bit of a life update.

So, this is gonna be a tough one to write.

Things have changed for me. Like, A Lot.

Let’s start back in February. The COVID-19 pandemic was picking up steam but hadn’t really hit New York yet- and I was let go from the job I had for almost the entire time I’ve lived in New York. While I’m still sad about how things ended, I know how I got to that point, and there aren’t any hard feelings on either side.

After taking a couple of days to be sad and upset about the situation I found myself in, I took a step back and look at the big picture: I was unemployed, and I didn’t know what my next move was going to be. The way I saw it, I could either find a new job in the city and keep up the grind of working in the industry, or I could get a new start somewhere else. Several of my closest friends that I had made during my time in NYC had almost all moved away in the last year and while sure, I had roommates, I was feeling pretty alone in all this.

Then I realized that my lease was up in two months, at the end of April. I took that as the final  sign that my time in New York was done. I started to research and talk things through and ultimately figured out my plan: I would do some temp work to have a little money coming in while I prepared to move to Orlando, where I could be a theatre teacher. I applied for a teaching certificate and eventually got approved so that if I applied for a teaching job and got an offer I could officially get my certificate.

Then New York City was placed on lockdown because of the pandemic.

It felt like everything I was working for blew up in my face. I bought enough groceries to last me a bit and hunkered down: I don’t think I left my apartment for about 11 days after the shelter-in-place order went into effect. Even after that, I still only left my apartment if I absolutely had to for laundry or food and the like. I only managed to work one or two shifts worth of temp work before things shut down, so that was out the window too.

I got to a point where I couldn’t handle being in the city at all anymore. After a few tear-filled phone calls home, I ultimately decided I would move up my time line and leave NYC sooner rather than later and move home to my dad’s in Kansas City, before things got much worse. I set a date, frantically packed up my whole life, sold and tossed as much as I was willing to part with, found a new roommate to replace me on the lease, and rented a minivan to make the drive to start over at my dad’s.

It took 1,200 miles, crossing seven states, and two days of driving but I made it without incident. Before I got to my dad’s we agreed that he would stay with family nearby while I self-quarantined for my first two weeks here. He’d call almost every day to check in on me and to see if I needed anything from the outside world; I almost cried when I hugged him when he came home after those two-weeks were up.

Fast forward just a bit. I had a lot of time to think about things during that period of self-isolation. It really got me thinking about what I wanted to do with my career. I had considered graduate school even as far back as 2015, but it never felt like the right time. I weighed the pros and cons with my dad, and he agreed that now would be a great time to go back to school online.

The program I was interested in was already based online, so after some phone calls and paperwork, in May I began to pursue a masters in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University. It’s an intensive, one-year program, and by the end of it I will have a business plan that will help me enter the industry with confidence. I’ve already learned so much, I’m excited to see what else this program has to offer.

The goal is still to move to Orlando; this is just a holding pattern until things return to some sort of normal.

That’s about everything that’s gone on with me recently, let me just check my notes here…

Ah, yes.

For the people in the back who maybe don’t get it yet:

Black Lives Matter.

Here’s a resource for ways to be anti-racist and to help support the movement: click here.

Trans and Non-Binary folks are who they say they are.

Mermaids is a UK-based charity supporting gender-diverse youth and their families. Click here to learn more and donate.

The Okra Project is a group that provides meals to trans people of color. Click here to learn more and donate.