco inspired himself, as he said in an interview, “I went back to school, and like the Scarecrow once I got the diploma I realized, Oh, I guess I had it all along”. Franco was so inspired that when he moved to New York he enrolled himself in 4 different graduate schools. Concurrently, Franco was accepted and began attending Yale in hopes of a Ph.D in English, which would be another one of many degrees he had already attained.
James Franco should stand as a beacon of inspiration for all of us. Not only did he display that it is important to pursue your dreams but it even more important to pursue your education as well. This actor shows us that we are offered so many different resources that allow us to better ourselves as human beings; it is just a matter of making the most of them. It is clear; Franco went above and beyond balancing his career as well as maintaining a high GPA in multiple higher education programs. Find your passion in life and when you do achieve it do not stop pushing yourself for more. Achieve everything you could possibly want to achieve and as James Franco says all “… pursuits are possible”.
Tara K.