Hi! Man it’s been a while hasn’t it? A lot has happened these past 2 years so I figured maybe posting an update for those that might not be stalking my socials and whatnot.

First off, I graduated from community college earlier last year and have now been going to University for the past year. Actually just finishing my finals this week as of writing this. I’ve been hard at work getting my Bachelors in Business Management and Human Resources. Speaking of, I am set to graduate with said bachelors in the spring of next year (by May hopefully). It’s been quite the journey, and 6 years of neck breaking work to keep up with grades and priorities having to be focused on. But I did it! Or well, I’m almost at the finish line… There’s many times I wanted to give up, but kept pushing through, and I’m happy to say that I’m nearly at the finish line.

“That’s awesome Portal, what do you plan on doing next?” That’s a great question…. That I’m not quite sure about yet haha. I’m hoping to find a full time job in the city and live with family for a bit. There’s been a big shift these last few months, but I’ll talk more on that in a bit. The original plan was to move to Vegas or somewhere not California (because rent here is robbery), but that’s changed at least for now.

I’ve also become a big advocate for public transit, and have been actively finding new ways for me to travel without my car and hope to get a bike soon. I use the Metro and Bus stops often to travel when I can, and have been way more outspoken with my thoughts on trains, light rail, and public transit as a whole.

One other big shift you might have noticed too is my degree itself. I was originally perusing music as my degree, what happened? Well an overall shift in mood after doing music for 8 years kinda hit me like a freight train. I stagnated and needed to step away. Doing it as my degree was taking a toll on me mentally. So I switched degrees. But at the same time, I began to fall in love with Mixology and Bartending. I fell in love with the craft and the process of making drinks. This caused me to shift over to a business degree because eventually down the road, I wanna open my own bar. I also I upload cocktail videos to TikTok, Youtube, and Bluesky. The last 8 months I haven’t uploaded anything due to life events currently going on and doing the videos are very costly…

I also started to change my lifestyle a bit more. I’ve started to eat better food and going to the gym at least twice a week. I also walk almost 3 miles every 3 days too since I walk to the bus and back home. I’ve felt a lot better about myself, but its had its problems too. It’s caused me to view my body more negatively and go on food binges and breaking a good habit. I’m really trying to jerk myself back, but I haven’t made progress in months so its caused me to go on food binges again, which then makes me feel really guilty. Hoping I can try and jerk myself in the right direction.

Now for the elephant in the room. “What’s this life event you keep yammering about Portal”.

Here’s the thing. Im gonna keep this very minimal because it is quite private. But what it boils down to, is my family. My mom and Stepdad who have been together for 14 years decided to split. This has caused all the financials of essentially a massive Mortgage to fall onto my mom. I came to an agreement to give her $500 a month to try and help her in any way I can. But because of college, I can’t work full time or afford to take on more hours than I already have at work. And I don't have the time to open story comms either unfortunately. Luckily I have started doing Plasma donations twice a week, which do take a toll on me every time I do them. I have to try and keep it up until I at least graduate. I’m breaking even every month and luckily have some saved money in case of emergency. But I would be lying if I said it hasn’t been starting to drain me after doing it twice a week for 3 months straight now. There’s a lot more personal feelings involved that I wish I could say, but I feel it would be word vomit and would rather not waste your time. It’s why I dont have money to afford things like doing more drink videos. It’s also why I can’t make it to MFF or travel to see friends and that’s been affecting me mentally. Which does suck… Next year will be better I hope.

But as for next year, Im gonna graduate, get my first tattoo, find a full time job, attend a lot more cons (including going back to MFF after not doing so for 2 years), and maybe even try and start dating again. I really need to get out there more. But yeah that’s pretty much it. Thanks for taking the time to listen. And thank you to all my friends for sticking by me when I needed them. I couldn’t have made it where I am without you. Till next time!

~TFSneps aka Portaljaguar