Schooling a tough go
I started out as a youngster going to Hillcrest doing their French immersion program. Once I hit grade 3 we moved schools to Queen Elizabeth II and I continued on with French immersion until the end of high-school.
For high-school we only have 1 option in our little one hoarse town and that would be L.C.C.V.I. I was in grade 12 and dreaming up of programs and universities was easy for me as I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to become an actress. I wanted to become a star. On TV or on the stage.
When the time came, I auditioned for the University of Windsor's 'Bachelor of Fine Arts' program this was the school of my ultimate dreams. I was so nervous going into the audition as I had never done one on this scale before. I had two monologues prepared for the audition one from Shakespeare's works a play called Hamlet, me acting as Ophelia and another contemporary monologue. I think the auditions went great and I made some really awesome friends along the way who are truly talented. After the audition as I was waiting for my mom to pick me up, the head of the program came out for a chat and then offered me a spot in their program! Right there and then. RIGHT ON THE SPOT. That is hugely unheard of. I couldn't contain my excitement I called all my theatre friends that I could to tell them the amazing news!!
It was the weekend before prom. I remember this weekend so vividly. I was having a party that Friday but at the same time I was nursing the start of a migraine. Little did I know that this would be the migraine that never ends. The party was a blast and Sunday rolls around and I can barely get out of bed my head hurts so bad the pounding is unbearable. I took the week off school as I was in a lot of pain every day and going in and out of the hospital trying to figure out what was wrong. I was prescribed a steroid that was supposed to help.
School had one rule, I must go to all my classes the day of prom. Well that was a problem because I could barely open my eyes. I threw on a hat and sunglasses and made my way through the day. I was lucky enough that some teachers turned the lights off in class so they weren't blinding me, as I tried to do some school work. Being on steroids I had one rule from the doctors: no drinking. Who wants to go to their prom sober? I struggled with this as all my friends were popping shots in the bathrooms and at the bridge, something I couldn't be apart of. Something I wanted to be apart of. This was my prom too. I also, since I was so sick, had a curfew of midnight. The same time Cinderella had to go home.
It had been almost a year of these daily migraines. I had to turn down my offer at the University of Windsor which broke my heart into a million pieces. A positive: is that a I made a new best friend along the way throughout this crazy time. She entered my life and I never knew I would need her so much. She was my everything. I would of crossed oceans just to see her smile. We had the same interests and both wanted to go to theatre school. That's when the Sheridan Prep Program came into play. It was a year course supposed to get you ready for the big world of auditioning for theatre schools. This seemed to the the prefect fit as my health was still not the best. Two best friends living together going to a school that will make their dreams come true. Yup, that sounds pretty perfect to me.
The migraines got worse and my best friend had to go and do the program without me. I was heartbroken as this was supposed to be OUR year. As we've only had a long distance friendship I was so excited to be able to live with my best friend. She still rocked the program, I'm so proud of her.
This was 2015. From then, it took another 3 more years of daily migraines before anyone could figure out what was wrong. The diagnosis was I had Psychosomatic Migraines meaning: everything was brought on by too much stress. My body didn't know how to handle it all so it gave me painful migraines instead. Some people get stomach problems, I got migraines. The stress of school, the stress of social pressure and the stress of at home, everything put together had me not participating in life for almost 4 years.
2023 the year of changes. I no longer had daily migraines although they would pop up once in a while, I was doing a lot better. Both mentally and physically. One night in the early summer, Lambton College had an open house and dad and I decided to go check it out. Now, never in my life have I said I wanted to be a hairdresser. Those words have never come out of my mouth, but by the end of the night I was signed up for the course and by the end of the weekend I was accepted! Very little time to think about if this was something I actually wanted to pursue as a career and not just a hobby.
Welcome to Lambton College where the staff is beyond fantastic and the roommates are terrifyingly crazy. I excelled in class as this was something I already had a lot of knowledge about. Hair to me was a hobby. Everything was going fine and perfect up until middle December. This is when I got Covid for the third time. This was not your typical Covid as it didn't just last one or two weeks, but it lasted 7 long painful months. I was on the waiting list for the long term covid clinic. Again my dreams were shattered because of my health and I had to withdraw from the program by April as Covid was giving me so much kidney pain and back pain I could barely stand up all class.
(I never really wanted to become a hairdresser anyways that was all dads idea.)
April 2025 a full year later I needed a break from everything in life and booked myself a little Air BnB out in the country so I could have some time to think about what I wanted to do with my life. Do I want to continue working or do I want to go back to school and retry this process all over again? The decision was made. School it was. Spring is a hard time to find classes online as most of them had already started. I found online at George Brown College a Fashion Styling class that started soon and I could take apart of. Great. Right up my alley, I love fashion and style and I live to be different and dress different. An email comes along a week later. Course is canceled due to low enrollment. Damn I thought I really had it this time. After spending hours and hours searching up courses on the computer I came across a couple other programs that George Brown College was offering in the spring. 'Voice Acting' was something I had heard of but never really tried, plus it involved acting which is right up my alley. I signed up for the course hoping this would lead me to a career in the arts world and the rest is history. I am now on the second class of the 'Voice Acting' series called 'Home Audio Production' and I'm loving it. I also at the same time signed up for a class called 'Colour and Wardrobe' which was the start of 3 different Fashion styling classes. I have completed this class already.
I couldn't stop myself I kept up the research for more and more classes. I want to retain all the knowledge possible in my fields of choice before I go out into the working world. George Brown College also offered this course called 'Freelancing For Creative Professional's' and let me tell you this is my favorite class so far. We learn the business side of being a Creative. A perfect fit with the 'Voice Acting' and fashion classes. The fourth class I'm in is with an online international school call Domestika. I allowed myself one fun class per month and this was it. It's called 'Upcycling your Wardrobe' where I get to deconstruct already loved pieces from my wardrobe and turn them into something else! Something brand new and exciting. Only problem is I don't know how to sew, but the fun part of that will be figuring out how to sew on sequins with my mom. The fifth class I am taking is from Brock University and it's called 'Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners'. Hence why your seeing so many blog posts recently. I'm advertising myself. I have two courses starting in July, "The Business Of Image Consulting" and 'The Business of Voice Acting'. I was once told I would never be able to handle more then one class at a time as I don't have the work ethic for it. This hit me pretty hard. Well I would like to say that person is very very wrong. I am officially signed up for 8 classes in the next few months.
I will continue in my studies in hopes to be the best Audible Voice Actor out there. I want to become the fashion maximalist stylist I've always wanted to be. My school journey has been a rough one but I have finally found my place. I now have an obtainable future ahead of me, and nothing or nobody is going to stop me.
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