I Took a Job I Knew Wouldn't Pay Well.

Sometimes the right job isn't the highest-paying one.

About ten months ago, I made a bucket list. Not the most exciting places to visit or things I want to do, but dream career gigs, the industries I either grew up around or genuinely geek out over. Agriculture is definitely up there for me, because I grew up on a farm in southeast Alabama. Not with goats and cows, but we grew peaches, watermelon, peanuts, and cotton. When I was young I would visit my grandad on the farm and put peaches in baskets and set them out on display to sell in the summertime. Here’s a picture taken from our log cabin on the farm, him in the background with his daily Stetson. Me out front, waiting to hand out peaches, every now and then people would hand me a dollar tip and tell me how sweet or cute I was. Loved every minute of it.

Summer of 1997, in Gordon Alabama

So when a state agricultural commercial came across my submissions, I read it and thought: this one's mine. The session rate was tough to swallow, but I knew it was worth it to me. A legacy opportunity in some regard. Every once in a while, it’s not about profits.

This project received over 1,800 submissions. Nine of us booked the two spots. Being on a farm in nowhere South Carolina, the client told me how my auditions stood out because they were "fun and realistic, not actor-y." I told him that's something I've been working on.

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