By Christopher Criss
People often ask me why I decided to go back to college later in life.
The answer is actually pretty simple.
I had stories to tell.
Not just one story.
Hundreds of them.
Characters, worlds, myths, and ideas that had been living in my imagination for years.
But to explain why I returned to college, I first have to tell you something else.
Returning to school wasn't actually the beginning of my educational journey.
Three Colleges, Three Chapters
After graduating high school in 1994, I attended Aladdin Beauty College and graduated in 1995.
I enjoyed the experience and worked as a cosmetologist, but I was also exploring other creative interests. Writing, art, music, storytelling, and character creation had already become major parts of my life.
Later, I attended the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) where I studied psychology and minored in music.
I was fascinated by people.
I was fascinated by stories.
I was fascinated by why people think, feel, and behave the way they do.
Unfortunately, that chapter didn't end the way I had hoped. I struggled academically and eventually left school without completing my degree.
For a long time, I carried that disappointment with me.
Life moved forward.
I worked countless jobs.
I wrote poetry.
I produced music.
I built haunted attractions.
I created characters.
I designed worlds.
I started businesses.
I lived.
But there was always one thing that remained constant.
I was creating.
The Stories Never Went Away
Long before I ever thought about filmmaking, I was creating stories.
As a kid, I drew original characters with my best friend and helped create role-playing games based on them.
As a teenager, I wrote stories and poetry.
As an adult, I created music, flyers, haunted attractions, characters, and mythology.
Over the years I developed original characters including Handsome Jack, Jillian, and Jayne for my haunted attractions.
The more I created, the larger those stories became.
Eventually they stopped being just attraction characters.
They became a world.
A mythology.
A universe.
I found myself imagining movies.
Television series.
Documentaries.
News broadcasts.
Entire stories built around these characters and ideas.
The problem was I didn't yet have the skills to bring them to life the way I envisioned.
Why Film School?
That's why I enrolled at the Los Angeles Film School.
I didn't go back to college just to earn a degree.
I didn't go back because I needed letters after my name.
I went back because I wanted to learn how to bring my stories to life.
I wanted to take everything I had spent decades creating and put it on a screen.
I wanted to learn directing.
Production.
Writing.
Editing.
Storytelling through film.
I wanted to build the skills necessary to transform ideas into reality.
Most importantly, I wanted to prove to myself that the dream was still possible.
The Surprise
I'll admit something.
Returning to school was intimidating.
I wasn't eighteen anymore.
Most of my classmates were younger than me.
Technology had changed.
The industry had changed.
The world had changed.
But I kept showing up.
One assignment became another.
One class became another.
One project became another.
And then something happened that I never expected.
I started thriving.
This year I was inducted into the Honor Society, something I had dreamed about since high school.
To some people, that may seem like a small achievement.
To me, it meant the world.
Not because of the honor itself.
But because it proved something.
The story wasn't over.
A Year Away
Today, at 51 years old, I am one year away from graduating from the Los Angeles Film School.
I'm currently filming The Mark, a short film that serves as an introduction to a larger series based on characters and stories I've been developing for years.
I'm continuing to build 13 Screams Productions.
I'm growing KSME Channel 13.
And for the first time in my life, many of the stories I've carried with me for decades are beginning to take shape on screen.
What I've Learned
If there's one thing I hope people take away from my journey, it's this:
Dreams don't have an expiration date.
You are not too old.
You are not too late.
You are not disqualified because your path wasn't a straight line.
Sometimes life takes you places you never expected.
Sometimes you fail.
Sometimes you start over.
Sometimes you need three different colleges and thirty years of life experience before you finally arrive where you're supposed to be.
And sometimes that winding road becomes part of the story.
Going back to college wasn't about getting a degree.
It was about learning how to bring my stories to life.
And the best part?
The story is still being written.
Christopher Criss
Filmmaker • Storyteller • Horror Creator
Founder, 13 Screams Productions
🎬 The Mark
👻 13 Screams Productions
📺 KSME Channel 13
Stay Spooky, Sesame. 🎃