By Mary Kerr

Who Am I?

At the time of writing, we have three weeks left at SCA, or as Marc likes to call it 502 hours. By the time I finish writing this scab it will be 501. In 501 hours I could fly to New York back and forth 31 times or I could watch the whole series of Game of Thrones seven times or I could re-create my whole portfolio twice. Right now with a severe head cold I’m leaning more towards option 2.

Last week we had an amazing talk from some SCA alumni. The piece of advice I took away from was about how important it is in these final few weeks to remember what brought you to the school in the first place? What gets you excited? What makes you you? And remember to put yourself in your book. Marc always says, we have 10,000 versions of ourselves. There’s the CV me. Dry, formatted with names and dates and grades and skills. There’s the what I love me, my passions, my dreams, my ambitions.  There’s the daughter, sister, wife, aunt, step mother version of me. And then there are the little stories that form me. 

So, who am I?  The confession tapes – 

I can’t pronounce oven. I also struggle with how to pronounce bowling. I once dropped a baby when I was an elf in Selfridges. I used to be the secret weapon at my school in the 100 metres. I was fast. But fat. I have since lost the weight and the speed.  When I had my own Santa/elf company I fell out with Santa in the first week of Advent and secretly enjoyed when he knocked things over in people’s homes with his sack. I once slept in the gym after locking myself out of my apartment in New York. The other time I went and sat next to David Blaine for the night, as he floated in a huge sphere of water. I was once mistakenly involved in a bidding war with Hugh Grant when I was infact a waitress directing people to their seats and was called by newspaper for a comment. It was Jesus who helped me get my first job in film. Not Jesus of Nazareth but the actor who played Jesus in the 1977 film of the same name.  I was once physically lifted up and moved away from Bruce Willis by his bodyguard on a film set for getting too close to him, my feet kicking away in mid air. When the environmental campaigner Lewis Pugh swam the whole Thames and then walked to 10 Downing Street, it was me dressed as the Polar Bear that accompanied him. Before SCA, my only interaction with the ad world was when I was asked to be the before girl in a gym commercial. I once joined singers anonymous for people who can’t sing but love singing. I wish I was taller. I wonder what life would be like if I was. I can’t walk in high heels.

That’s me in a nutshell.