At a young age my life changed in ways that most people never experience. My mother Mary, a single parent, died after years battling cancer. The adults left responsible for me were ill-equipped and arrogant, unwilling to seek the advice of professionals, and their choices led to me feeling alone and isolated from those who cared for me and knew me best and unable to access the resources and time for proper grief processing. My pets were taken from me, our belongings were given or thrown away, and the place that I called home had its lease canceled and I was sent to live with a stranger. This event turned series of challenges ensured that my life would be very different from most. Suddenly all of the plans, the cultural assumptions about what it means to live a good life, were shaken. From that point on nothing would be simple, nothing would be a given, nothing would be boring, and Change and Grief would become my closest companions.
In the years that followed I would seek out the ever-present questions of, “Who am I now?” and “What the hell am I doing here?” These questions resulted in a life of trying things on, integrating some and rejecting some in an ever-present quest for a new home, a new place to feel I belonged. My journey of self-discovery led me to different religions, different locations, different lifestyles, different cultural adoptions, and different ways of thinking. As a full-blown nomad at this point, I’m an expert at moving, whether it’s down the block, across the country, or to a whole new country altogether. Along the way I’ve discovered aspects of myself that had been hidden under the oppression of a conservative culture of origin. I discovered my fluid demi/pansexuality, my fluid non-binary gender, my irritation and discomfort with most of the aspects of the mainstream American lifestyle, my neurodiversity, my plurality, and my preference for sustainable community living. As an Autist with C PTSD and chronic illness, despite my education and relatively high intelligence, the standard career paths were not open to me either. Hallelujah for that! So, I’ve also changed careers once or twice, and enjoy starting businesses.
Basically, I’m the most interesting person you’re ever going to meet. Think of me as a dozen very different people all in one adorable package, and I figure if I’ve got all of this experience in facing changes, I may as well put it to good use and help those not thrown into a volcano and forced to figure it out to make the big chosen changes that they want for their life. Major bonus here, because you have my help, your experience with these changes is actually going to be significantly less stressful and will hopefully and with luck bring you immense joy like you didn’t even fucking know was possible.