Well, it all started many, many years ago in a galaxy far, far away. The Empire had.....
Wait, wrong story. This
is supposed to be about me. Me. Teresa. It all started in the small town nestled in the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains
in North Carolina. The name of this town is Tryon. I really love this place. It was here that I made my debut to the world.
And quite possibly as a sign of things to come, I was gnawing on my fist when I was born. My father was career Air Force and
my mom was a stay at home mom. Two years later, I became a big sister. Treena was born in San Antonio when my dad was stationed
at Lackland AFB.
I lived in Queen Creek, Arizona for about 3 years (mom and dad correct me if I'm wrong). Most of
what I remember of Arizona is dust storms, sidewinder snakes, cacti and going to church. One of the instances that sticks
out in my mind about church is, I was suppose to recite
Psalm 100 (my favorite!) in front of the entire congregation
and I froze! So much for the superstardom! I also remember eating grapes. Green, seedless grapes and lots of them; I loved
them. Now, can't stand 'em; don't even ask.
My dad got orders back to Lackland and there I spent many years. My dad
was a TI (Training Instructor). As a kid I got to go to see where he worked on occasion. It was really neat for me to see
where my daddy worked. It was really amazing to me. His squadron would put on Halloween and Christmas parties every year.
Those were really neat. I don't remember them, very well, but what I do remember, they were fun.
I also remember singing
Jolene by
Dolly Parton into a small tape recorder. I took my little plastic guitar, strummed and sang "
Jolene,
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene!!!" at the top of my lungs. The
Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie as a child; actually
it still is. (I watch it often!) I liked going to school at this age, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grades were really cool for me. I
made lots of friends at Lackland Elementary. It would be really nice if I could see them again. Who knows, if some of you
are reading this by chance; e-mail me!
By the time I reached the 4th grade I had met someone who I consider one of
my best friends. She was 2 years older than me, but that didn't matter. We spent alot of time together. We walked to school
every morning, and played kickball & California Softball after school. During the summer, Kim and I judged Dance Fever
contests for the younger kids, played Monopoly & Clue, and went to the movies every Saturday.
When I was 11, nearly
12, I had been given a creative writing assignment by my Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Pittman. I wrote a little 3 or 4 page
story (I now call it
The School Story) about the teachers of my school. After I turned it in and she read it, she
asked my permission to put a copy in the teacher's lounge. I had been blessed with a talent to write and I didn't even know
it.
I was still a big fan of television. I saw the very first episode of
The Facts of Life in which
Jo
first appeared. I saw
Nancy McKeon on that show and I knew that I was going to become an actress.
The Facts of
Life came on every Wednesday night at 8pm and I was glued to the TV! At that point, little did I know that my destiny
lied not in front of the camera, but behind it.
A month after I turned 12, my dad retired from the Air Force. We packed
up and moved back to Tryon, North Carolina. I made a very good friend in junior high. Her name was, Satasha, and she told
me that she wrote plays. I immediately thought, if she could do it, then so could I; and thus, Teresa the writer was born.
At first my plays were about the characters on
The Facts Of Life (fan fiction, who would have thought?). After several
months of that, I thought I should be able to write an original story and I did. I have written several plays, but they are
by no means works of art. After I finished writing my novel; yes, I wrote a novel (and it needs lots and lots of work), I
realized that I had been blessed with the gift of writing and should pursue filmmaking; I was 16.
The funny thing
about that realization was that I didn't follow up on it. I had been told that being in the film business would "be something
I would always dream about but never do" and I bought into it. Right before I met this awesome guy, Paul, in high school,
I received an application for enrollment in a New York film school; they sent it to me, I didn't ask for it. Since I had bought
into the idea I would only dream of making movies, I put the papers away and never filled them out. All this film making business
had been put into the file of
Things To Dream About.
Shortly after, Paul and I decided to get married; I
became a big sister, again. My best bud, Chip, was born in 1989. It has been a joy to be a part of my little brother's life.
I got to help take care of him from birth to he was 13 months old. Chip is one of my best friends.
At 20, I was married
to Paul and looking forward to starting a family. I honestly believed that this was what I was meant to do and for the first
few years I was happy. My writing had slowed to a halt in 1991, and I spent my time being a wife, working part time jobs and
using my imagination in creating characters for role-playing games (at least I was still creating).
Paul received
orders to England in 1995 and we moved to England. That was a very difficult time for me. I started writing again in November
of 1996. I had created a character for the role-playing game,
Vampire The Masquerade. In the process of writing my
character's background, I found that the character spoke to me and I just had to tell her entire story. I was so anxious to
work on it that, if for some reason I couldn't work on it, like having to go to work or some other important issue, I would
literally shake. I needed to create. I needed to tell stories.
Lots of stuff happened between 1997 and 2001, personally.
I only finished about 2 short stories in that time. To this day, my vampire story is still unfinished. Back in December of
1999, I sat down to watch
Buffy The Vampire Slayer, like I normally did on Tuesday nights and was drawn to a new
character that was introduced. The character was
Tara. I became totally taken with her and wanted to learn
more about the actress that portrayed her. Her name is
Amber Benson; and she was key in my going to film school.
In the fall of 2000, I applied and was accepted to Full Sail.
On August 9, 2002, I graduated with an
Associate of Science Degree in Film and Video Production. It
is the best thing that has happened to me. I finally feel happy. I know that I am on the right track with my life. In the
next 5 to 7 years, I hope to have my own production company with my husband. And I'm totally hoping to work with Amber Benson.
****Please go to the My Inspiration page of my site and read about Amber Benson.****
