VLSon

I celebrated my birthday a couple weeks ago. It was a bit of a flurry as it lead into a trip to England a few days later to visit family and explore. But I did do my best to acknowledge and celebrate everything I’ve worked through over the past several years, and the fact that everything I’ve worked towards now sits bubbling right in front of me.

This year marks 10 years in Ohio. It marks 10 years in navigating a surprising career in immigration (I hail from a Fine Arts background.. there are no straight lines in my life story :)) It marks a journey of growing my family in a place I’ve consistently felt isolated - that is, until this past year. To those who know me best or those who welcomed vulnerable chats, the past 5 years have been filled with a lot of contradicting trauma and joy. Needless to say, for many years here there was no version of myself that could be authentically present in society or friendly circles because I was genuinely stumbling through my own survival plan.

Currently reading “All About Love”, Hooks reminds me of the mind games I’ve been dismantling for the past few years and the life I now choose to manifest forward. And annually I choose to celebrate such love - towards community, womanhood, family and most vulnerably, myself. So thank you to all of those who shared their well wishes, surprised me with cakes and offerings, and most especially, spotlighted the unapologetic spirit that leads my every move.

Cheers to me, cheers disrupting the patriarchy, and cheers to you x

📸
1 - Beach walks.
2 - Gym selfie.
3 - Oz giggles.
4 - January babe.
5 - (de)Caffeinated.
6 - I like food.
7 - I grew the best human on earth.
8 - Elope.
9 - Puff puff in France.
10 - When a Victor Victoria self-portrait project taught me I would have made a very pretty dude.
11 - A winter season working in the French Alps.
12 - I befriended my HS janitor and he would unlock the gym for me to shoot hoops at lunch and after school.
13 - always a pretty face.
14 - Little me. Always a force.
15 - Allo ✌🏼

The past few months x

A December Friday x