Creating is a unique art where tools and methods are used seemingly at random but all have their place in the inner workings of an artists tool kit.
For me, I find it is the unique journey of each project that tells me which tools I need, which tools I can let go of and which tools I have that I will reach for again and again.

Here are this years current items:

Writing

Grammarly

Although expensive as all get out, I find Grammarly, the hard-working editor, behind my shoulder that I can’t afford to pay. She runs alongside me, catching tone, word choices and structure issues without much effort and as far as AI tools go, she’s one I can live with.

Pages

Being an Apple product user, I pages the app I write documents on.

Final Draft 12

Although screenwriting and playwriting are not mediums of writing that I have spent much time in the past few years, Final Draft has allowed me to dip in and out of the medium with ease and practicality. It easily formats scripts and keeps all notations and edits at your fingertips.

POCKET-SIZED Moleskin Notebooks

Being a highly analoge focused, I keep these pocket-sized notebooks close to organize project notes on the go, various themes of life and work, etc.

Leuchtturm1917 Notebooks

I design these notebooks every year using the Bullet Journal Method. It took many years to get the layouts the way I wanted. Using this method takes the yearly changes and adjustments of a new day planner out of the equation and keeps me flowing in productivity from one year to the next.

Sharpie Pens

I was raised by someone who sold pens for a living (among other things), and the number of pens that multiplied in our home was unreal. It made me want to live a less cluttered ‘pen life.’ Once I found the Sharpie pen, I never looked back. It’s the only pen I will use. It's simple and understated.

Producing

Final Cut Pro

Essential for editing film footage of any kind. Final Cut is UI-friendly, with many features and tools to discover.

Garage Band

For basic sound needs, Garage Band keeps serving. A quick tutorial can give you the basic vocabulary of how to use it, and it does the trick for about eighty percent of my audio needs.

Audacity

Audacity does what Garage Band can’t. It’s not as UI-friendly, but a few tutorials gave me the tools to help fine-tune my files.

Cannon Camera EOS RP

Having a camera, which I can use for any project, both personal and professional, is essential. I am not a professional photographer or cinematographer, but it gives me the ability to point, shoot and capture what needs to be done.

Recording

Zoom H4N Pro

Compact and an excellent quality recorder for in-the-field documentary/reporting work.
If you live in windy locations like I do, you should invest in a wind sock.

iPhone 13

In the multi-media creative industries, a smartphone is a must.
No explanation at this point in time should be needed for why.

Late last year, I began to work alongside Lynn Matheson and Accessible Media Inc. to help produce an episode of Our Community on MusGO Rider, a rural transportation association serving the Eastern Shore, Valley, and Sheet Harbour areas.

What is AMI?

Although not my first time involved in an AMI production, it has been many years, and I am reminded of the impact their not-for-profit platform provides, specifically in their work in Integrated Described Video, which is an art in and of itself. Their mission is clear, and their delivery and innovation are inspiring.

What is Our Community?

Our Community is a series that highlights the people, places, organizations or things that have made life more enjoyable for Canadians with a disability.

What’s Next?

With just weeks to go before production, we are pleased to see this project moving forward and excited to continue the work until it makes its last pass before airing.

****It’s never a waste of time to come alongside someone with a passionate heart and a keen eye for the story behind an organization. I am thrilled to be behind Lynn Matheson and her careful, mindful work.

Over the past few years, working on audio documentaries has become a passion and a joy. Being freelance has allowed me to source stories, serve unheard voices, and create a systematic and holistic approach to my craft. Rather than churning out content week by week, I can go deeper into my research and sources and take the time with each voice rather than hurry the scripts into production.

On the other hand,

I have no idea where my next documentary will come from. The ideas, leads, questions, and curiosities that develop into a story worth hearing and telling do not just suddenly land on my desk, ready to go.

I Listen & Watch

I pay attention to everything around me. What are people going through? What topics are rising to the surface? Who is not feeling heard? What is surprising? What is unsurprising? Who is angry? Who is hurt? Who is heard from often? Who is heard from rarely?

I discern

Often, a story that needs to be told will become something I have underlined repeatedly. A collection of screenshots on my phone or a thought I have written down more than once. It becomes louder in my head until I intuit deeply there is something there.

I listen again

I go back to my notes and screenshots and re-read and observe the snippets of a story I have accidentally collected over time.

