Jess
Please, call me Jess. Only my mom calls me Jessica, and that’s only when I’m in trouble.
I’m 23 years old, live with my wonderful boyfriend (Derek) and have a steady, well-paying job in one of the greatest cities in the world (Los Angeles, if you didn’t get that).
While it all sounds pretty peachy, I also deal with anxiety and related depression that recently started to interfere with some of my day-to-day life and my relationship with Derek. So I made a decision that I see as changing my life completely: I started seeing a psychiatrist. I was prescribed an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication to establish a less severe emotional baseline and began biweekly therapy sessions. So far, the results have been amazing.
As I’m going through this process, my blog has evolved from random daily ramblings to more of a reflection on my anxiety/depression issues and how I’m working through them. Of course, there will always be some sort of rambling going on (I like to talk/write :P).
Hopefully writing through this process will not only help me to improve my life, but maybe even inspire others to start their own journeys, to work through the things that hold them back from enjoying life to the fullest.
I think I do things a little differently from a lot of other bloggers you might read out there. I’m not married, and I don’t have any kids, unless you count Sammie, my chinchilla. I don’t drive (I never got my license and have no real plans to in the immediate future), but instead choose to walk, bike, bus or carpool anywhere I need to go. I love playing with my appearance and style – I have a piercing in my lip (plus my ears twice), pink and purple streaks in my hair and a tattoo on my back, with plans/ideas for another one. My style is really whatever I think I look like I’m having the most fun in – recently this evolved to have lots of stripes, patterns and polkadots in it, which all make me very happy. Oh, and I bought a really cute hat that makes me look kind of like a hipster but whatever.
My entire family lives at least 2/3 of the way across the country, mostly in Indiana (where I grew up), so most of my familial interactions take place online or over the phone. Sometimes I miss them, and even parts of Indiana, but I can’t even imagine living anywhere but LA. After eighteen years in the midwest, three years in New York and almost two years out here, I’m pretty sure this is where I want to be. I live in a suburb of LA, technically, but we’re less than 15 minutes from downtown (on a good day, that is), so I really don’t see it as that separate.
As far as my job (aka the reason I can stay in LA and not live in a box), I’m an “artsy-fartsy” girl in a geeky guy’s world. I’m a CSS/HTML Specialist at AT&T Interactive, where I work on projects like YP.com, Yellowpages.com, etc. I love my job; I feel like most of my coworkers are like older brothers (with a few sisters) to me, and I love that my work is seen by millions of web visitors every month. I also like to think that my job will help me keep my mind sharp — most of what I do is trial-and-error, troubleshooting and/or problem solving.
When I’m not at work, I’m usually playing with my camera, watching movies (Derek and I love to see movies in the theater), eating ice cream, trying some new and random food (or getting friends to try one I already love), going to 80s dance clubs, bonding with some of the best girl friends anyone could have, going to Disneyland or just enjoying our beautiful little apartment. There’s not really much rhyme or reason to it. ;)
Things that make Jess happy
Tea. Ice cream. Mangoes. Pomelos. Sunshine. Thunderstorms. Light rain. Flying. Taking public transportation. Walking. Rollercoasters. Disneyland. Writing. Geology. Marine biology. Photography. Seeing movies in the theater. Trying new restaurants. Watching trash/reality TV after a long day. Mountains. Oceans. Bubble baths. Learning languages. Flowers. Cherry trees. The scent of jasmine, eucalyptus, lychee. Buying perfume. The walk sign at one of the intersections on my way to work, that always changes to ‘WALK’ right after I press the button. Listening really closely to song lyrics to pick out little gems of phrases that I could never come up with.
