Life Lately

This 6-week hiatus was totally unexpected, but life's been busy (and incredibly wonderful) lately. Since my last post I was elected chair of UR Pride (our campus and city pride centre), finished the semester with decent grades, visited the town where Corner Gas was filmed, moved out of residence (to a great place downtown), had a ceramic and audio art installation in my first every gallery show, saw Said the Whale, visited my family in Edmonton, changed my hair (I feel like a mermaid and/or femme goddess), and hosted/attended/volunteered at the Canadian University Queer Services Conference (CUQSC) which has been such an incredibly, affirming experience. I even performed a spoken word poem last (for the first time ever) at our open mic last night and it went really well. I was ridiculously nervous but it didn't come across in my speech and I got a lot of compliments, hugs, and high-fives. My sometimes bratty, way-cooler-than-expected*, queer fat femme identity has been affirmed and loved and finally, for once, not needing to be constantly validated and it's just so incredible.



*For real. After I did my spoken word a friend of mine said "Why didn't you tell me you can do that? I think you surprised everyone" and a new conference friend said "I'll be honest, I didn't know you were that cool. I didn't give you enough credit." Subverting people's expectations of me (skirt-wearing, painfully polite, a bit shy at times) seems to be my thing, and it's actually kind of fun.

**I also can't make any promises to post more frequently, even though I'd love to. I don't have internet at my new place yet and I'm still desperately looking for a second job. Maybe when my finances are a bit more sorted out?