I Get curious

I wonder aloud to myself, the internet, and books at large if other people know about ‘this.’ I write down what I believe would give me answers. I drop the topic in relevant conversations and see if it raises more thoughts. I consider what the format might be, stumble into voices, and start to ask to talk to them to approach this new story.

I ask questions

I ask more questions and begin to discern which voice has the answers, perspectives or ideas I still need to include.

I listen again

I listen to them and set up times to record.

I record.

I hold space for their story.

I listen again.

I listen back, transcribing on my laptop as I go.

I highlight

I print out the transcription and read back, highlighting what is essential.

I Lay it all out.

I lay out all the transcriptions, focusing on the highlighted portions to find the story.

I listen & piece it together.

I begin to put the story together, listening back to each segment as I go, confirming each voice's pace, accuracy, and intention.

I listen again.

I listen to each portion in order, confirming continuity and maintaining accuracy.

I double check.

I circle back and ask questions about lack of clarity and confirm simple but essential things like pronunciation of names.

I listen again.

I listen to my finalized draft/audio.

I submit the final script

I let it go, applied incoming notes from executive producers, and often adjusted the scripts the day of recording, adding, removing, and making on-the-spot adjustments as needed.

In the late spring of 2023,

I began to stumble upon the growing desire to dig deeper into my craft of documenting and writing. As with anything, there is a point where you realize you can continue as you have been or dig in deeper and search for a type of growth that will genuinely grow and challenge you.

With the encouragement of a handful of close and trusted colleagues, friends and family, I began asking what it might take for someone like me to seek a place in a master's program. I expected the doors to be firmly closed and locked in place. Yet, it was in this process that I discovered something else.

I discovered that the more I asked questions, the more doors opened. The more I tip-toed near the edge of possibility, the more the call from the unknown beckoned me to jump.

So jump I did. I spent the summer and early autumn preparing and finishing my application for this master's program. It was a labour of love over the project I am going forward with and, most importantly, a labour of love for myself.

I am worthy of a higher education, worthy of taking myself seriously, and most certainly deserving within my craft.

Get a stack of playing cards

Any set will do. If it’s fun for you, do research and take the time to find a set for your year that reflects your personal aesthetic or vision for the year. My set for 2024 was the Esoteric Playing Cards.

pull out the aces

Open the box and remove the aces, keeping them with you daily.

Meditate and reflect on goals, dreams, and risks you could take

Take time to journal, reflect and take stock of where you want to go - think big and small.

Quietly create a plan to reach a goal, take a risk, make progress on a dream

Create a reasonable and attainable plan within a year to reach a goal, outcome, or way to accomplish progress. Work quietly on this.

When you decide you’ve reached YOUR goal, took a risk, made progress on your dream…

Only you know what that end outcome is.

Leave an ace behind as a calling card.

Wherever you have accomplished a goal, dream, or risk - leave your ace behind. Take a picture. Hold a ceremony and celebrate the work you did to get you there.

JOIN / FOLLOW THE JOURNEY

Instagram
#playedmyace #playyourace #theacedare

PREVIOUS ACE DARE POSTS

The Ace Dare

creativity | ˌkrēāˈtivədē | noun the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work: firms are keen to encourage creativity.

Creativity, alongside its necessary partner' curiosity,' has been the foundation of how I have developed and honed my craft over the years.

Because of this passionate love and pursuit of creativity, I have found myself in various creative industry mediums (radio, scriptwriting, playwriting, comedy writing, film, articles, and web multimedia). It continues to be the heartbeat behind all that I do.

Creative Writer

A Creative writer approaches each writing piece or project with the concept that they discover the authenticity and strength of the material as they go along. They bring not only what they understand about the subject but also all the elements of life around them to fully develop a narrative and paint a picture for the readers of what they desire to communicate.
Creative writing is less about proving a point and more about showcasing an idea, belief or feeling through the art of words.

Creative Producer

A producer can be many things depending on the project they are working on, but in this case, my approach in creative producing has been and always will be as a vision advocate. Every project has its own unique tone, voice, narrative and hook. Taking the time to come alongside a story/project and help shape it and walk it into its fullness is an act of being able to honour it through all its needed changes while also intuitively knowing what is non-negotiable in its creation.
Creative Producing is, in its entirety, a position of intuitive discernment and advocacy for the overall project.

