Look him up on IMDb, and you’ll see a concise resume: a few high school plays and a kids’ television series. Before he eventually heads off to study acting in college, senior Caleb Ryden hopes he can expand that list of credits by taking a gap year after graduation.

Despite the unconventionality of this choice, Ryden said he is confident in his decision.

“I’m nervous about leaving home and going out on my own. Not even going to school, just doing my own thing— that’ll be wild. But this feels right, so I’m gonna do it,” Ryden said.

During his break, Ryden said he will likely move to Los Angeles— “the heart of film acting,” as he called it. Ryden is currently represented by Big Fish Northwest Talent, but if he does end up moving to LA, he’ll need to find a new talent agency. At that point, Ryden said he’ll start out on the film audition circuit.

Although Ryden aims to fill his year with as much film work as possible, he also plans to stick with his roots— theater acting. After his gap year and college, Ryden says his end goal is to become a high school theater arts teacher. Ryden cites his current acting teacher, Gretchen Stewart, as his inspiration.

“[When you’re acting], you get this feeling that you know you’re not yourself anymore—you know you’re someone else—  and I love that feeling,” Ryden said. “I’d never felt it before I met Stewart; Stewart got me working hard, got me feeling the characters I was playing.”

Ryden hopes to someday pass down this skill of character-embodiment to the next generation of acting students.

“[That feeling] just takes over you and you’re somebody else. It’s so cool,” Ryden said. “So I want to teach other people how to achieve that feeling.¨

Doing what feels right and not being afraid to dream, Ryden said, is something that he thinks more people should do.

“If you’re thinking about college, and the only reason you’re thinking about college is because everyone around you is thinking about college—don’t think about college. Because that’s not what you want, that’s what everyone else wants,” Ryden said. “Do what you want.”