How Theatre Became My Home Away From Home

How Theatre Became My Home Away From Home

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518982/fan_mail/new] For this episode of Just Breathe Confessionals, I’m talking about the place that became my home away from home: theatre. Before it was posters, productions, sound design, or helping with musicals and plays… it was the first place where I truly felt like I belonged. The place that let me exist exactly as I was. In this episode, I’m reflecting on growing up through theatre, discovering my love for storytelling and sound, and the teachers and mentors who helped shape me into who I am today. From watching productions as a student to eventually coming back and becoming part of the program in a completely different way, this episode is really about what happens when a place changes your life forever. I talk about finding acceptance, building relationships with students, creating posters for productions that get hung up around town, and the surreal feeling of realizing I’ve slowly become the kind of person my teachers once were for me. And now this year, I’m watching the first class of students I’ve worked with since starting at Folsom High School Theatre graduate — which feels impossible and beautiful all at once. This episode is about belonging. Creativity. Mentorship. Growing up. And the people and places that quietly become part of who we are forever. So wherever you’re listening from today… thank you for being here. And as always, just breathe.

The Wound I Didn’t Cause But Still Carry

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518982/fan_mail/new] Some grief doesn’t come with a funeral. It shows up years later when you realize you’ve been mourning a parent who is still alive, and that the “mom you needed” might never have existed the way you hoped. We go gently but honestly into that complicated reality, with a content warning for self-harm, mental health, and childhood trauma. We talk about what it’s like to grow up around mood shifts, hospital stays, and quiet emergencies that teach a kid to become hyperaware of tone and danger. We unpack the survival skills that can look like strength from the outside while costing you peace on the inside: staying careful, smoothing things over, hiding the truth, and telling “survival lies” to protect the family’s image. We also share the kind of memories that end childhood early, when you stop feeling like the kid and start feeling responsible for everyone else, especially younger siblings. As adults, relationships with emotionally unsafe parents can be a tug-of-war between love, exhaustion, loyalty, fear, and guilt. We name the stomach-drop feeling when their name pops up, and we say it clearly: that reaction doesn’t make you cruel or ungrateful. It makes you someone who lived through something painful. We end with a path forward that’s messy but real: learning to self-soothe, setting boundaries, putting down the weight of other people’s emotions, and becoming the steady, nurturing, safe person you needed. If any of this hits close to home, listen, share with someone who might need it, and leave a review so more people can find this kind of honest support.

Maybe I'm Not Behind

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518982/fan_mail/new] Thirty is supposed to feel like a finish line, right? Stable, certain, grounded, credits rolling. Instead, I’m here almost 31 after a weird chain of events, including getting T-boned by a golf cart at work and then losing two weeks to a brutal respiratory cold, and I can’t stop thinking about how hard we are on ourselves when life doesn’t follow the plan. I talk honestly about the gap between the “movie version” of my future and what real adulthood looks like: being divorced (something I’ve kept quiet), feeling kidless and off-schedule, and trying to build a house with my boyfriend where every choice comes with budgets, timelines, and emotional weight. If you’ve ever wondered why big decisions still feel messy, expensive, and uncertain, you’re not alone. We dig into the pressure of societal expectations and the invisible life timeline that so many of us live under, especially women. The questions, the announcements, the scrolling, the sense that everyone else is ahead. Then I offer the reframe that’s been keeping me steady: life isn’t a race, it’s chapters. Detours and plot twists don’t mean you’re late, they might be shaping you. If you’re feeling behind in life, turning 30 with anxiety, starting over after divorce, or questioning your career and relationship timeline, take a breath with me. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the reminder that different doesn’t mean wrong.

Breathing Through It All

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518982/fan_mail/new] In this final episode of Season One, I’m taking a moment to pause and reflect on what this season really was. Breathing Through It All is about survival, honesty, and the quiet courage it takes to press record before you feel ready. It’s about telling stories that lived inside me for a long time — imperfectly, slowly, and without having all the answers. This season wasn’t about fixing anything.  It was about giving myself permission to speak.  To let things be messy.  To trust my voice, even when it shook. In this episode, I talk about what creating this podcast asked of me, what I learned along the way, and why healing doesn’t happen all at once — it happens in layers. I also speak directly to you, the listener — whether you’ve been here since the beginning, or you’re just finding this space now. If this season felt familiar…  If you listened quietly, paused halfway through an episode, or saved one for when you were ready — that all counts. Season One was about survival.  About origins.  About telling the stories that shaped me before I knew how to name them. Season Two will be about becoming. Thank you for listening.  Thank you for holding space.  And until next season — just breathe.

Self Love Is Complicated

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518982/fan_mail/new] What if the hardest part of healing isn’t leaving the past, but unlearning the voice it left behind? We open the most tender chapter of the Love series to explore how self-doubt takes root, why shrinking feels safe, and how to rebuild a self that no longer asks permission to exist. This is an honest look at body image after criticism, the quiet discipline of self-respect, and the relief of love that doesn’t require you to be less. I share the moment I stopped being on my own side and the small habits that kept me there: apologizing for everything, editing my laugh, and choosing “easy” over honest. From there, we dig into the lingering effects of one comment about weight that rewired my relationship with my body. Instead of forcing confidence, I talk through learning to see my body as a record of survival—scars from surgery, a tiny mark in my eyebrow, stretch marks that arrived when life got heavy—and how those signs are proof of endurance, not flaws. We also unpack a healthier model of love: kindness that isn’t confusing, being seen without fear, and a partner who doesn’t fix you but stands beside you while you define yourself. If you’ve ever tried to perform self-love and felt like a fraud, this conversation offers another path: self-love as discipline, a daily choice you make when no one’s cheering. You’ll hear practical reframes for catching old reflexes, turning down inherited voices, and choosing gentler language on hard days. We close the Love chapters not with perfection, but with a release—no more carrying old stories into new seasons. Subscribe, share with someone who needs softer self-talk today, and leave a review to tell me: what voice are you turning down next?