Amy Grace wearing black holding ace playing cards. Font overlay reads: A Year of Aces - 2024 - byamygrace

ace1 | ās | noun

1 a playing card with a single spot on it, ranked as the highest card in its suit in most card games: the ace of diamonds | life had started dealing him aces again figurative.

2 a person who excels at a particular sport or other activity.

3 a service that an opponent is unable to touch and thus wins a point.

PHRASES

an ace up one's sleeve.
a plan or piece of information kept secret until it becomes necessary to use it.
hold all the aces.
play one's ace.

I took unusually long to find a word that would encompass this new year. In fact, I left it until the last twelve hours of 2023. What choosing a word for each new year has taught me, is that they are incredibly prophetic, delightfully inspiring and deeply powerful.

Why Ace?

Too long I have played it safe. I have played the lowest to lower cards in my hand because it kept me safe from criticism, safe from the unknowns and most importantly safe from risk.
I have flirted with playing more risky hands from time to time, but almost always I find my way back to that safe place where I feel sure that I won’t loose anything in the process.

In many respects this has served me well.
My professional and personal growth have all paced at a speed that I can manage, I have been able to maintain bridges with those who have come in and out of my life and for the most part I have been able to maintain my own desired lifestyle in a manageable way.

Yet this pace has become altogether too slow.
I have been holding on to projects, opportunities, ideas, skills, words and adventures as if playing them would risk it all.
Maybe it will.
But
Maybe it won’t.

This year I am going to be watching, learning and discerning how and when to play my aces.

This year I am going to learn to embrace the risks.

& this year, I am going to stop playing it safe.

Onwards,

PREVIOUS ONEWORDS

2023
2022
2021
2020

Embracing the Humble Realities of Being a Beginner
Again and Again.

Daring to Go Off Script
You are free to be different than what they cast you as.

Audaciously Showing Up
It’s not about perfection, it’s about the belief in the desire to rise to the calling.

Honouring My Story
Recognizing what I experienced is my own to hold space for, learn from and share when, how and if I so desire.

Honouring Their Story
Recognizing what they experienced doesn’t have to align with my own for me to respect the differences.

Authenticity
The closer I get to the core of all of me, the more real I become.

Practicing the Art of Safety
Our words, tone, approach and delivery will be the home we make not just for ourselves but for all those who enter our atmosphere.

Sounding the Alarm
Calling out danger, toxicity, bullying, aggression, fear etc will always lead to saved lives, including your own.

How I Found My Voice…. was written after months of processing what it looks like to use your voice in a pointed and careful way only to have it thrown back at you in rage, disdain and contempt.  Through that experience I reflected on the journey that has made me audacious enough to believe that all voices, words and thoughts matter, including ones own.
It’s how we express ourselves outwardly and inwardly that ultimately defines a voice that tears down or that builds up.

I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

Exposure
Believing I was exposed to other races & cultures because my elementary school had one black family & one Muslim family.

Pocahontas 1995
For years, we sang and quoted every misplaced word and historical fact in that Disney musical.

“I don’t see colour.”
A normalized statement.

Asian Caricatures
I saw something amusing.  He saw something hurtful.

Accent Portrayals
Mimicking others’ speech patterns because it sounds amusing.

Slurs
Realizing this can be yelled at you from a distance.

Chinese Food in Canada.
All that takeout…’ Moo goo Gai Pan’ and the like … it’s catered to your North American palate.

*The authentic food is ordered on Mandarin / Cantonese menus*

Chinese Fortune Cookies
Not Chinese; they also do this for just ‘you.’

Knowing / Having
Friendships/relationships with those who are BIPOC or of different cultures do not mean you know ‘all’ experiences.

Racial Identity
It’s not based on appearance, language, or cultural exposure alone.
It’s Personal
It can change.

How Systematic Racism Rose It’s Ugly Head In & Around Me… is a small sample size personal reflection of how embedded racism existed within the culture, society, and actions around and subsequently found its passive voice within me. These items are not the only examples but the red flags that have cropped up clearly over the years.
Unravelling the limiting belief that I am ‘blameless’ in my actions and portrayals of those around me has been an eye-opening, decade-long, and ongoing journey. I still catch myself falling prey to stereotypes, belief systems, and catch-all phrases that continue harmful narratives.
Humanity is fallible, and it seems that, above all else, humanity loves to ‘other’ others.
In all of this, what I have learned to be true:

In setting aside ego, assumptions and critiques, we find open-heartedness, delightful surprises and real understanding.

