Have you ever felt stuck? Like nothing has really changed for a long time, yet somehow time keeps moving faster and faster. One day turns into a week, a week turns into a month, and before you know it another year has gone by. Yeah, that’s kind of where I’m at right now.
The Valley is all I’ve ever really known. It’s where I grew up, where most of my memories were made, where my roots are, and where so much of my story began. Lately I’ve been feeling this urge to write things down and document my memories because who knows how sharp my memory will be someday. Maybe that’s part of getting older.
I just entered my 30s, and if I’m being honest, it feels strange. Sometimes it feels like the last decade flashed before my eyes. I look around and realize I’m not exactly where I thought I would be at this age.
I imagined myself with a career already established. I imagined being married, having a dog, maybe owning a house or being close to it. I thought I’d be thinking about kids by now, or maybe already have one. I pictured myself traveling more too. While I’ve been fortunate enough to visit places like Nashville and Tampa and drive through parts of Georgia, I honestly thought I would’ve made it to New York City and Canada by now. Life had other plans.
Today, I’m 30 and a half years old. I’m entering my 4th year of being a waitress at MPTF, an assisted living community where retired entertainment industry professionals spend the later chapters of their lives. I’ve been there for three and a half years now.
The funny thing is that I genuinely overall enjoy my job. I love talking with the residents and helping them however I can. In many ways, it fills a space left behind by my grandparents, who played such a huge role in raising me. Losing them changed my life in ways I still feel today. My paternal grandparents and my maternal grandfather meant the world to me, and life hasn’t felt quite the same since they passed.
When I first started working at MPTF, I thought it would be temporary. Maybe a year. Just enough time to establish myself with a full-time job while I figured out my next step. But here I am years later.
Part of me always assumed I’d end up working somewhere in the entertainment industry. After all, that’s what surrounded me growing up. My paternal family side worked in it. The studios, productions, and stories were everywhere. I thought those connections & the nepotism would eventually open a door for me. Instead, MPTF became the easy way in because of my family’s ties to the organization.
Looking back, I can see that I probably gave off mixed signals too. For years, my fiancé and I talked about moving away. Phoenix. Las Vegas. Nashville. We wanted independence and a chance to build our own lives away from our families’ influence. California felt impossible sometimes. Rent is expensive. Homeownership felt even further away.
But despite all of that, we did it.
We’ve been living on our own for about a year now. Our first apartment wasn’t exactly our dream place, but it was a start. Now we moved into a bigger and cleaner apartment nearby. It’s not a house, but it’s progress. Sometimes I must remind myself that progress doesn’t always look the way you imagined it would.
I also spent seven years working toward my college degree. In 2022, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts after already earning an associate’s degree. Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I had spent those years working more & getting more experience back then. Maybe I’d have more money saved. Maybe I’d have more career experience. Maybe life would look different. But I can’t change that now. The truth is, I thought life was going to be easier. I thought opportunities would naturally come through family connections. I thought I had everything figured out. Instead, I found myself feeling stuck, wondering what direction I was supposed to go.
Then I started noticing a pattern. No matter what stage of life I was in, I always came back to the same two things: writing and photography.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been documenting life. I was always taking photos, recording videos, reading books, journaling, and writing stories. While some people are naturally drawn to performing or producing, I found myself fascinated by storytelling itself. I love observing people. I love places. I love history, nostalgia, and memories. I love finding meaning in everyday experiences and turning them into stories worth sharing.
The more I’ve reflected on it, the more I’ve realized that writing feels like the perfect combination of who I am. It’s creative, but it’s also practical. It requires structure, communication, research, and problem-solving, while still allowing room for imagination and self-expression.
Writing feels like both an art form and a skill.
Photography will always be a part of me too. I love capturing moments and preserving memories through a camera lens. But writing feels like the foundation. It’s the thing that ties everything together.
For years, I didn’t take writing & advice seriously. I thought writing was just something I enjoyed doing and that I would be handed off with show business right away after I graduated. Now I’m starting to realize it might be something I can build a future around. Something I enjoyed doing, something that I truly discovered on my own & naturally.
That’s why I’m currently studying copywriting, content writing, digital media, and content creation. I’m enrolled in a summer seven-week copywriting course through Writing Pad, a Los Angeles based writing school that’s permanently online now and for the first time in a long time, I feel excited about where I’m headed.
The Valley Gurl Series has become part of that journey.
What started as a simple blog idea has slowly turned into something much bigger. It’s become a way to document my memories, preserve local history, celebrate the San Fernando Valley, and share stories about the places and experiences that shaped me.
I don’t know exactly where writing will take me. Maybe it will become a steady career path. Maybe it’ll become a book someday. Maybe it’ll become a podcast. Maybe it’ll open doors I can’t even imagine yet. What I do know is that I’m finally pursuing something because I genuinely love it. Not because someone expected me to. Not because it seemed like the obvious path. But because it feels right.
So, while I may not have every piece of my life figured out, I’m finally figuring out something important: the direction I want to go.
And for now, that’s enough.
Life isn’t a race. It’s not about who gets somewhere first. Life is a journey, and journeys rarely follow the route we planned. Sometimes they take longer than expected. Sometimes they surprise us completely. I’m grateful that I have a stable job. I’m grateful my fiancé has a stable job. I’m grateful that we’re building a life together and slowly creating something that’s ours.
Do I still worry about time moving too fast? Absolutely. Ever since the pandemic, it feels like the years have been flying by. But life keeps moving whether we’re ready or not. All we can do is keep going, keep growing, and keep writing the story. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m finally writing my own.
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