Suede, United States

I’m a songwriter, and I’ve always believed in the way music can heal. I started out as a singer, but I didn’t take songwriting seriously until 2020, when my stepdad died of lung cancer. It was an incredibly hard time for my family, and the pandemic made it even more isolating. Writing songs became the way I worked through my feelings, and it became a way to lift up the people I love. Watching what songwriting did for us felt almost magical, and it led me to study it at the University of Southern California.
Somewhere in college, though, I began to fall out of love with it. Songwriting became a job, and the walls around my artistry started closing in. Last year I wrote “Go Bravely” to work through my loss of love for the art, and to tell myself to go big, be brave, and find my voice. I released it on July 17th of this year. The day before, I was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue sarcoma.
Since then, I’ve leaned on my own song to find courage, and I want to share that with others. The day I was diagnosed, I wrote a new song, “Otherside.” It helped me keep the bad thoughts from taking over my mind and keep my eyes on where I want to go: the other side of this.
Art has helped me through every part of this experience. It gives me a place to put what I’m feeling, and a way to turn fear into something that can reach other people. If my story can remind even one person that they can create their way through the hardest moments, then it’s worth telling.

I’ve used the narrative section to talk about how art can be healing, as the artwork section only allows for photo uploads. I’ve tried to add of “Otherside” to the additional media spot, but it only supports photo files. I’d love to send something in via email!