I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

Heart dropping to the pit of my stomach mid-conversation
Their words felt like shards of glass

Rise of anxiety attack symptoms
Sore Tongue, tingling hands, heart beating while trying to sleep

Patterns / Cycles
I could see patterns repeat themselves

Retreating
Only wanting my safe people

Dysregulation
Overwhelm even when at rest

Distrust
I didn’t feel safe even before I arrived

Distraction Deep Dives
I’d rather be ruminating in the latest world happening

Searching for outside support
Therapist / Counselor dreaming / hunting

They were telling me what I should think
I knew it was my story to process

Professional Confirmation / Affirmations
Finding out my deepest wounds have names.

How I realized it was time to heal… was written out of response to the long journey of seeking and finding a therapist/counsellor that not only could hold space for my specific life and faith but also call out and help me put names to all that has held me, hostage. 

Having a family doctor who helped me identify my generalized anxiety, I was empowered to start the journey to get to the root of where it began. Digging up the roots of childhood wounds, generational trauma, and a spider web of undiagnosed mental health disorders within my family tree is work but work worth doing. 
I am not interested in the blame game, but I am interested in the healing game - and I’ll spend this decade of my life working towards understanding myself and the environment that made me better.

None of us are immune to childhood wounds, trauma and life happenings. To be human is to bleed, and it is also human to seek healing.  Physically, spiritually and mentally.

I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

Emotional Outbursts
A normalized way of expression and culture within a family.

Expectations of Loyalty
Creating sides and breaking boundaries.

Emotional Confusion / Dysregulation
The emergence of mental health in a minor.

Despair & Quick Rage
The DSM5 calls this a personality disorder.

Overactive Bladder
Anxious mind, anxious bladder.

Over Eating
Reaching for what satiated. a.k.a. Depression

Not Eating
a.k.a. Depression. PTSD.

Unable to breathe
Anxiety Attacks

Tingling tongue / Legs
Anxiety Symptoms

How the Lack of Words for Mental Health Affected Me… is a compilation of both what I witnessed within my upbringing and how it has manifested within me. It took until my late twenties to understand I had been living and struggling with Anxiety and its comorbid symptoms since my early teens. Identifying and equipping myself with the tools for myself has given me language for what I have been dealing with, not only internally but also externally.
Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Personality Disorders, PTSD, and Emotional Dysregulation are all words and concepts that have liberated me from my upbringing and my life story and empowered me to continue the work so that my child may have the words for not only those and what is around her but most importantly for herself.
I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

In 2006, I was a mere high school student fascinated with sign language, determined to learn the language and become an interpreter. I spent evenings going to night classes to prove my feeble skills, graduated high school and went into a one-year program of immersion, and then what was to be two years of interpreting training. In 2010, I entered the work world and spent four years working in the education system and local community.

There is much to be said about the training process, which I would love to see changed/altered to empower, enrich and encourage interpreters better. Still, there were also significant aspects in my journey in that training, which I continue to use daily as a creative writer and multi-media producer.

Know Your Biases

To keep an interpretation clean from your bias and allow the message to be received as intended, you must know your personal opinions/biases. In always being aware of your own opinions, you can set them aside and move forward with whatever message is being said.
In many respects, that has led me to the mantra:
“You can’t hold space for others if you do not hold space for yourself first.”

If You Feel Critical, Get Curious

I will never forget how hard-hitting this statement was early on in the interpreting training process. It’s easy to vent, rant, rage, posture and go on about something you feel strongly about, but it’s much more complex and honourable to get curious and sink into asking why. ‘Why?’ to yourself and ‘why?’ to the world around you.
This phrase has been a constant companion when I have felt the desire to defend, project or prolong unhealthy discourse.

Research, and then Research again.

Similar to ‘get curious,’ never let what you think you know of something be the end of your assumptions. Assume you have more to learn, discover, and decide on.
This not only keeps you current, but it keeps you aware of your own inability to know everything.

It’s Not About You

When you walk into a room, it’s never about you. You are not supposed to stand out, suck the air out of the room or make a show of yourself. You must conduct your job as effectively and clearly as possible with as little disturbance to the environment around you as possible.
Outside of interpreting, this has kept me aware of how to show up confidently while also working hard to collaborate effectively, stay true to my ‘reasons/intentions’ for being in any one place and make sure I look out for those who need to be seen or heard.

