Spread Your Wings: Inspired by Kenny Johnson

As a former high school drama nerd and current community theater actress, I'm fairly familiar with how much reading is involved in acting. I was more or less born a reader, able to understand books written on a middle-school level when I was in 2nd grade, even using a guidebook to help plan our Disney World vacation. But what if that weren't the case and reading was literally one of the hardest things in the world for me to do? Would I still be able to do something I truly love?

Kenny Johnson is an incredibly talented actor, perhaps best known as Lem on The Shield and Kozik on Sons of Anarchy. He has also struggled with severe dyslexia. While I was on Twitter, I stumbled across a recent interview where he opened up about how he's been able to work around it and build his acting career.

I applaud Kenny Johnson, as I do anyone else who doesn't let anything hold them back from chasing their dreams. It takes a huge amount of courage to be so honest about your struggles. Pretending you don't have a problem is so much easier than dealing with it head-on.

I've personally struggled with anxiety and depression periodically since high school; it's gotten the best of me more often than I'd like to admit. I refused to let it ruin my life. I always made sure I got good grades; I exposed myself to new social situations, even when I was scared to death. 10 years later, I'm a mostly well-adjusted twentysomething and halfway to becoming a registered nurse.

To anyone out there reading this:

If you have challenges that are negatively affecting your health and/or happiness, whether it's dyslexia or social anxiety or anything in between, don't be embarrassed about reaching out for help. You won't change overnight and that's okay; nobody does. Overcoming your obstacles will suck at times and you'll want to quit. Don't do it. You'll never know how high you can fly if you spend your life walking around with broken wings. You got this.

Top 10 Quotes: "Point Break (1991)"

1. Bodhi: "Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."

2. Pappas: "Listen, you snotnosed little shit, I was takin' shrapnel in Khe Sahn while you were crappin' in your hands and rubbin' it on your face!"

3. Harp: "You know nothing. In fact, you know less than nothing. If you knew that you knew nothing, that would be something, but you don't."

4. Roach: (while disguised as President Nixon during a bank robbery) "I am not a crook!"

5. Bodhi: "Little hand says it's time to rock and roll."

6. Johnny: "This is your fucking wakeup call, man! I am an F! B! I! Agent!"

7. Harp: "Special Agent Utah, this is not some job flipping burgers at the local drive-in. Yes, the surfboard bothers me. Yes, your approach to this whole damn case bothers me. And yes, YOU BOTHER ME!"

8. 15: "It's never too late. A lotta guys your age are learning to surf."
Johnny: "I'm 25."

9. Pappas: "Last time you had a feeling, I had to kill a guy...and I hate that! It looks bad on my report."

10. Johnny: "You crossed the line. People trusted you and they died. You gotta go down."

It's Pope's Party and He'll Cry If He Wants To

On last week's episode of Animal Kingdom, the Cody family prepared to celebrate Pope's birthday, the first one in a long time where he was home and not incarcerated. Craig and Deran plan a super fun day of surfing, paintball, and skydiving. Pope is in a foul mood because those are all things they like to do and it's his birthday, dammit.

What his birthday cake should've looked like. (Photo credit)

Pope also doesn't want his birthday ruined with any mention of his recently-deceased twin sister. You'd think that would be a sore spot with nephew Jay, but he shrugs it off and goes along for the adrenaline-fueled festivities. After some alcohol and cake, Craig, Deran, and Pope take their underage nephew to a strip club. Somebody (I think it was Craig) tries to buy Jay a lap dance, which the teen declines. Pope goes into the back of the club to have sex with one of the strippers, but he has some, uh, performance issues.

Later on, Pope and Jay do some great uncle/nephew bonding, drinking literally on top of Jay's mother's grave. Oh, and P.S. Deran's name is pronounced "Darren."