Well, here it goes.

I graduated with a bachelors in business with a concentration in finance and an econ minor. The first year of college was spent as a nursing major, but then I realized I didn't want to touch other people's poop.

After graduation I decided to take a year off to do different leisurely things, thinking it was then or never. Music festivals, trips, etc. I was technically on my parent's dime as far as bills, but I had made a decent amount of money in stocks...not enough to start a nest egg, but enough for spending money in that situation.

After about a year, I started to apply for jobs (NYC). I got interviews at a couple great places, but it never stuck. I was losing faith in both myself and the profession as a whole. I'm not a very competitive person and finance is ducking cutthroat. Also I had moral reservations.

Then I found out my mother had been diagnosed with ALS. She had been exhibiting symptoms such as problems with her foot, but wasn't officially diagnosed until then. It was hard on me, I'm an only child. Things were crazy depressing between that and my terrible love life, so I fell into a slump. Also, the looming fact that I would be taking care of her until she dies...it depended on how fast the symptoms progressed.

I talked in depth with my parents about what I should do. It's such an odd situation. But we decided it wouldn't make sense to keep spending effort on job searching if I was just going to have to stay home more and more.

In tandem with this, I had started writing with a friend of mine as a film critic. He is independently notable as a music blogger in the NYC area, and he wanted to start a film-based site. Writing was my real passion, I just neglected to take a major in that field out of fear of not having agency with that degree.

Anyway, so I just start to write to occupy my time. Over those two years we grew significantly, as well as our accreditation. I applied to cover the New York Film Festival as press and got accepted based on my quality of work. That was sort of the springboard, and now we've covered NYFF, Northside, SXSW, and BAM Cinemafest as press, among other odds and ends, like Interstellar. I also started to shoot for my friend (did Eaux Claires this summer) as we can get photo passes to pretty much anything.

I'm kind of just seeing where all that will go, and am sticking to it. Once my mom passes away, I think I'll likely have to jump off the independent ship and find a corporate writing job...which I'm okay with.

Basically, I'm lucky enough to have grown up as a white upper middle class only child, and my successes have been due to connections with others, propelled with my own skill. Sometimes I feel guilty because I've had it a lot easier than so many other people, but that's the way it goes I guess. I try to stay thankful for those opportunities and humble.

Though, I'm pushing 26, and I really want to have a family. I love my mother to bits, but I'm basically in a limbo.