Before becoming Alopecian, having lost my hair when I was 25 to an immune system overload, I thought by 40 I would have somewhat greying hair, thought I would be somewhat set in life with a somewhat professional job and thought I would have at least a couple of children by now.
I turned 40 a few days ago, I live in a one room studio apartment in downtown Montreal, I'm between jobs at the moment and have no savings, am still single and am far from being a success in any way, though I've written and published poems, stories, songs and have had a couple of art shows.
I've travelled from Vancouver to Montreal to New York, lived in West Hollywood a couple of times, I spend weekends at a cottage not far from Montreal but it's difficult trying to actually stop moving.
I've always pretty much done whatever came into my mind - whether I wanted to wake up in Las Vegas and go and see Egyptian chariots racing, or head to Bellingham for a week and write music in a hotel room... I've been lucky enough to have been able to do all that while in my twenties. At one point I remember waking up in New York in a hotel and trying to remember how I'd gotten there! I've been known to drink a lot of people under the table, but that was probably the point where I had to tone it down a little.
My teen years were spent more trying to be cool than actually paying attention to what was going on with my education... I was an excellent student in elementary, winning awards and getting perfect marks, but at one point a school Principle disappointed me and I just rebelled against the whole format. At one point I was so interested in learning, and the next I just didn't care about the whole grade system and started cutting classes, skipping tests and hiding in a library reading on my own. In one summer I skimmed through the entire Port Alberni Public Library's book collections...
I didn't bother finishing high school - I dropped out and ended up taking Psychology at the North Island College instead, and halfway through that decided it was time to head out and start working if I wanted to get ahead.
From working in Tofino at a resort hotel to Nanaimo and working at a collating warehouse, I pretty much applied to whatever was hiring, not paying attention to work history or what it would amount to on a resume.
By the time I hit Vancouver, I was dead set on becoming a clubkid and lucked out on some great jobs.
In the daytime I worked at the Vancouver International Airport, I worked in a call center with the Liberal Party, and was making a lot of money on the side to pay for my nightlife, and that was good enough til halfway through my twenties I had had enough of Vancouver and left for the French Province...
I'm fluently bilingual, so after spending the summer with relatives in the Bas St. Laurent, I headed to Montreal and started working in call centers. I made a good group of friends, I had a small apartment, a great girlfriend and at one point there was the big Ice freeze that shut down half the province. Elaine and I headed south to Hollywood as soon as the roads were open - there was no way we were going to stay in a city that had no power.
Hollywood was everything everyone thinks it is - seeing the odd celebrity, clubkids galore, strippers and glitter on the highway... I worked in a call center there for a while and Elaine and I even made it on the front page of the LA Weekly for being one of Hollywood`s starlets.
But eventually, like in all my relationships previous, I woke up one day and just had to move away, so I returned to Montreal for a few months and then got called to head to British Columbia to work in a First Nation community.
I`m half Irish and half Sekani Indian, so working in northern BC I got to meet family members I hadn`t ever really known. I also got to meet my birth father and his own daughters, their young ones as well. It was a great few years. I had a lot of great work experience but after all the drama started back there (what else comes from having family members working together) it was time to leave, so I came back to Montreal, went back into the call center industry and now I`m 40.
This year the only goals I have are to finish publishing a series of First Nation stories, and use the money to pay for my realtor`s license. For now I`m just happy to be able to pay rent!
