Introduction

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Hello! My name is Conner Cleary. I am a Junior attending Fort Lauderdale High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Last time I spoke to you like this, I shared how I was searching for jobs and saving up money for a car. This year, I’m happy to share that it paid off! I got a job at a yacht club where I earn more than I ever expected. Additionally, I started doing sports photography as a side hustle. Both of these ventures allowed me to save up enough money to purchase a 2024 Tesla Model 3. While I am responsible for the car payments, my parents have been generous and helped by covering the insurance, which has been a huge relief. Alongside working and saving for my car, I’ve recently started getting into trading. Every time I get paid, I allocate 50% of my earnings to a trading account, while about 30% goes toward my car payments and the remaining to upgrading my camera equipment and food. Balancing my time between school, work, and hobbies has been challenging, but it’s been incredibly rewarding. For example, last year my grades dropped heavily because I started to focus on other things like the gym, while completely disregarding school. This year, I have been setting schedules of how I will spend my day, and ensuring I dedicate at least an hour and a half daily to school work. On top of this, I have still continued to develop my skills for film making. Last year, my final task was a short film called Ring of Redemption. Despite the challenges we faced during production, I was still very proud with how the film turned out. However, this year, with the main challenge of transportation being out of the way, I am hoping to have an even greater outcome. I've gotten more experienced with cinematography, editing, and other essential aspects of filmmaking, and am hoping to push my creative boundaries to do something even better. Wrapping it up, I am extremely excited to start working on my Media Studies film this year!