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I didn't get good grades in high school. I was one of those kids that the structure of your typical public school just wasn't meant for. I would get so bored in class. I hated doing work that I thought was irrelevant, and if someone didn't explain things to me in a way I could relate to, it went in one ear and out the other. But I did have my acting. That was really the only asset I had in getting into any kind of college.

Fortunately for me, Pace University was so desperate for students in 2001(I hear they've raised the bar since then), that some of my class mates in college were still working on their GED while going to college full time. And I just wanted to get away from California, and go to New York, where everything was shiny and glamorous. And so, after taking a year to chillax and do some local theatre, I applied and was accepted to Pace. First day of class? Monday, September 10th, 2001. My first class wasn't until that Tuesday.

My phone rang at 9a.m. Tuesday morning. It was a college guy I just met at some drunken party the night before.

“Ummm, look out your window.”

I'm a silly one, and I used to sleep with a disposable camera under my pillow. Seriously. And I turned over, and this:

I never fully realized the life and world-altering moment that this was until years later. I felt so, normal that day. Like it was like any Tuesday, which it was. As if it was perfectly normal that we should jump into this stranger's car and go to Poughkeepsie and let them clothe and feed us. Look at that sky. I remember, that very morning, I shared a strange moment with my roommate. It was 6a.m., and we were sleeping, and we both woke up and just looked into each others eyes. The room was filled with this utterly vivid pink light, which was the rising sun reflecting off of everything.

I said, “It's so pink in here…”

And we fell back asleep. When I awoke, she was gone, and this angry black cloud scribbled itself against the most shockingly blue sky I ever remember seeing.