SPECIAL BRIE-FING: Meet The Author - Brie’s Story In Photos

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It never ceases to amaze and honor me that thousands of people welcome me into their inboxes. I thought it was fair to give you a deeper look into who I am, and how I got here.

In the closing weeks of 1990, I was born to my 19-year-old Momma in Phoenix, Arizona. This photo was likely taken somewhere between February and May of 1991, as the world was concluding the Persian Gulf war. My nickname was Tweety because I had giant blue eyes and a big ole’ head on a tiny little body. My Mom made jokes about how big my head was all through my childhood!

My biological father battled drug addiction, so he and my Mom were no longer together by the time I arrived. She met my stepfather when I was 6 months old… I thought everyone had two Dads for a while. They were married in February of 1994, when I was 3 years old… he’s always treated me as a daughter, as has his family, so I got to have three family branches growing up.

In the original copy of this photo, you’d be able to see the Blockbuster behind us! The year was 1995 or 1996. I remember the last time my Mom saw this photo; she stated “You guys were such a handful but Gosh were you adorable…”

My first day of kindergarten was in September of 1996 at South Dover Elementary School near the capital of Delaware. I remember my teacher’s name was Mrs. Bates, and there was a gingko tree in front of the classroom. As I started my American public education, blissfully unaware of the larger world around me, the Taliban was getting ready to capture Kabul and transform Afghanistan into something far more oppressive. This was also the month Tupac was murdered.

I was an inquisitive and precocious child, fond of questions and determined to follow rules. This was October 1998; as I was smiling for my second grade photo and getting ready to start piano lessons, Congress was introducing articles of impeachment for Bill Clinton.

Being raised in Delaware was a blessing; small-town feel, four seasons, better education, and (during the summer) so many days at the ocean, we were certified beach babies. I remember this photo; it’s actually two different photos, because my Mom had trouble getting us both to smile; it was the butt-crack of dawn and she got us up to watch the sunrise… we were a lil tired 🙂 I loved the ocean. I used to float out there in the waves by myself, talking to her like a friend.

The year was 2002, and I was feeling all-grown-up because we got to change classes in middle school! I became a cheerleader, obviously, and due to overcrowding at the school, administrators quickly made-up a Spanish class and I signed up for it just to get out of choir… I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to start a lifetime love of the Spanish language. Meanwhile, the same month this photo was taken, the US authorized George Bush to use military force in Iraq… after 9/11, I wasn’t entirely in the dark, but my 11-year-old self wasn’t paying much attention.

7th grade was a fun year, even though middle school (in general) is a weird and strange time; on the left, my best friend Natasha and I were getting ready for our last year trick-or-treating. She was Foxy Cleopatra, and I was the White She-Devil 😂 The photo on the right was four months later, in March 2004, when I placed first in my piano competition. While the adults were all glued to the television, watching the news of the terrorist bombings in Madrid, I was doing homework, watching Spongebob, and talking to Tasheee every night on the phone.

October 2004⎯Just a few weeks before George W. Bush was reelected… 8th grade was a year of change; we knew we were all about to leave middle school, and the class would split between two high schools. Both Natasha and I lost our grandmas this year, which allowed us to lean on each other… I had my first kiss, and Natasha and I performed Alicia Keys’ “A Woman’s Worth” at the 8th Grade Talent Show… her singing, me playing the piano.

Junior Year Homecoming in October 2007… the debate over the Iraq war was escalating, and Al Gore was winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but none of that mattered to me… I had a boyfriend named Josh, a job at Texas Roadhouse, cheerleading, piano, spanish club, interact club, was in the Honor Society, and took two AP classes… Tasha and I were planning for college. I had every reason to be optimistic; the girl in this photo simply trusted that the future was bright.

Tragedy struck my family in July 2008, and I moved to Arizona a couple months later; this was a huge change for Natasha and I, who had been attached at the hip since becoming friends in 5th grade. This photo was taken in 2009, when I came back to Delaware and made a visit to the school. I had graduated a semester early and wanted to be there to watch my bestie graduate. As we busied ourselves with our own changing lives and fleeting childhoods, the world around us was changing too; the housing market was a shell of its formal self, we had just bailed out wall street, and my generation was set to inherit a vastly different country than the one we were promised.

On April 20, 2010, the same day that BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded and started spilling millions of gallons into the ocean… I was getting my braces off! Baby-Adult Brie was just finishing her first year at Glendale Community College and learning adult things, like how cars need power-steering fluid, or that if you wash a coffee pot when it's still hot, the glass will break.

In August 2010, with a gun to my head and a million dollars on the line, I couldn't have named ONE thing happening in the news, because I was busy with LIVING. It was my second year in college and I was falling in love, counting down the days til I turned 21, learning about new cultures thanks to my Bangladeshi-roommate, Tazmila, and yes… dressing up in silly costumes to make long-lost videos on flip phones.

