the life and times of a girl (not really) named hider
I'm back! I promise. At least, for now.
It's been a long time since I was an active poster 'round these here parts. So I thought it would be nice to share a little (or a lotta) background. Feel free to skip. This is just for people who are interested/new friends who are confused. I though it'd be handy to have this kind of thing around.
hider.
21 years old. writer. designer. nonprofit worker.
feminist. environmentalist. zine-maker. comic book reader.
former nashvillian. current chicagoan. future resident of the northwest.
background....
I grew up right outside of Nashville but, because of my parents' tumultuous on/off relationship, I moved around a lot. When I was seventeen, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to be closer to her and was anxious for a new start, so I chose to move to northern Indiana with my mom and her then-boyfriend (then stepdad, now ex-stepdad) Toe.
I lived there for roughly nine months, just long enough to finish my senior year of high school and move away for college. Toe couldn't find work because the local economy was pretty much dead so he took a job with a friend in Madison. Mom stuck around for a while (because we couldn't sell the house) but eventually joined him. A year after that, they got married in Nashville and moved back there. Unfortunately, they're now separated, but we're all still really close.
school....
I'm currently a senior at Columbia College in Chicago, where I'm pursuing an interdisciplinary BFA. What this means is that I designed my own curriculum with the help of faculty. I'm double majoring in Creative Nonfiction and Interactive Arts + Media, with a minor in Gender Studies. Basically, I write creatively and academically, do graphic and web design on the side, and bitch about gender stereotypes to anyone who will listen.
I'll graduate next May, and my post-graduation plans are a little fuzzy. I've applied for Teach for America and my hope is that if I'm not accepted into the program, I will get to stay at my current job. Which brings me too...
work....
I've held a few random jobs in the service industry but never stuck around long at any of them, until I was hired at Best Buy during my freshman year of college. I worked in the camera department at a flagship location for about a year and a half.
At the same time, I worked as an Orientation Leader at Columbia. It was a seasonal job (six weeks in the summer, two weeks in January) but long hours (10-12 a day). There was minimal overlap and I did both to make ends meet, even though it sometimes meant working 75/hr a week. I loved it a lot.
Last fall, the school's Recycling Program hired me as their Promotions Assistant and that allowed me to quit my job at Best Buy. I now make my own hours, can work from home if I need to, and get to actually work in my chosen field. I plan sustainable events, run the program's social media networks, and design all promotional materials for the program (such as posters, palm cards, an annual report, etc). I love both of my bosses and it's pretty awesome.
Around the same time, my other job promoted me from Orientation Leader to Orientation Coordinator. Which is a weird way of saying Boss Lady. The job is now year around because I plan orientation and hire the Orientation Leaders (who have to apply/reapply every spring).
Both jobs have made me realize that I really want to work in the nonprofit sector. Preferably with an organization focused on young girls or the environment. To this end, I also volunteer at Girls Rock! Chicago and intern at Girls in the Game.
people....
Above all, the most important people in my life are my mother, my (former) stepfather Toe, my grandmother, and my best friend (Blair). These are the people you'll probably hear the most about.
My mother and I have always been very close and she's a BFF of sorts. I'm also close to Toe, a Burmese immigrant, and I sometimes use his last name because I consider him to be my real father even if he is no longer with my mother.
A person you'll also hear a lot about (but for very different reasons) is biodad. I'll spare you twenty years of disfunction by just saying this: we don't get along. He's a drunk who did a lot of bad things to a lot of people, my mother in particular. He also disowned me on my 18th birthday. We didn't talk for a couple years but, at the prodding of a lot of people, I gave him another chance and let him back into my life. Some days I'm still not sure if that was a good or bad decision.
Regardless, he was remarried last year and it's given him a chance to start over with a new family of step-kids and grandkids. I'm very different from all of them, and visit only sporadically, so we're not really close.
I met Blair at college orientation and, as I like to say when I tell the story to mutual friends, he sank his claws in and never let go... It's mostly true. He's pretty much my homosexual soul mate. Though we have our own studios four blocks apart, we practically live with each other and I don't know what I would do without him. (He's also legitimately ridiculous. Like to a batshit degree.)
People from work I often talk about are John and Neale, my boss and supervisor from the Recycling Program. Neale and I are friends, despite his crazy hippy tendencies. John and I are... complicated? Toni is my supervisor through Orientation and is the most impressive individual I've ever met.
So yeah, that's me. I go to school full time, work even more time than that, and have an obsessive personality. Zines, comics, television, and music are just a couple of the things that push my buttons.
