In 2011, I turned down three major studio offers to teach.

I told myself I would do it for 2 years.

2 years turned into 15 because watching students land jobs working on their favourite Hollywood blockbusters and streaming series, and go after the careers they actually dreamed about, turned out to be more satisfying than anything I had imagined doing for myself.

I'm still not entirely sure it was the right call.

The cost I didn't anticipate is that studios now look at me and see a compositing instructor with no real industry experience. The same years I spent placing artists at the studios that now won't return my emails.

But here's what I watched happen in that time: artists who had no clear path found one. Students who doubted whether they belonged in the industry went on to work on films they grew up watching.

That's the thing that kept me in the classroom long past the 2 years I promised myself.

When you find work that does that to you, 2 years has a way of becoming something else entirely.