I hate writing my own bio. The word autobiography is a bit of a misnomer; there’s nothing automatic about deeply reflecting on oneself. It feels either overly self indulgent, or I play down my accomplishments, leaving the reader with only a sense of snark and self depreciation. I usually err for the latter. Exposing yourself in such a manner leaves most people feeling vulnerable or narcissistic, myself included.Let’s try this anyway.
Hi, I’m Christy. I’m from Louisiana, born and raised. I live in New Orleans with my Yankee husband, two dogs and a healthy amount of cats. I’m 5’1 and my weight is of no concern to you. I’m firmly in my 30’s, but I’ve heard a lady never tells her exact age. I have wavy brown hair and blue eyes. There are scars on my right index finger from two knife incidents: an impatient encounter with a jicama and a diplomatic move gone wrong. Never try to saw a dog treat in half.
I’ve enjoyed writing and creating things all of my life. Ever since I started keeping a journal in the second grade, I’ve been hooked. Professionally, I’ve been doing it for five years. I started Slow Southern Style, a fashion blog, back in September 2009. Somehow, with my blurry photographs and unimaginative website layout the damn thing took off. It wasn’t the piss poor photos that were drawing people in; it was my confidence in writing about fashion (I worked for a national secondhand clothing store for eight years) that attracted people to my little blog. From there, I started picking up freelance writing gigs, columns for popular local websites, stuff like that. We’re not talking profound works of literature here, but I was (and still am) proud of what I accomplished, all without a college degree.
Say what?
Yup. I ain’t got one, at least not yet. I delve into the reasons why I dropped out via this article, but just know that I re-enrolled as a senior Spring 2013. It felt good. Really good. And it was scary. It’s scary to admit that I didn’t bother to finish my formal education. Again, there’s that feeling of vulnerability rearing its ugly head and you know what? I say screw it. Why hide a part of me? A college degree means nothing yet everything these days, depending on what you get out of the process. To me, it means a lot that I’m finally going to finish. So I’m looking at graduating with Bachelor’s Degrees in English and Film and Theater from the University of New Orleans in December 2015. I’m hoping the kind people in the English Department will accept me into the MFA program after that. We’ll see.
Christy Lorio 