Who 30 Pause is NOT for... A Series

Here to clear up a few things before the others Hop on the Emotional Rollercoaster, I call 30 Pause.

As a former theater professional and educator meandering the line of Actor/Waiter, my life started to get really real & more than interesting after I turned 30. Things got shaken not stirred and I had to stretch my resilience and resourceful muscles and face the music. The music being my own flaws and facades. Besides, I asked for it and Universe delivered with gut-wrenching blows. When I started saying 30 Pause aloud it was a way of me owning my hot mess ways and f*ck ups. Maybe it was a way of turning my inability to function or at least so I thought, into a bit? In retrospect, I was functioning. I was doing it, sloppily so at times, but nevertheless things were getting done, I was holding myself accountable, and I was truly embodying the statement “I'ma do the best I can with what I got!" (S/O to Mimi-a true icon).

After one hurricane in Tampa in 2017, can’t tell you the name of said hurricane because at this point, they’re all the same tragic, horrible, and hella inconvenient natural disasters we experience more often than we should thanks to hundreds of Politicians and Global leaders not taking the climate crisis seriously, but I digress, after this hurricane I was living in damn near squalor. I rented a room in Ybor City (not the IG picture worthy parts you see on Google images) from an acquaintance after getting my lease terminated thanks to developers who found a loophole in my lease and ended up giving me the boot. I had to find a new job and a new place to live in less than 2 weeks, but I managed to do both! How? I don’t know, I blacked out the entire year of 2017, k?! This hurricane knocked out the electricity and it wasn’t running till about a week later. So, imagine muggy, hot September Florida, and no running water or electricity. Thankfully I stayed with friends, till the electricity and water was back up, but during the hurricane the toilet in this old rickety house cracked so we could only flush the toilet with a bucket of water conveniently located in the shower. After a week of seeing the new ceramic toilet sit in a box in the middle of the Livingroom, and NOTHING being done about it or us living like Laura Ingles Wilder, I had enough! I immediately hopped on Zillow and found a 388 sq ft apartment that only required a $300 deposit on Davis Island (the part of the city I used to live in before my lease was terminated).

Davis Island is old money. I longed & often pretended to be just as inherently privileged and bougie as the Yacht & Garden Club members. Taking long walks in that neighborhood was something I looked forward too. On those walks I appropriately remodeled older homes, looked into the windows of the houses still being built, and found gems that you’d never even noticed had you not been on foot. I played the part, and I played it well. Every 3rd Thursday of the month was BYOB Yacht Club night. All nonmembers just needed to bring a cooler and you too can enjoy Yachting, as if that was an actual verb I participated in or word that frequented my vocabulary. I certainly miss that island way more than I ever anticipated. What was once an affordable and efficient apartment that rented for $850/month, is now $1800 a month. The housing crisis is f*cking criminal.

Through it all, 30 Pause started to take shape. It morphed into a lifestyle and later into a Podcast in 2021. Besides, what else does a washed performing artist 30 something do while living in her mom’s basement in Indiana? She starts a podcast with little to no experience, that’s what. Because clearly the world needed another podcast, duh! I didn’t care, I had anecdotes to tell and I’m an actor who wanted to start writing and sharing her own stories, not tell other’s.

Knowing that this 3rd decade of life is/was a doozy from the jump, yet also asking for change while managing to do my very f*cking best! And it caught on, my small but mighty following heard me. They related. They felt. They laughed. And that’s honestly all I care(d) about. I knew then and am still very much aware now, that stories are meant to be told and shared because that’s probably the most effect tactic in making the world a more empathetic place. I now want to make it crystal clear who 30 Pause is not for because it seems to confuse the majority. ThIrTy PaWs? ThIrTy PAuSe? 3-0? Primarily it’s to make sure my audience is dialed in, and that I’m welcoming the right people into the 30 Pause Community. Also, please believe I will come up with a better word than Community and it will begin with a P because I love Alliteration. I call y’all 30 Pausers and now that I’m typing, maybe members can be exclusive tenants of the 30 Pause Palace? It’s quite possible. Still workshopping it. I also just need to make sure I’m weeding out people who follow and like/heart my content, yet comment outlandish or bizarre things, so they think they’re really saying something profound, but really, they’re so out of touch and off topic it becomes a weird lesson in me explaining my brand and who it’s for. It’s a weird flex, and honestly, I’m tired. If you’re an artist, a creative, a business owner, and anything in between or a combination of those things, social media is not for your family, and old friends, it’s to BUILD AN AUDIENCE! To ensure I build the proper audience this is my first installment into this series.

More hot takes on Who 30 Pause is not for, to come!

XO

Heather