MHN: February - March Update
Hello everyone. I hope you all are doing well. This week’s blog post is a little life update. I cover everything that’s happened in February and March. Enjoy!
February - A Little More Filming, Finding a new therapist & Subbing
My month of February mainly consisted of subbing during the weekdays and filming A Little More on the weekends. Our first day of filming was February 5th. I was nervous but excited too. My nerves were mostly because I wanted not to make mistakes, even though I know that even the most seasoned actors make mistakes/have to do retakes. I knew my lines well enough that I didn’t have to take much time to memorise them between takes. We usually rehearsed the scene once or twice before the camera started rolling. I had an absolute blast the first day, and I won’t lie; I cried a bit on the way home. I’ve wanted to be an actor since I was young, around ages five or six, and I’ve wanted to be in movies since middle school. So to finally get to the place of living, my dream was…I don’t even have words for it…it was everything to me. A long time in the making dream come true.
One of the days we had filming was on the train tracks. Needless to say, I was so scared for that day. It was also in a sketchy area which only increased my panic attacks. We ended up having an absolute blast, despite having to quickly grab our things and run down the side of the train once the train alarm sounded. Our first teaser trailer dropped during the week, and let me tell you, I freaked out. Like dancing around the room, squealing/sending the link to so many people.
During the last weekend of filming, we had a MASSIVE snowstorm hit. Think Elsa in Frozen type of snowstorm. We lost power for two days, and we almost ended up being snowed in. Thankfully, I stayed in the city with a friend since this particular weekend was a two-day shoot. On the last day of filming, it was so fucking cold outside despite wearing three layers. But it was all well worth it. I vlogged the last weekend of filming. If you’d like to see it, click here. We kept having snowshowers that week which was February break at work. The first week of March, work was cancelled all week due to the weather, so our Feb break ended up being two weeks instead of one.
Unfortunately, I also ended up spraining my ankle during filming. The first time was when I was “running” on the train tracks. It was not easy because of how uneven the surface was. The second time was during the last day of filming, again because of an uneven surface. I didn’t go to the ER for my ankle because I already knew what they would do (RICE + boot), and I didn’t want to halt filming due to being the main lead. I wore my boot during work and whenever I wasn’t on set. On set, I wore my lace-up ankle braces. I could say for certain that the sprain would have been a fracture if it hadn’t been for the lace-up braces. My ankle still hurts, but that’s no surprise to me. It was my bad ankle I sprained, and it basically always hurts. I’m trying not to rely on the boot anymore and push through whatever pain my ankle is in.
Subbing in February went well. I shared my filming project with many of my colleagues, and they were all very excited for me. Especially so when I showed them my IMDB page. Yes, you heard me right. I’m on freaking IMDB now.
Sadly, the therapist I loved and was working with left BetterHelp at the end of the month. I was despondent about that (I had a full-on crying all day/depression episode because of it). I was matched with another therapist I also like a lot, even though my old therapist and I connected better. We had the same energy/vibes, which is why we worked so well together. But my new therapist is just as good.
March - Blonde Hair, Grad School Begins, A Little More Airs, Seeing A Good Person, Grey’s Anatomy & Future Plans as a Therapist
March was a busy month for me. The day after we wrapped up filming A Little More, my first grad class began. My first class was Lifespan and Sexual Development. It mainly focused on lifespan development; we only briefly touched on the sexual development part.
A lot of this class was review for me. I’ve taken a lifespan development class before, so a lot of what we were learning were things I already knew. There were some things here and there that I didn’t know about. I loved that for some of our weekly assignments, we could either submit them as a video or as a PowerPoint presentation. I, of course, did them as a video since I’m comfortable on camera. My classmates liked how relatable and personable I was; it was great feedback.
Our final assignment was to interview someone, write out their life story and provide an analysis based on a theory in psychology. I interviewed the Children’s Ministry Director at my church. I’ve wanted to get to know her better since we’ve been working together, and this assignment was the perfect opportunity. I used Erik Erikson’s Theory of Lifespan Development for this paper. It was around twelve pages long, the longest paper I’ve ever written. (Hehe, I am in for a rude awakening as I go through this program and have to write long papers). I ended up with an A.
At the beginning of March, I was finally able to dye my hair again, and it is finally the colour I’ve been dreaming about. My roots are still dark, but it is okay because the golden blonde part blends in perfectly.
The official trailer for A Little More dropped on March 9th, and I, again, had a huge freak-out moment. I immediately sent the link to everyone on my list who wanted to be kept up-to-date on the progress of A Little More. A Little More officially aired at the end of the month. It was wild to see myself on screen, but it was an incredible experience. We are waiting to hear back from the producer we submitted it to. A Little More is what we call a proof-of-concept short film. It’s not a fully fleshed-out story yet, and it is meant to show the producers what the director wants to accomplish with the story. We are not full professionals in this field, so keep that in mind when you watch it.
The same week A Little More aired, Florence Pugh’s movie, A Good Person, came out in the cinemas. My best friend and I went and saw it together. It was a dark and very emotional movie, but it really brought awareness to drug addiction, and it is one I think everyone needs to see.
Speaking of addiction, this month, I decided that my primary work as a therapist will be as a Substance Used & Addiction Counsellor at a rehab facility. I also want to work part-time at a private practice where I provide LGBT Affirming Therapy.
Through research I’ve been doing on that subject, as well as the Grey’s Anatomy kick I’ve been on lately, has made me reflect on some experiences I had at Uni that were similar to Amelia Shepherd’s. I came to a conclusion about those experiences, and I started attending a support group for people with shared experiences/feelings. I kinda feel like a phoney when I attend this support group because of how minimal my experiences were. I also didn’t want people to know my real name, so I…hehe, go by Amelia when I attend. I have a feeling that this support group and the foundation they provide will help me a lot as I go through grad school for psychology. This program can get dark, so having a good support network is imperative.
Grey’s Anatomy has been my saving grace during breaks from school and work like it was for me in high school. I’ve recently taken some of my fave scenes and turned them into reels on Instagram.
And that completes my update for the past two months. I hope you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been up to. As always, don’t forget to like this post and follow me on all social media (links below). Sending you all the light and love in this world.
