You might have noticed my brief hiatus which can be attributed to birthday fiestas, going out for brunch way too many times, panicking over sewing deadlines, a federal jury duty summons and just plain writer's block. I know it sounds ridiculous when I just listed so many things I could recap but explaining my day is a bit too dear diary to me. Truthfully, I have a long list of future posts to write but I just haven't had the time to create photoshoots and life sometimes actually prioritizes over blogging. Shocking, right?
Getting back into the swing of things, I noticed Dana's
Blog My Life post over on
the Wonder Forest and thought it was the perfect prompt to just sit down and write. Two weeks into my 26th year of life, I feel a bit silly writing a life story as I feel I have barely gotten started but here it goes...
Born in a small suburban outside of Boston, I spent most of my childhood finding outlets and other places to hang out. The town closes at six, has a fast food ban and hasn't sold liquor since prohibition. There is major pressure on academics because well, what else is there?
My earliest memory is around 2 1/2, right before my sister was born. I hid under a train seat as everyone cheered a man dressed as a pirate on a motorcycle riding through the woods next to us. It sounds made up, but on our family vacation when I was 17, I found the pamphlet of the theme park with a photo of that man on it.
I grew up in a support system of a huge extended family. Of my thirty something cousins, I have two girls on my mom's side and one on my dad's all born the same year as me. We spent long summers at day camps together at our grandparents. One of those camps was in a sewing store where I learned my love to sew. Another was a sleep away family horseback riding camp where I first got to ride a horse. Horses were a huge passion of mine. I had several collections of toy horses and apparently my first aspiration was to be a horse when I grew up (Later, I changed that to farmer or jockey). We started riding regularly and I half leased a horse named Tonka.
Art was always another passion. I did several art classes growing up as after school programs or summer class. My high school allowed you to choose electives and take them as regularly as major subjects so I ended up "majoring" in drawing and painting, photography, and an independent study of drama. I never liked being on stage and took to being prop master freshman year. I remained the school's token prop master for all four years and doubled as co-stage director later on.
My first kiss was in a train station at 14 with my first boyfriend. My cousins and I had snuck out to meet him in the city. We dated for six months. From then on, I was in a serial long term relationship dater and always had a steady boyfriend.
The same year, my dad bought me my first domain name and I spent hours and hours recoding and redesigning it usually themed to a favorite movie at the time.
Around the end of high school and the start of college, my parents divorced, my grandmothers both passed away, and the first of seven suicides plagued my high school with the loss of one of my drawing classmates. They wouldn't let us talk about it at school because it would be "glorified" so we desperately looked for other outlets.
I got more involved with my church as a youth leader on a district and regional level. I started running youth conferences and even co founded the nonprofit that still runs the week long conference on
Star Island.
At 18, my boyfriend bought me my first tattoo, I went to get my lip pierced with my best friend, and I bought my first video game system (a nintendo NES) off ebay. My mom was speechless and probably horrified but I finally felt in control of my own life.
I was accepted to all the schools I applied to and chose Emerson to pursue web design as well as get a sideline view of the film industry. I was able to learn various tricks of the trade and continue my love for designing props as a production assistant. I also minored in photography and psychology.
On my second to last year of college, the Star Island youth conference voted to stricken the age range and my birthday fell a month to soon. It was like a punch to the gut and I felt like I was actually voted off my own island. I know now that it was just tightening up rules and restrictions but to me, it felt like a personal attack.
Post college was two years of a bad relationship and wondering what to do next. Going to art school during an economic crisis, doesn't exactly set you up for instant success. At my wit's end, I decided by the end of summer 2011, I would be living with the rest of my friends in Los Angeles and not see another New England winter.
July of that year, I met Alex at his brother's and my best friend's wedding rehearsal. I felt nervous around him which never happened with a boy. He also remembers the first moment he saw me in similar fashion. Four months later, we were living together in LA and dating.
As of 2013, I am a year into the best job I have ever had launching a career in sewing and new media, I am two years into the relationship with the love of my life, I adopted a cat, and I have an amazing apartment where I am spending too much time at the pool. Tough life, huh?
