Inspire, Spring 2007

22 Spring 2007 Shining a Light in Hollywood Aimee Auclair ’06 F ollowing God’s direction is not always easy and sometimes even surprising. That’s where Aimee found herself at the end of summer as the Lord closed doors she fully expected to be open, only to clearly open a door she had hardly considered possible. Passionate about acting, Aimee planned to attend graduate school in the fall, but when the graduate program she had applied to closed, God opened the door for her to move to Hollywood. Although the call was unexpected, Aimee packed her bags and moved to Hollywood just one week later. Since then, she has been pursuing her dream of acting by taking classes with Barbara Cameron (former agent and mother of Kirk and Candace Cameron), working on joining the Screen Actors Guild, and attempting to find her own agent. While she describes her career as being in the “starving waitress” stage of acting, God has clearly placed her in Hollywood, and her desire is to be a light in the darkness wherever God opens doors. Cedarville and Hollywood — could two places be more different? Cedarville is quiet, conservative, close- knit, Bible-centered, and in the middle of a cornfield. Hollywood is bustling, liberal, impersonal, self-centered, and in the middle of a metropolis. Two totally different environments, yes; yet Aimee feels strongly that her years at Cedarville prepared her for the very godless world of Hollywood. She shared, “I am so incredibly thankful for Cedarville University. When I moved out [to Hollywood], I was immediately bombarded with the thinking that all roads lead to Heaven (‘if there even is one’) and that the point is to just put ‘good karma’ into the world and good will come back to you. [I was also told to] never judge someone else’s thoughts on God because [their views] are very personal and ‘there is no right answer anyway.’ At that point I was so thankful for the Bible minor at Cedarville and other Bible classes that I took that helped to solidify my faith.” Obviously, being a light in Hollywood has its challenges. But Aimee is committed to the task. While pursuing her passion for acting, she is also pursuing opportunities to share her faith with those she meets. She explains that at first she was quite stressed over witnessing opportunities. When working on a set, she would bring Christian books with her, hoping they would help her strike up a conversation. Or she would try to think about how to change conversations to lead toward a discussion on beliefs. When her plan did not work, she would go home feeling like a poor witness for Christ. One day, completely frustrated with her attempts at being a light,