Where to begin. I met Julian Owen in the middle of my 7th grade year. We shared the same history class in which I never spoke to him, however, I could see how outgoing he was. He got along with everyone and at such a young age. He was probably the most personable person I had ever seen that was around my age. He was completely well spoken and advanced given he was about 12 or 13. I remember vividly seeing him showing some drawings he had made and a slideshow he had created showing his different hobbies and interests. This kid amazed me at how unique it was for something that age to be so talented.

I don’t remember exactly when or how we started talking and became friends but more importantly I can remember that we bounced creativity off of eachother, whether that was in acting, art or film, we reflected our creative energy onto each other and ever since then, Julian hasn’t stopped creating and pursuing his passions. 

I got the pleasure of interviewing Julian about his passions to get a deeper look at how he works, what motivates him and what his biggest outlets are. When asked about his creative outlets Julian mentioned his two largest passions are acting in theater and film as well as filmmaking. “If I already have something going on I’d say that it would be doing a production or working on a film because those kind of become my main creative outlets for a given period of time.” 

However, when Julian is not occupied with a larger project he entertains his creativity in smaller ways. “If I don’t have either of those things set up, like right now I’m not doing either of those things. I don’t have any project that i’m working on specifically, I don’t know, I started like journaling a little bit, and just taking things that interest me or images that interest me and draw them out and just write what i’m thinking.” 

Julian Owen is inspiring to friends, his family and his peers. His passion and motivation to create has been expressed through a plethora of different mediums, the most prominent being theater and film. Julian has been involved in such plays as… (Seen in chronological order)…Shrek the musical Jr, Beauty and the Beast, Footloose with CTE (Creative theater Experience), Tragedy a Tragedy (SPSCC), Radium girls (Capital), Theory of relativity (Capital), The Highest Tide (Harlequin), I am nobody’s lunch (SPSCC), Dramafest show, The Thanksgiving Play (SPSCC). And in such films as Barbara, Boys Night, Words, Checkmate, Video of car going missing real, Odorless mist, Signal 6, Happy Birthday (your dog will die), Cannibal Cookout, Turkey Dinner. 

Julian vents his creativity every day in several different ways besides theater or film making. When asked how often he participates in these activities he said, every single day. “In some capacity I’d say every day even if there’s not a specific project that I’m working on, I still try to brainstorm stuff or come up with script ideas even if I never finish them.” 

Even though Julian may not have a solid project in mind when he starts writing, journaling or creating he still manages to incorporate creative venting into his everyday life. He looks at it in a way such that it is worth getting the idea out, he mentioned in the interview. 

“It’s like a release of tension or energy, sort of. Like that’s how I feel when I write a script, I’ll be like ‘oh, I’ll take something from my life that happened to me or a funny image or idea and I’ll put it out physically somewhere that’s not just in my brain and I think okay that’s cool that’s one less thing to catalog in my mind.’ I’ve put it in a physical space now and it’s not taking up space.” 

Julian and I had a great conversation and I got a pretty good look into his life a little deeper than I usually would. He talked briefly about how it’s not a passion that he will pursue as an occupation however he will never want to stop creating. He would like to be involved in community theater or creating short videos or films on the side when he can, but focus specifically on something else. 

If Julian could give one piece of advice to those following in his footsteps or those younger, “don’t wait to do things. If you have an idea, commit to that Idea, put it onto paper. If it’s writing something, like if you wanna make a movie and you have an idea for a movie, don’t let it just simmer for several weeks, and not do anything about it. Because I still do that and I think that I would have made a lot more if I just stuck to putting my ideas on paper even if I thought they were hot garbage.” 

He followed up by saying, “I think that’s the biggest thing that stops me is I get an idea and then I start thinking about the idea and then I think oh this sucks I can’t do anything about it, but then it never goes anywhere if you don’t keep writing it or keep revising it.”

Julian continues to amaze me with his creativeness and outgoing personality. He is by far one of the most interesting and amazing people I have ever gotten the pleasure of knowing. I can’t wait to see what happens with Julian and myself and his peers can tell that he is going to achieve the greatest of things.