Initially what inspired me to write was a need to speak on things I hadn’t shared before, primarily some difficulty I had faced around coming out and my parents’ divorce. I discovered spoken word and slam at a time that I had a lot to say and didn’t know how exactly to begin saying it, and poetry really helped with that. Over time, I moved from solely looking inward for inspiration and begin to write on the world around me, things I wanted to see changed, advocating for different causes. I think we have incredible power with what we say, both to ourselves and others, and I realized I could make a difference through spoken word.

The biggest change is just the fact that I started speaking on things that I had always kept inside, primarily about being gay. The slam is a place where people’s identities and stories are respected and I knew it was safe to be myself there. Beyond that, as I started performing more and more, and sharing more stories of my experiences, I realized that we have an incredible power to help others if we are willing to be vulnerable ourselves. Poetry is the way I can speak not only on things that have been difficult for me, but on the light on the other side. As I have grown, my work has grown, and it’s interesting to see the poems I have written and shared over the years and how far I have come, as an artist and a person.

The biggest thing for me is having down time. Although I’m a public speaker, and pretty active in the community, I’m actually a huge introvert and get very drained when spending a lot of time around other people. So I have to be aware of my schedule, not overbook myself, and know when I have some down time at night or on the weekends to recharge. Recently I have also been trying to sit down for 10 minutes in the morning and make a note of my day, making sure there’s balance between work, to-dos, relationships, down-time, and fun, and scheduling one or two specific little things to accomplish each day instead of being overloaded with everything and not knowing where to start (and therefore procrastinating).

That’s a really big question because every individual’s journey is so different, but I try to encourage youth to look at support in three sections:

1. What they can do for themselves in terms of healthy activities that they know make them feel better or help take their mind off things (from colouring, puzzles, or reading, to playing sports/doing yoga, playing an instrument, or volunteering)

2. What people they have immediately around them who are supportive and they can connect to regularly (this might have to be figured out as you go, but can include family, friends, teachers/coaches/mentors, etc)

3. What is available in the broader community, including counselling/support groups, drop-in mental health support hours, text/phone crisis lines, web resources, etc. It can be hard to know exactly what is available all the time and how you can access each service, but this leads to my main advice for anyone which is to look at these three elements when things are good (and encourage others to do so as well), and create a list of all your supports. That way, when things aren’t as easy, the list is already there and you don’t have to spend additional energy remembering who said you could talk to them or searching for community resource information and phone numbers.

One of my proudest moments was performing poetry at an assembly at my old high school on my 31st birthday. It was incredible to be back in a space where I had never truly been myself and then get up on stage speaking on the very things I had kept secret. It was also after a really tough breakup, and it was so fulfilling to know that I had a passion that could never be taken away from me, something that brings me so much joy and support. Some of my former teachers were there as well, and it was so incredible to share my passion and have the crowd sing happy birthday on top of it all! It was also the only assembly to date that I have been able to organize having youth perform alongside me, speaking to their peers about what is important to them through poetry, which was so incredible.