It's been a long time since I was an active poster 'round these here parts. So I thought it would be nice to share a little (or a lotta) background. Feel free to skip. This is just for people who are interested/new friends who are confused. I though it'd be handy to have this kind of thing around.
hider.
21 years old. writer. designer. nonprofit worker.
feminist. environmentalist. zine-maker. comic book reader.
former nashvillian. current chicagoan. future resident of the northwest.
background....
I grew up right outside of Nashville but, because of my parents' tumultuous on/off relationship, I moved around a lot. When I was seventeen, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to be closer to her and was anxious for a new start, so I chose to move to northern Indiana with my mom and her then-boyfriend (then stepdad, now ex-stepdad) Toe.
I lived there for roughly nine months, just long enough to finish my senior year of high school and move away for college. Toe couldn't find work because the local economy was pretty much dead so he took a job with a friend in Madison. Mom stuck around for a while (because we couldn't sell the house) but eventually joined him. A year after that, they got married in Nashville and moved back there. Unfortunately, they're now separated, but we're all still really close.
school....
I'm currently a senior at Columbia College in Chicago, where I'm pursuing an interdisciplinary BFA. What this means is that I designed my own curriculum with the help of faculty. I'm double majoring in Creative Nonfiction and Interactive Arts + Media, with a minor in Gender Studies. Basically, I write creatively and academically, do graphic and web design on the side, and bitch about gender stereotypes to anyone who will listen.
I'll graduate next May, and my post-graduation plans are a little fuzzy. I've applied for Teach for America and my hope is that if I'm not accepted into the program, I will get to stay at my current job. Which brings me too...
work....
I've held a few random jobs in the service industry but never stuck around long at any of them, until I was hired at Best Buy during my freshman year of college. I worked in the camera department at a flagship location for about a year and a half.
At the same time, I worked as an Orientation Leader at Columbia. It was a seasonal job (six weeks in the summer, two weeks in January) but long hours (10-12 a day). There was minimal overlap and I did both to make ends meet, even though it sometimes meant working 75/hr a week. I loved it a lot.
Last fall, the school's Recycling Program hired me as their Promotions Assistant and that allowed me to quit my job at Best Buy. I now make my own hours, can work from home if I need to, and get to actually work in my chosen field. I plan sustainable events, run the program's social media networks, and design all promotional materials for the program (such as posters, palm cards, an annual report, etc). I love both of my bosses and it's pretty awesome.
Around the same time, my other job promoted me from Orientation Leader to Orientation Coordinator. Which is a weird way of saying Boss Lady. The job is now year around because I plan orientation and hire the Orientation Leaders (who have to apply/reapply every spring).
Both jobs have made me realize that I really want to work in the nonprofit sector. Preferably with an organization focused on young girls or the environment. To this end, I also volunteer at Girls Rock! Chicago and intern at Girls in the Game.
people....
Above all, the most important people in my life are my mother, my (former) stepfather Toe, my grandmother, and my best friend (Blair). These are the people you'll probably hear the most about.
My mother and I have always been very close and she's a BFF of sorts. I'm also close to Toe, a Burmese immigrant, and I sometimes use his last name because I consider him to be my real father even if he is no longer with my mother.
A person you'll also hear a lot about (but for very different reasons) is biodad. I'll spare you twenty years of disfunction by just saying this: we don't get along. He's a drunk who did a lot of bad things to a lot of people, my mother in particular. He also disowned me on my 18th birthday. We didn't talk for a couple years but, at the prodding of a lot of people, I gave him another chance and let him back into my life. Some days I'm still not sure if that was a good or bad decision.
Regardless, he was remarried last year and it's given him a chance to start over with a new family of step-kids and grandkids. I'm very different from all of them, and visit only sporadically, so we're not really close.
I met Blair at college orientation and, as I like to say when I tell the story to mutual friends, he sank his claws in and never let go... It's mostly true. He's pretty much my homosexual soul mate. Though we have our own studios four blocks apart, we practically live with each other and I don't know what I would do without him. (He's also legitimately ridiculous. Like to a batshit degree.)
People from work I often talk about are John and Neale, my boss and supervisor from the Recycling Program. Neale and I are friends, despite his crazy hippy tendencies. John and I are... complicated? Toni is my supervisor through Orientation and is the most impressive individual I've ever met.
So yeah, that's me. I go to school full time, work even more time than that, and have an obsessive personality. Zines, comics, television, and music are just a couple of the things that push my buttons.