Getting Serious

Life is a cyclical series of discovering something, learning about it, and interacting with it. Humans are driven by pattern recognition, and they patterns we recognize dictate our response to various occurrences, stimuli, and social circumstances. Flight, fight, or fawn. These are very simplistic ways of describing the most common stress-responses, but depending on the scale of the reaction, it can sometimes have devastating consequences.

There are many things in life outside of our control. You may be someone like myself who feels powerless to stop horrific atrocities both overseas and within my home country's borders. Empathy in this day and age feels utterly crippling and exhausting, but I choose to continue feeling empathy for my fellow man because I believe wholeheartedly that if you lose your sense of empathy, you've lost your humanity. We're no different than animals in the wild ruled by the laws of, "Survival of the Fittest," when we stop caring about the well-being of those we see as "other."

I'm not shy in any of my beliefs. I label myself as a progressive, borderline socialist that wants universal healthcare, free (or at a bare-minimum affordable) higher education, more investment in repairing and updating our infrastructure. I'm against American interventionism, unlimited support to genocidal regimes, and religious or ethnic nationalism. I also believe immigration is nothing more than a paperwork issue.

I liken myself to be a modern hippie, but acknowledge that I grew up very sheltered and dependent on the form of government I thought I was growing up under. Lately, especially under the second Trump admin (although honestly this began for me under the first president I ever voted fro, Biden), I've felt so disillusioned by the systems of government I was taught about in grade school. Everyday it feels more and more like a lie made to romanticize a system that really doesn't care about your existence until you barely step out of line or come into such a disgusting amount of wealth that you get an entire department designed for you to steal the personal information of millions of citizens and shutting down programs that actually do their best to help those in need. The first red flag for me was the overturning of Roe V. Wade, and then the subsequent lack of effort on the supposed, "opposition party's," part to codify it into law, leading to the death and trauma of countless women across the country by virtue of living in a red state. As someone who genuinely would like to have the means to have and raise a child at some point in my life, it will not be in a state where I have a limited window - if a window at all - to remove a dying or decaying fetus that I wanted so desperately to have.

Now, if you've made it this far in my ramblings - first of all, thank you - I apologize for the heavy start to this post. My intention really is to wish-cast my plans for not only this website, but my life in general. I just feel very passionately about the things happening in our world, and I'd like to leave a very clear record that I am completely against the actions taking place in countries like Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, and as I said before, my own. This post may be for just an audience of 1, but to any like-minded readers I hope this gives you permission to continue hoping for a better future, to not set aside your goals and ambitions, and to research which forms of activism work for you so you can also leave your mark when the history books come for our present-day dictators.

Moving on to lighter goals: I'm eager to take the next steps in my professional journey. I've come to the realization that I am an incredibly inpatient person. I believe due to a combination of my awareness of my own mortality, a potential ADHD diagnosis, and an eagerness to be a part of something creative and amazing, I've often put the cart before my horse and responded emotionally to my perceived failures. I have the credentials, I have the talent, I simply lack the organizational and communicative skills to prove to prospective employers that I have what it takes to be part of their team. I've even tried branching out to other creative branches with little success so far because I'm still learning how best to market myself.

I'm experiencing a sort of "Chicken vs. the Egg" situation. Simultaneously in this strange new world we live in, you have to have multiple years of experience in your field for allegedly entry-level positions. On top of that, in the entertainment industries, you need to have collections of bodies of work that showcase your capability and understanding of the particular field being applied to. Not only must I have a comprehensive portfolio and demo reel, depending on the studio/production I reach out to, I have to be sure my work matches their style, or at the very least displays I can adapt to whatever style is required of me.

I plan to continue revamping and updating this website with my best/favorite works, as well as refurbishing content creator platforms such as my Ko-Fi page. As I can't at present run an online shop here without upgrading my current plan, Ko-Fi would be a great alternative for those seeking to support or commission me. It may be a revolving door of monthly sticker designs, or I may simply launch specific campaigns for bigger projects I want to pursue (stickers, prints, apparel, etc.). I'd also like to promote my tip jar more so that anyone who is feeling generous enough to donate but doesn't wish to take a step beyond that, that option would be available as well.

For those of you that also follow my Twitch channel, I'll be cutting back on my schedule. I try to stream every Sunday by playing Overwatch, and when initially increasing my stream schedule frequency, I didn't take into account how quickly I would start to burn out and fall behind. My eyes were bigger than my stomach in regards to trying to reach partner after not streaming for so long. It also started affecting my personal relationship so I'd like to have more free time to spend with my partner when we're both home at the same time. I apologize if this is disappointing for anyone, but there will still be streams and I'll have more time to make edited/short-form content on YouTube.

That's essentially everything I wanted to get off my chest. I'd like to start updating this blog once a month to update anyone who might like a peek into the inner machinations of my brain or to provide updates about upcoming/planned changes and updates. Remember to focus on yourself first, but to show some empathy to others and come up with ways to leave the world better than you found it.

Thank you!

Rosie ♥