I just wanted to thank you so much for the invaluable advice you have in your weekly column. About a year ago I moved out to LA, not actually planning on becoming an actor, partly because I’d heard all my life that it was okay as a hobby, but hardly any kind of REAL work and partly because, well, I hadn’t done any acting since high school!

While I was looking for work in my preferred fields (I was trained as an artist/art historian and used to work in construction — surprisingly entertaining, construction work!), I signed up to do a little extra work as a stopgap until I could find some of that elusive “real” employment. Let me tell you, it opened up a floodgate. I suddenly remembered how much I’d loved the plays and short movies I did all through high school.

I suddenly regretted not being more involved in the theatre program at my university (I did help out in the costuming department, but being on stage never happened). I wanted to act, never mind what anybody else thought; I’ve been a storyteller all my life, writing and drawing and painting. Of course I lunged back toward acting!

The problem was, I didn’t know how to get into it. Didn’t even know where to start looking! Running a Google search for “acting schools” gave me so many results I was quickly overwhelmed, and digging through the scams to find the gems felt like an impossible task. To make matters worse, I didn’t have any friends in the industry to whom I could turn to for advice (and I might be inexperienced, but even I know that “I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can help you for five bucks” is a bum deal).

But lucky me, all that searching and digging through the library and so on paid off. I stumbled across your column a few weeks ago and it’s been an immense help on so many fronts, to say nothing of being an incredible encouragement. Seeing someone say, “this is going to take hard work, but it can be done” is so much better than the, “it’s impossible” argument that seems to get trotted out with regularity, and it’s far, far better than some of the nonsense I’ve seen on Craigslist. I kept digging and found an acting class I liked (no, loved. The teachers are amazing and my fellow students phenomenal). I dug a little more and started figuring out my type. Once I knew what to look for (and yes, your column helped immensely on that front), finding the right information became… well, not easy, necessarily, but I’m a lot more efficient when I search, that’s for sure!

Obviously, I’ve got a long road ahead of me, but between my own business savvy and the good tips I’ve gotten from your column, I think I’ll be okay. And hey, I’ve got an audition coming up soon, so there’s a step forward on my journey (and I am prepped and ready to nail it. Heck yeah).

So thanks, Bonnie! I couldn’t have done it without you.