JOSHUA RODRIGUEZ

It’s an ongoing joke in my family that, ever since I was 5 years old, I would constantly lament “I want to go home”. Even when I was home. Amidst singing my heart out to Veggie Tales and jumping off my parent’s bed into my father’s arms, I was dealing with the notion that I never felt fulfilled with where I was, and longed to go “home”.

 

I spent most of my life pondering what the “home” I was searching for was. Until one day, I realized what I was looking for. I realized where I felt “home”. It’s a dark room. Full of people, mostly strangers. The big screen in front of us taking us all collectively to a different world. The cinema was my home, and watching those lights dim down was my vehicle to get there. It’s the only place I felt real, or happy. The only place where I’m not looking to be somewhere else.

 

Movies are my home, and since uncovering that discovery, I knew I had a new life goal to one day give people like me the escape that they needed. To give people like me their “home”.