Music, Books, Netflix, Oh My!

The category for this post is Lady-of-all-trades. See what I did there? Pretty clever if I do say so myself - even if it's a little corny, haha. I wanted a category where I could write whatever. Like, literally whatever. You see, I'm a bit of a renaissance person.

Like most people, I like a lot of different things. I get bored though. Or I get obsessed and can only focus on that one thing - it really just depends. I have commitment issues, what can I say? But what has always been constant throughout my life are the Arts.

The Arts saved me in so many ways. When I think about it, my progression to video games was only natural but it took a long time to get there. It also took a long time for me to realize and accept something very profound about myself: I am a creative.

It started with music because well, of course, it did. Music was my first love and at many, many times in my life, my only true friend. I remember at 5 years old, using my mom's hairbrush as a microphone while singing Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benetar. It was the early 80's. Ironically, that song really is my life's theme song.

I have listened to almost every genre of music out there to date. Note: I said ALMOST. I went through my HipHop phase in high school; my Country phase in early college, goth phase in my early 20's... I mean, yeah. I even went through my Crooner Phase.

Please tell me you know what that means. Don't make me feel old here. I'm talking about Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Bing Crosby, etc. Oh, and yes, even the classical phase. I listened to classical music (along with Elvis Presley) while putting my oldest down for naps when he was a baby.

I studied a half-semester of guitar and a half-semester of the piano back in high school. I was in the choir from 3rd to 9th grade, then went on to become a total Drama Club nerd. I even majored in Theatre during my first two semesters of college.

Writing played a big part in my life from the time I was 11 years old when I received my first diary. I still keep one to this day but blogging is a huge way for me to express so much more. I started writing fiction back in January of 2006, with my first vampire story (still working on that one).

For a little while there I even belonged to a Myspace group of "taggers". That is, we took different photos of art we liked and animated them. I still have several of those. Then came gaming. RPGs's to be specific. MASS EFFECT!!!

Before I knew it, I was creating videos for YouTube, designing my own Twitch scenes and now here I am. Telling you all about it. Why, do you ask? Because it took me a long time to accept this part of myself.

Lady's gotta make a living right? Well, none of that included anything creative. I worked all kinds of jobs. From waitressing to daycare centers. From Catering to Retail to hotline counselor, I've done a lot.

I thought I needed to work a traditional job in order to be something in this world so my creativity always took a back seat. It's front and center now though because honestly, even if it doesn't make me a lot of money, it's what makes me feel alive!

How about you? What makes you feel alive?

Thanks so much for reading!