allow me to reintroduce myself. The name’s Matias Herrera.

Look at you, seeking out more information about me—I’m flattered by the idea that you’ve decided to visit the page that has not my work but my wordy self-descriptive paragraphs.

For as long as I can remember—which is a sentence premise that I’m sure no one has ever used before—I have been fascinated with words, stories, receiving attention, pretty much anything that relates to the world of entertainment. Like a lot of children of my generation, it started on YouTube, absorbing long playlists of ten-minute-videos; parodies of existing shows, Minecraft roleplay, illegal replications and distributions of shows that were otherwise inaccessible to someone who was either as dimwitted or as poor as me. Then, from YouTube, there was the natural, very healthy evolution to English Class, where I then found myself with a faux-productive way to avoid listening to my teacher: Reading. I honed my existing faculty for language in the hopes that it might make me more desirable to girls, and when I realized that wasn’t working, I kept at it because I was obsessed.

And then there was Freshman year of High School. In a decision that I, on reflection, can only describe as “dauntingly emo,” I intentionally avoided making friends for the first three months of the year. I would hide in empty classrooms after school, hoping to avoid contact. And then, one day, the particular classroom I’d chosen began to fill to the brim with myriad kids and teachers. I tried to escape, but all for naught, the room was packed. I was too socially awkward, inept, and terrified as they handed me a sign-up sheet to tell them I wasn’t there for whatever they were having me sign up for.

Ten minutes later, through sheer force of “I don’t want to cause a scene,” I had performed a scene. Ten days later I was cast in my first lead role. Ten weeks later I performed in my first lead role. Ten shows later I was the President of the Drama Club and Captain of the Improv Team.

Now, years later, I find myself pursuing performance and story as often as I possibly can. Whether it’s through the many short films I have found myself acting in, writing for, or directing—or some other clingily applied way through the connections I’ve made along the way.