Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532010
46 S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y b y G r e g o r y C . V i l f r a n c C A S M P S E As the title suggests, I wanted to check-in, as well as share some insights on a year that singlehandedly brought the industry to its knees. I was saddened to hear of many colleagues who were forced to walk away from their careers due to the strikes. And for the rest of us who stuck it out, what an eventful year we've had, where many of us had to pivot as quickly as possible, picking up odd jobs and gigs to keep the lights on and our individual (and collective) sanities intact. How Are You Holding Up? Looking for the positive amongst the challenging, the silence wasn't all bad, as it gave us opportunities to network and connect with people who normally would be booked solid with little to zero time for video chats and in-person coffee shop and dinner meetings. In the time I had to reflect on my life choices, I wrote a book on networking, recorded an entire season of a podcast I developed, and was grateful to knock out a handful of short film projects that served as more of a way to keep rust and bad mix habits from forming. I even connected with a therapist to help me cope with the struggles of my every day, and I partly have her to thank for inspiring the context of this article. We seemed to have all suffered some incredible losses, and the many stories I heard were heartbreaking, to say the least. I know of at least two couples who called it quits on their marriages during this firestorm of chaos that was 2024, with one of them having been married for close to 40 years. I, too, wasn't without tragedy, as I lost three uncles in the span of a single month. Shortly thereafter, my own mother inexplicably went into cardiac arrest after a surgery to remove a small cancerous mass on one of her kidneys. Talk about an onslaught of chaos and tragedy! The pain and shock of it all is still pretty fresh, but I've decided to share with you the activities and strategies I've employed to help take the edge off and be the best version of myself in spite of all the madness. Greetings CAS friends and family! By the time this article comes your way, we'll be well into the first portions of 2025, so Happy New Year, and I hope things are up and running again for our industry. But I beseech you to hop in my literary time machine as we travel back to when I wrote this article in early December 2024, with the last holiday season of a trying year officially in full swing.