Hello!!
Recently I was interviewed by Canvas Rebel for the Stories & Insights section of their Online Publication. I think anytime you're asked to write about your story it can feel so overwhelming because like -- Who am I? The imposter syndrome can get loud.
But honestly, I've found such pleasure and privilege in sharing my story and voice in this way.
I've come to realize how important it is to share our stories and the things that got us here because you never know how it may inspire others. Also -- we are all just humans here sharing this amazing journey of life and the more we share our stories the more it becomes clear that there is no one-way to get anywhere. No one-way to define success.
I will leave you here with an excerpt of the interview but what I hope you take away from my personal story is that staying true to you is the only way to find true happiness and everything you ever need is already inside of you.
Enjoy!
- Angie xx
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Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Perez
Hi Angie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I would tell you that the story of where I am now started five years ago during one of the most transformational years of my life, but in actuality it began long before that. I began writing in school as most do, in Language Arts or English class, with classroom assignments and homework. Most of the time I was instructed to write short stories, poems of varying subject matters and structures, always wondering if I was doing it right.
The next time I was introduced to writing was on a more personal level. In my early teens, shortly after my parents divorced, I was seeing a therapist (and by seeing I mean forced by my mother) and she suggested I start writing my feelings through journaling. Her instruction to start journaling was genesis to what is now one of the most cherished relationships I have in my life— the one I have with myself in-between those pages. There I never felt judged, there I found my own voice and there I never wondered if I was doing it right. I was just me and to find a space to be that was absolutely freeing.
I didn’t even realize writing was something you could be good at and then I started submitting essays and writing stories in high school and that’s when it came to my attention that I was, in fact, good at this. Maybe it was because I nurtured that relationship of writing through my own feelings that finding my voice came easy and I didn’t really know how to do it any other way. I would write about life, my family– really anything that was going on at the time. One day I had my Grade 12 English teacher come up to me with one of my papers in hand and say, “Angie, THIS is your thing” and from that point on it always was.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts minoring in English Literature (one of my only true regrets– it obviously should have been my major) because the fears of my immigrant mother screamed in my ear throughout the years. “You can never make money writing!!” she would say, “Why not try Nursing?” And I did, in fact– I tried everything. Nursing, then Nutrition, I was a Science major, decided to undeclare and then eventually graduated with a Degree in Sociology.
Up until the year that changed my life, I was working in Human Resources for the Public School Board in the city I grew up in playing the game of life. Working in my cubical, doing the whole 9-5 thing and living for whiskey and weekends (it was more like vodka but you get the point.) And in every way you looked at it– I was successful and doing life the right way. But did it ever feel like that? I can’t say that it ever did.
So five years ago I decided to blow up my life. Sure it helped that the world was amid a historical pandemic and sure it helped that I was also postpartum with my second son trying to protect his health— those two things definitely made the decision easier. But I decided right there and then to quit my job and walk away from everything I built up until that point.
Naturally, what happens when you begin to dissect the workings of your life is that you start to look at EVERYTHING and what came next were my relationships. Who had I been surrounding myself with? Whose opinion had I given more value than my own? Whose life was I really living?
And then the next explosion began — I walked away. From many of the life-long friendships that molded my very identity up until that point. If it sounds scary, it was. If it sounds reckless, it was. But something happens when you get to a point in life when you realize you had been living someone else’s version of it. You start resenting any single moment that you spent under anyone else’s thumb. And up until that point for me— it had been 31 years. So I walked—no sprinted— away. I never once looked back. I had one life to live and with this second chance, I was going to do it for me.
For how bold and brave the gesture was, everything at that point became like slow motion. It was like finding my legs again. Who was I before I started listening to everyone about what I should do? What should I do now? Who should I become? And then I did what I’d been doing anytime I had profound questions like that— I brought out my journal and wrote.
What I found? I was far more creative than I had ever given myself credit for. I began a new outlet for drawing and making graphic art on my tablet device. I became firm on rituals that worked for me. Amongst them writing—because how could I not? It had always been there for me, on those pages is not only where I existed but where I felt most alive. The path became clearer in my journal through words of affirmation, practicing gratitude for what I did have in my life, and setting daily intentions.
One thing I knew for sure was that living on auto-pilot was no longer an option. I had wasted so many years idle to the life before me that if I could have any say on where my energy was going it would be grateful, it would be intentional and I would become my biggest supporter. I had given that privilege away before and during that time I realized it was one thing I would no longer give away. I would be her, she would be me and as long as I had that— I had everything.
Shortly after, I realized all the things I was doing could really help someone else going through the same. I looked around me and so many were going through transformational periods (I mean a pandemic will do that to you) and what if I held the tools to help them get through. Wasn’t it my responsibility to let them be known?
So I put my head down and worked. And what was birthed was what I now call Under This Moon— a self care stationery and lifestyle brand that I put my heart, soul and story into to help others going through transformational phases in their lives. I became an entrepreneur and a creative. I designed writing tools for others to help find themselves and I stood on my soap-box and talked about journaling and writing and all its benefits to any one who will listen.
And that’s where I am today. Three years into business, a ton of sales under our belts and now— right back to where I started all along. Writing my story right here with you. Except not confined to the pages of my journal. But loud and proud for the world to hear. Because that’s what happens when you start loving yourself, your voice, your journey. The magic finds you, the path becomes clearer and life starts feeling like you’re doing right.
All you have to do is take the first step. And I’m so so glad I did.
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you can read the rest of our interview at https://canvasrebel.com/exploring-life-business-with-angie-perez-of-under-this-moon/