Listening to In The Image by Beverly Glenn-Copeland

I’d like to begin by announcing to you all that I’m no longer mentally unwell. I have a job. This is not a drill.

Someone has agreed to put me on their payroll. I’m not joking. I have completed 3 days of training at Barr Seco. You can consider this post officially funded. They are closed on Monday’s, how’s that for synchronicity? Anyway, they have entrusted me to represent them in a public facing role during cafe hours. I have been employed to interact with the people of Silver Lake. I am once more living in the real world again, and all of sudden, right out of nowhere, I feel free. Trapped no longer. Join me, people!

For some reason I have been thinking about this concept of people as notifications. Working from a computer every day does this to a girl. Your friends text you. You are trying to focus on work. You are distracted by the alerts and you feel frustrated at the person who is texting. They are not the reason you cannot focus. You having your notifications turned on is. Do not disturb has got to be on the best function invented. At least this was what I used to think before I became employed last week.

The first time I walked to work from my house on Wednesday, things started to change. I arrived in 10 minutes (don’t mean to brag but, this is a flex if you live in Los Angeles). I spent 5 hours straight in a flow state learning and I didn’t check my phone once. All of my colleagues there gave me a hug on arrival and on departure. Your honour. This is the secret to happiness. Being present in reality. Learning new skills, interacting with people, hugging and laughing. Walking out the door. Letting go.

Before I even have the chance to check what the time is, I’m done for the day. I say farewell, and then my feet simply carry me home. By the time I get to my front door, work is a thing of the past. After working remotely every single day since 2020, I have cracked the code. I no longer work from home. Boundaries. Structure. No blurred lines. Work is work. Home is home. People are people. Notifications are technology. Switch them off. Call your friends. Make a plan to meet up. Tell them how you’re feeling. Listen to one another. Learn from each other. Trust the world has got you.

I’m not going to sugar coat this. The reality of working in hospitality was an ego death for me. The reality of earning $17 an hour is humbling. Falling from grace, and accepting that you no longer can afford the lifestyle you once had is a wake up call. This is the truth, and the reality of being an actor who is starting out. Until you book that job, it’s feast or famine, and in between those epic cheques, you have zero regular income. So after an entire year of banging down the door of creative agencies to take me back, which was by the way, never the dream, simply something I fell into, I finally thought to myself recently “ you better get up and work bitch.” Cue Kim Kardashian.