Explain what Something is by What Something Isn’t

In a visual language, such as American Sign Language, it is contextually helpful in many scenarios to express first what has been determined in communication as ‘not what I mean' and then progress to ‘what I actually mean.’ Much of spoken language is repetitive and stream-of-consciousness, and we often over-clarify in our speaking what we mean.
By pausing and letting ourselves take in the missing pieces in our communication in everyday life, we can better pivot and express agreement on what might be confusing, unclear, etc. and readily go forward into what we mean, what is better expressed and move forward.

For these lessons, I am thankful.

Onwards,

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
His parting words after he was done playing around with me.

“No one interfered with your relationships.”
Telling me what he needed to hear to make himself feel better about how damaged us children were from his/their own adult choices.

”No one wants to hear you talk about how much you love your body.”
His feedback on my written monologue about body love journey because I am size small.

“You don’t need that.”
His lack of understanding of how much I may actually need something in order to be paid more as a woman.

“They need us.”
What he said with an understanding of what makes a deep long lasting relationship when I was the most broken and confused.

“You have a thing with words”
His recognition of a craft I was leaning into.

“You are the dream”
What he says as he pulls me close as we fall asleep at night.

“It’s Amy Grace!”
His greeting in a professional setting.

How His Words Carry Weight was written from a selection of statements from various men which have both harmed and healed me. Through these statements I have learned the nature of power dynamics, manipulation, true respect, growth and even deep love.
Calling out these statements is a choice for healing and baring witness to that which hinders and that which heals.
I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

Earlier this year I found myself saying phrases like:

“Don’t get me wrong, if it sounds like I want _____ , I don’t actually want that.”

“I wouldn’t touch that with a 10 foot pole. I would need a lot of space from it in order to do it.”

On both accounts, I am already eating my words.

Living a life open to creative work is difficult as it is comical.
More often than not, the moment of revelation and ‘next right thing’, is right at the edge of resistance.
It’s that moment you look over the edge of a giant cliff you’ve never scaled down before and despite the beauty of the view below you laugh and say things like:

“Not in a million years!”

“As if!”

“Why would I want to do that?”

And then as you take one last look you start to ask more questions.

“Well… how would I do that anyway?”

“Why would I do it…if I did….why?”

And when the answers start coming easy and clear…that is when you know you just might need to eat your words on all accounts, pick up ‘desire’ and ‘courage’ and do the real heavy work of scaling down the edge of creative insanity.

****
Reader,

I am merely at the point of preparing my gear to scale down this tall mountain of work… but when the starting gun goes…I will be beyond tickled and frigthened to show you just the edge of what it is I said I would NEVER do…that suddenly I am going to do.

Until then,

Onwards,

I love words.
Always have. Always will.

I hate words.
Always have. Always will.

I love how they can cover us like a blanket on a cold day.
I despise how they can chill us from head to toe like an icy wind.
I love how they can be arranged into works of art.
I despise how they can be manipulated into shards of glass.

The way they taste after I let my wounds pull them out of my guts in defence.
The way they smell after you pull the pin and the explosion of them detonates in front of me.
The sharp ends of them cutting my throat as I speak.
The shrapnel gouging my chest as I read.

I have spent years pouring over the words plastered on the walls of our lives
The paragraphs scrawled in hurried anger.
The smudges of tears all mixed in.
The way they twisted around each other like a python suffocating the words that came before.

The way they sour as they drop off the page when it feels as if there is nothing left one could say.
No bridge they could build or soil they could find to plant something new.

If I could use my words to plant a tree for you to find protection under
I would plant them with care.
If I could use my words to pass you a cup of grace,
I would pour them out just for you.
If I could use my words to create a bridge from me to you
I would build them strong and safe.

The taste of our words are as sweet as honey
The taste of our words are as bitter as blood.

I pray for words like honey.
I pray for words that bridge.
And I pray that when we taste the bitter words and they become like sharp glass,

I pray we find that glass of grace and we partake of the words that heal.

Welcoming a new desk to my office right as a new challenge / invitation was presenting itself was pleasant timing. A late birthday gift after years of straining my back over a desk that wasn't made for hours and hours of writing and work.

