18 Years In was born out of a conversation I had with a student in one of my classes. They had asked me about being a part of the first wave of troops to attack Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11, and when I found out that they were born a month after 9/11 and had just turn 18 - and that they were now old enough to enlist and fight in the war I had started 18 years earlier... I needed to tell this story. This was a self-funded film, and while I wrote, acted, and directed in the film (more out of a lack access to actors, than to be in my own film), I relied on my students to help produce, shoot, and edit the film as a big Independent Study. This is by no means a 'perfect' film, but it's a labor of love and the effort that we all put into it was able to gain some mild recognition.