Hello

My life has been a series of interesting events that have lead me to where I am today. Growing up I was always interested in technology. I  started learning about computer programming when I was in grade 7. My school had a Lego robotics team and I took to it right away. This line of thinking continued into high school. I became a member of a FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team that had, and still to this day, a reputation for competing at an extremely high level. This team was consistently ranked as one of the top teams in the world. As a member of this team I learned everything from how to create CAD models, to robot design and assembly, to public speaking skills. I love working with my hands so this was perfect for me. Upon graduation I decided to go into engineering. I thought at the time it would be just as hands on as my experience on the robotics team. This however, was not the case. I started to realize that I was not happy at all in this program, so I dropped out and took 2 years off to try and figure out my life.

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At around the same time as what I now call my extremely early mid life crisis, I got involved in the world of cosplay. Cosplay comes from a squishing together of the words costume and play. It is a hobby that was created as a result of the comic convention scene. I had been going to conventions for years and always admired the people who would make beautiful costumes from nothing but some fabric and foam sheets. I eventually decided I was going to give it a shot. Without thinking, I went out and bought some materials. When I got home I realized I had no clue what I was doing. Here I was with all this stuff and not a single ounce of knowledge on where to start. This is where the internet enters the story. I spent hours and hours digging through articles and videos on everything from sewing to armour and prop building. After 2 years I finished my first ever costume right from scratch. I was extremely proud of what I accomplished, even though now I cringe when I look back at how bad it was. I entered it into a contest and won the award for best original character. This was the costume that would end up turning my entire career path upside down.

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Cosplay had sparked a major passion in my life. At some point I realized that this is what I was meant to do for the rest of my life. This is what my calling was. Yes, it was a complete 180 from the engineering I had been taking, but mentally I had never been happier. It was at this point that I officially withdrew from my old engineering program and applied to the Bachelor of Crafts and Design with a specialty in textiles at Sheridan College. After a lot of worrying about getting in because I had not taken a single art course throughout all of high school, I ended up getting accepted. This was it. My life was finally falling into place after years of trying to figure out who I was. Unfortunately for me life has a way of messing things up right when they start going well.

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Here's where my health starts to come into the picture. Now looking back on it I was never the healthiest kid. I had so many ear infections growing up that I was on antibiotics pretty much every two weeks. There was one time I had to be hospitalized when I was young but all the tests came back negative. I was told I would grow out of it as I got older. And I did for a period of time. I would get the odd ear infection here and there but it was never as bad as when I was little.  In 2017 things started to go downhill very quickly. It started as a weird rash I got on my legs. I went to the dermatologist back in 2012 about it and they ran some tests. I had never heard back from them so I assumed everything was fine. Then came the joint pain. It started off mild, but over the course of just 2 months got so bad that I had to buy a cane to help me walk. My weight dropped to 103 pounds. I am naturally a small person but that was way below what my stable weight was. Then there was the chest pain, the weird palpitations, and the unrelenting fatigue that made it hard to do anything. Something was clearly wrong. I went to my family doctor about all of it and he ordered bloodwork. I thought maybe I had just pulled a muscle or something because I was working as a ski instructor at the time. I was very wrong. The bloodwork came back extremely out of whack and I was sent to see a rheumatologist immediately. After countless tests I was eventually diagnosed with Lupus. The rash on my legs was biopsied and determined to be a rare disease called vasculitis. Since then its been a lot of monitoring my bloodwork and trying different medications to see if I can get to the point of living a somewhat normal life. At the end of 2021  a 4mm unruptured aneurysm was found in my brain. Honestly, sometimes it's all pretty overwhelming, but it has changed me in a way that I would not take back. I have a new appreciation for life. I've realized that I can't take any of it for granted. Life can be over for any of us at any time, so we need to enjoy the time we do have here.

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I guess the whole point of writing this long story is to say that every event that we go through shapes who we become. There are good things and there are bad things. These experiences define us. You would not be who you are without the good and the bad and I think that is a beautiful thing.