I was encouraged early on to perservere through the trials I would face as a young, nonconventional female in a male dominant industry.
As I navigated through the last five years of death care and the education required, I learned how to write properly obituaries, eulogies, design memorial cards for the families experiencing loss. On the business side, I create social media posts, online obituaries for the facility webpage, contracts, promissory notes, certificates and more.
Although a life long dream to work in death care, I suffered my own losses motivating me more than ever to prepare and establish myself as a professional and compassionate funeral director. I believe end of life and death education is still viewed as a taboo topic among too many societies, I encourage you to read about, to educate and change the way you look at death, dying and grief.
After getting into my exploration of self through my career choice I found myself exhausted, irritable and ready to give up on the taxing career choice I had picked from a young age. I managed my poor mental health by throwing myself into an unhealthy amount of work just to occupy the space and time inside my head. While I absolutely love the experience I have gained at such a young age, I lost my light for this briefly, and begrudgingly carried on for the sake of my mentor.
Recently, I’ve rediscovered my love for all things creative. Film photography, digital art, digital collage and poetry work, creating physical art pieces out of canvas or wood, upcycling projects have been another creative outlet for me. Ultimately, I didn’t create this blog for the sole purpose of affecting others with my art, but rather to keep an online portfolio and watch my growth as I move throughout my career and approach and handle my mental health challenges. I do believe however, that it is important for me to share and bring into light how *real* life is. We experience losses and challenges that feel immmeasurable, or as if nobody will understand us in our bereavement.
I strive to bring an awareness to how damaging lack of knowledge can be when supporting someone through grief, or mental health. Whether grief be anticipatory or ambiguous, our mental health can be altered due to these events. I truly believe our know-how and understanding may be one of the most powerful tools we have against grief and isolation.
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