07/17/2026
A full circle moment.
I took this photo after a 12 hour day working at Studio 2.0. A salon I worked at 4 years ago. A salon with girls I had worked with years before we moved to this location.
When we made the plans to come back to WA for our niece’s wedding, a co-worker mentioned how I should do hair for some of my longtime clients for a day. When I reconnected with clients who I hadn’t seen since just before we moved, it was clear that it was something they were interested in! Considering the last salon I was working at in WA was on our old property, I reached out to my friends that own Studio 2.0, and I booked a full day of hair.
What I didn’t think of at the time, was the life that has been lived since I last worked in this salon. And it’s probably not what you think.
I had my first panic attack here, in 2019. Nothing to do with the salon or the people, just an unfortunate timed panic attack. What I didn’t realize at the time was how that would start a loop of panic attacks, anxiety, and agoraphobia that would continue for the next 7 years.
It wasn’t until moving to Florida that I started to work through everything. Even though I felt like I had tried everything there was to try in the last seven years.
There’s a lot of shame and embarrassment that came from going through this. Things I stopped doing out of fear. Places I stopped going to. Even the thought of going on an airplane started to terrify me…something I never feared before.
But the more I started opening up about my anxiety recently, as well as talking about it on a whole podcast episode, the less I feared it. The less it controlled me.
Continued in comments ❤️