September feels like a new year for the work life and with that comes new intentions, determination and focus.

What I am carrying with me this ‘new work year’:

• Walk through open doors.

• Celebrate what has been accomplished already.

• Attend and stay open to possible ‘work’ events.

• Embrace the new direction.

• Enjoy your own creative mind.

First Career at Age 21
What can I like that I can easily afford the training for on my own?

Married at 22
Because we couldn’t move forward in our sexuality / personal lives together unless we were married.

Wedding #1
Opting out of decisions in order to keep the peace.

Small Talk
Sales, sports, the weather… when all I want to do is talk about trauma, scarcity, provocative art, local happenings…

Alcohol / Tattoos
Avoiding the topic because they wouldn’t approve / understand.

Extended Family Time
Working to make each member feel seen while feeling more and more unseen.

Feigning Agreement
Agreeing to avoid confrontation or a need to defend a thought.

How I’ve Split Myself Up to Please Them… is a selection of reflections of choices and moments in my life where I can identify the act of putting a part of myself on a shelf in order to not rock the boat.
Although much of these I have worked to create wholeness and healing from, I recognize that being a whole person takes consistent forever work.

I Never Promised I Would Stay Quiet About It… is a series of revelations, observations and citations on the topics and concepts often considered taboo.

Finding myself in the role of docu journalism was not something I would have articulated a handful of years ago for myself.

And yet,

not surprising.

As a sign language interpreter, I was trained to know a little about a lot. Always factor in prep work for an assignment and always arrive early and prepared. This aspect of my training put me in the headspace to be curious and open. Always looking for what I may not be understanding fully and ready to hear what is being said. Not just through the overt but also the subliminal.

Shifting into writing, I found myself writing interviews, first on my own blog, then for a multi-media platform I co-founded, then onto our platforms short film and then for a local film and television associations newsletter. I interviewed professionals in the media industry, artists, academics, industry leaders, business owners, friends and sometimes family.

All of this was a training ground.

I have been privileged so far to have found mentors and colleagues who have not only given me opportunities to grow but also encouraged me into the skills and capabilities that have always been there.

Reflecting on the women I have looked up to and revered over the years, I am amused at the apparent nature and theme.

Lisa Ling, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Brene Brown, Sarah Polley, Elizabeth Gilbert and Shonda Rhimes.

Writers.
Storytellers.
Researchers.
Journalists.

The common theme I come back to again and again, and the lesson each of these pillars of their industries has taught me,

is the value of holding space for the fullness of themselves, which allows them to cultivate and hold space for the fullness of others.

And this is a value I work to hold for myself.

That I honour and push for the fullness within me so that I can deeply see and meet the fullness and wholeness of another.

A short radio documentary with CBC Mainstreet Nova Scotia, on the co-owners Maria Radelich and Shannon Platt of Pelivco Health Centre along with their clients to learn about pelvic health and why taking the needs of all gender-specific dysfunctions is important.

Listen: Here

When I pick a word to walk with for a year, I never know exactly what will happen on that journey. I can only know that the word came to me during reflection and processing of what I wanted for the coming year.

Resonance

came to me out of a deep desire to sink deeper into a medium and craft of audio storytelling I hadn’t let myself consider or even believe was possible for me. And yet, as 2022 ended, I found a new side of myself. A shiny new side that was there all along.

As I have worked the past six months to align myself with those that would help me develop quality, deep and evocative work and life, I have found something else. Something I didn’t expect.

I wasn’t only finding the fullness of others and the projects but a fullness in myself.

A deepening and broadening of horizons and. The point that I have had a hard time swallowing it all because everything up until this point has told me

• There is not enough money for you.

• You don’t have what it takes.

• Your role is ‘this,’ not ‘that.’

• You thought you were good at this, but you are not.

Etc.

Over the past two months, I have started to implement the concept of seeing what aligns with my values as a whole person. Not just as the person who pitches stories… but also as the woman.

The Amy Grace.

What does she want?

What is she capable of?

*it seems so silly to admit to these things… Haven’t I been doing this all along?

Yes & No.

The revelation is that I have been trying to be myself in a box. A box I still desperately wanted to fit.

I was never supposed to fit that box.

With this new understanding, I take resonances hand and explore what is outside the box and what is possible with the me that I am and the me I continue to find out I can be.