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Above picture is taken in a studio within my dance Academy, Wake Forest Academy of Fine Arts. 

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Within my small hometown, my second childhood home lays in a small green building just off Durham Road. There stood The Wake Forest Academy of Fine Arts, a studio I would competitively dance at for fifteen years. At the age of two my mother enrolled me in dance classes, and from there on out, I ate, breathed, and lived for dance. When life was hard and school stress raised my anxieties, I always knew I had my studio family to come home to every night. This dance studio taught me what it means to be a part of a team, to truly work hard at something you love, and most of all, to be unapologetically myself. Through sweaty jazz classes and endless ballet workshops, I learned the power of creative expression through dance. Dance was an outlet that shaped me into the hardworking, goal-oriented woman I am today, and I'm forever grateful for the support I received along my dancing journey.

The Wake Forest Academy of Fine Arts is located on the ancestral lands of the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East), Moneton, and S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) peoples.

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Pictured above is a picture taken at the Appalachian State duck pond. 

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The Appalachian State duck pond has always been a place of safety and reprieve for me. I used to meet my (now longterm) boyfriend every week by the waterside under the largest shady tree. I fell in love for the first time at the Appalachian State duck pond. Whether it was picnics, reading dates, or feeding the ducks peas, I learned what it truly means to love someone at Tomlinson park. As someone who has struggled to open up to another person romantically, I'll never forget the sense of serenity and serendipity I felt falling in love as the ducks calmly floated down the stream. While sitting on this grassy field I learned what it means to be loved, and subsequently, what it means to give love. The duck pond taught me a lesson in human connection and transparency, and the beauty that can come from taking a leap of faith.

The Appalachian State Duck Pond is located on the ancestral lands of the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East), Moneton, and S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) peoples.

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I grew up on 7436 Oriole Drive, in the small suburban town of Wake Forest, NC. Wake Forest is where I was born, where I'm from, and where I will always call home. Pictured above is my childhood bedroom, where I slept for the better part of 18 years. I was raised in this bedroom, I grew up in this bedroom. Through the onset of chronic illness, loss, and hardship, it was in this room I learned the trait of resilience. Through months of health related hiatus and bedridden school years, it was in this room I learned to love myself again, and furthermore, find love and light in the face of adversity. This house holds the memories of my best days, my worst days, my first days, and every moment that came in between. This house holds the echoes of familial laughter and the whispers of childhood sleepovers. This house watched me become the person I am today. Someone who is resilient and kind, and continues to overcome in the face of adversity.

My childhood home is located on the ancestral lands of the Moneton, Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) and S’atsoyaha (Yuchi) Peoples.