It’s My 1 Year Blogiversary!

Originally posted July 1, 2020

A year ago today I started my blog here and so much has unfolded on this blog since then! I shared my first visit to NYC, then my move, my first job in NYC, the people I’ve met, the joy and heartbreak of auditioning in the big city and now, 1 year since I first shared on this blog and I’ve officially moved out of New York City… Never did I think that a year later I’d be writing this blog from my childhood bedroom in Texas. I think it’s only right to look back on this time with nothing but gratitude. This blog has received far more positive feedback than I ever expected. I started it to hold myself accountable for making such a huge life transition and to record my thoughts and feelings as I go. I didn’t think people would connect to my writing or enjoy it so much. It’s really become the creative outlet that I didn’t know I need so much when I wasn’t able to work in the creative field of choice. Writing was something I stepped away from when I was started performing because that was my art of choice, but this blog has given me a chance to reconnect with my writing voice and that’s been so special. I’m so thankful for everyone who reads or has reached out to me in response to this blog. It’s been a gift.

I’m trying to work on celebrating accomplishments more so, I want to celebrate a few milestones this blog has seen!

• July 1, 2019 I wrote my first blog post about my first ever visit to NYC!

• August 14, 2019 I wrote a blog titled, Claim Your Dreams! that received so much love from friends that I didn’t expect. People reached out to me via text, and DMs how much they loved this blog and it really helped me form my vision for how I wanted my blog to function.

• October 11,2019 I wrote a blog that was just like, a life update that included a story about meeting Cindy Crawford, a mouse coming into my apartment bedroom and then immediately scampering out as I gasped and about going to my first ever Broadway chorus call… It was my most “liked” blog post to date with 17 likes. It was jam packed with fun anecdotes and life lessons. It really was an excellent blog post.

• March 16, 2020 I wrote a blog called Light in the Darkness of COVID-19 after having voicidentally being in Texas for a week prior to the shutdown. Everyone was blowing up the internet with stuff because we were stuck at home so this post currently holds the record for most viewed blog at 383 views. My first blog post only has 23 views for reference so there has definitely been some growth over the year to celebrate.

• July 1, 2020 I write my 25th blog post on my 1 year anniversary of the start of this blog!

More stats…

• The word “Vacation” is included in the title of 3 blog posts… which would make you think that I have gone to some awesome places this year but I traveled once for an audition conference and once home for a bit… So, I need to get a little more creative when it comes to titles.
• I have 11 subscribers to my blog and even an UN-subscriber (No shade, but I see that stuff too…)
• Most of my readers come from Facebook
• My blog at the end of this year has a 1565.22% annual growth rate

It’s hard to narrow down some big moments because looking back, every post feels like a milestone. It’s been a cram-packed year of self-discovery. And now I’m going into a completely different direction that will be filled with just as much growth.

So, what’s next?

When I started this blog, I had a very expected, linear direction for it’s content. I had just graduated from college and KNEW I was making a move to NYC. That provided so much content to write for itself. Now my plans have dramatically changed… and I think that will be a very interesting turn for this blog. I think that will make me need this blog now more than ever. A lot of the posts in New York were from a place of hurt or frustration with the industry for newbies and with the vastness and emptinesss of the city. That stuff was hard to share because I wanted to only share how fun and beautiful it is to live in the city, but people’s favorite posts were one’s of me being honest about how hard it is. A year later, it will be a completely different type of difficult. My plan is a lot less pre-planned. It’s much more open and I have more self-run projects I’m working on now that weren’t even thought of a year ago. In a few weeks I’ll be driving to Tennessee near extended family without a plan for work or really being near a theatre hub. It’s pretty much the opposite of what I thought I needed a year ago. A year ago, a break from theatre felt detrimental, now it feels instrumental in my growth and preparedness for returning to NYC and theatre in general.

There are a lot of career paths that require one to be away from family or miss family events and milestones and Theatre is one of those careers. There were times in college I would be doing shows and I’d be sad about having to miss things with family, or having to be too far away from family to travel for graduations, etc… That’s what life in NYC and in the Theatre kind of demands. The industry is facing a reckoning on all fronts, with how it represents people, how it can handle public health, and the equity of how it treats it’s workers… Changes are coming that are for the better that I’m willing to wait for. In the meantime, an opportunity to spend time with my extended family in a way I have never and will never get the opportunity to again feels so right in this time. Radically choosing to do the opposite of what the industry expects of you to be successful may save me from burnout down the road. I can cherish this time. I have cousins who are are near my age and starting families and I want to be near that. It may seem small but I believe it will have a greater reward than I can imagine.

What I know is that I plan to keep blogging, even though this blog was designed to talk about theatre and post-grad life in NYC. I will still write about theatre and I will still write about my life. Shenanigans seems to follow me everywhere so I’m sure there will be good stories to share and plenty of lessons to learn. Thank you to everyone who has been following along on this journey so far. I appreciate every read, as well as every person who has ever reached out to me about this blog and made me feel like I was sharing something that meant something to someone. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

XOXO,

Texas Jess

P.S. — Reader Shout-Out: Ashley Wool, you found my blog in such an interesting and unconventional way and I’m so grateful for your message about you finding and reading my blog. It has inspired me to be share with more candor, more truth and to keep sharing. Thank you!

P.S.S — If you want to see more content from me, subscribe to my YouTube Channel where I post vlogs, videos of me singing and other quarantine shenanigans. I have a new video up that is a clothing haul with a coupon code if that’s something you’re interested in!