I arrived on Prince Edward Island exactly one year ago today. One whole year. I can’t believe it. Can you believe it? Where the heck did the past year go? I feel like it’s been 6 months, at most. Not a whole year.

I can’t believe it’s gone so fast.

I just re-read my first post from PEI. I was in such an awful place. I was feeling scared, defeated, and out of my league. The Nude Show had just gone abysmally. I was completely broke. I was living far, far away from my home and it was all new and so adult. I had to figure out things like grocery shopping and meal planning and paying my bills and finding a job.

Things have changed so much. I’m making more money, I’m living in a beautiful apartment, I have lovely friends, and I feel like I’m somewhat on top of being an adult. I at least manage to pay my bills on time and make enough money to pay for all of them myself.

And I’m planning for the future too – plans like school in France and traveling the world and creating new bodies of work. It’s exciting. Things aren’t perfect, but then I’m slowly learning to stop hoping for the safety of perfection. Life is constant flux and I’m learning to enjoy it more than be afraid of it.

I really want to celebrate today. It feels important, significant. I’ve been completely independent for an entire year, which quite frankly, I think a lot of people doubted that I could do. I’m proud of myself. I’ve done quite well. I’ve dealt with health scares and new jobs and harsh rejection and just managing life on my own terms. I think it’s a pretty big deal.

And I’m proud of Jesse and I. We’re learning how to live together, how to share a home. It wasn’t always easy, especially in the beginning. We had to re-learn how to communicate. We saw each other at our worst and best. I know I brought a lot of unhappy patterns with me. I’m still unwinding them, but we’re both getting better at dealing with it when it comes up. Our relationship has gotten so much stronger after this past year. I love him more than ever. Some days, he’s just too wonderful for words.

So in honour of a year living on PEI, a visual record of our life together.

I can’t quite believe we did it. Go us.

P.S. We’re still trying to raise the money to help Hannah fulfill her dream of dancing again. If you’re interested in reading the story and helping out, go here.

Welcome to one artist's odyssey

On May 21st, I'm going on a quest. A quest for art, for meaning, for beauty, for truth. I'm picking up my life, packing up a suitcase and heading to rural France to live, paint and study art for the next 18 months.

Click here to find out how you can stowaway in my suitcase and join in the adventure!