Because of my college classes, I wasn’t entirely ignorant of the news in March 2012… The Arab Spring was in full swing and Syria’s war was tearing the country apart. Still, a world away, I was a student at Arizona State University, majoring in communication and legally able to enter a bar. I was drunk for most of 2012, but it was a really fun year (and as a side note, in case any young women read this post… I was absolutely CONVINCED I was fat in both these photos. I wasn’t. Not even close. Love your body as it is, right now; I promise it’s the right thing to do).

Don’t let the big smile fool you - it was September 2013, I was 22 years old, and the partying had gotten out of control. What had started as the typical college pastime had turned into a nightly activity. There started to be as many dramatic days as fun ones; then, a few days after this photo was taken, leaving the same bar, I was arrested for driving under the influence. It was one of the lowest points in my life… I absolutely deserved it, and there was nobody to blame but myself. It changed my entire self-perception, but I’m glad I learned that lesson so young; I paid my dues and did my time, drank in smaller amounts for a few more years, and eventually stopped altogether around 25 years old.

May 2014 - It took an extra year, I worked the entire time, and had to contend with self-inflicted mistakes throughout, but I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Communication. I felt pride in my accomplishment, no doubt, but I confess I was deeply sad; by this time, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to afford continuing to a Masters or Doctorate degree, nor would a bank loan more money to me… not with my credit score. I donned my cap and gown and smiled for the photos, but on the inside, I was grieving the loss of my dream. Life doesn’t stop though, and when it rains, it pours; that same month, the truth came out that my boyfriend had been cheating, and we broke up rather suddenly. I moved in with strangers I found on Craigslist and started the next phase of my life, deeply lost and depressed.

I was lucky: by some miracle, the strangers on Craigslist that I moved in with turned out to be phenomenal people, and they brought me back to life after the bout of depression. Gustavo, Luis, Eva… God love ‘em (Gus is one of my best friends to this day). I started a job in property management; not flashy, not planned, but I was pretty darn good at it. Yet again, I was feeling all-grown-up because I had a job that paid for holidays and vacation time! It was 2015 and I was sitting in the room on the left when, sometime in June, I watched a video on Facebook of Donald Trump, the guy from the Apprentice, coming down this golden escalator and announcing his run for President. The words are clear in my head to this day; “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.. And some, I assume, are good people.” He lost me right then and there. I shared the video with some variation of “fuck this racist ass human” and went about my day.

Smiles aside, I was honestly rather pissed off to turn 25 years old; I loved being 24. It was the happiest year of my life, and I suspected the world wouldn’t allow two of those, back to back… Outside of my personal life, my understanding of America was transforming. This picture would have been about 5 weeks after Donald Trump’s first victory, and I was in the middle of a very rough, but necessary, awakening about my country. It was the first time I’d ever been forced to confront that my views on race were considered strange, or even downright wrong, to most of the white people in my life. I was never quiet about my views on social media, but I stopped talking about politics entirely with my mouth for a while. I turned instead to my modus operandi when facing uncertainty; learning more.

Bonus photo from age 25: Tasha and I on the right, with Kathy and Alta on the left. They were best friends too, just as close as me and Tashee; we all cheered together and formed a kick-ass squad combined. Life spit us out in West Virginia, California, Arizona, and Delaware, but we managed to get together in Huntington Beach for the most epic trip ever. The highest blessing of my life has been my friendships.

This is the only photo from the entire year that shows my body; I’d never had a doctor as an adult, and what turned out to be panic disorder was starting to gain the upper hand. Forcing it down and powering through was becoming less effective over time, but it would take me a while to realize it and get help. In the meantime, my commute for this job was 90 minutes one-way, which was undoubtedly annoying; however, I had finally discovered podcasts, so at the very least, my inner-learner was living her best life. This photo was taken October 13, 2017, just over a week after the world learned Harvey Weinstein was a monster, and two days before Alyssa Milano posted the tweet that started #MeToo.

While the U.S. federal government was about to start its longest-ever shutdown, Theresa May was getting her ass kicked over Brexit, and the world said goodbye to George H.W. Bush, I was struggling to get by. My new job had a much better commute (and I could listen to podcasts all day; I started to get into politics more heavily), but my boss was cruel, and I was questioning my job performance for the first time in my life. On top of that, my back was starting to give me consistent grief; wayyy back in the cheerleading days, I pulled something pretty bad during a practice and was told by the trainer to go to a doctor… but I never did, because I was 15 and an idiot. Historically, my back would go out once or twice a year, and I’d walk funny for a week or so and that was that… not so much anymore. I finally had a doctor, but the conversation seemed to go in a loop every time: My back hurts… You need to lose weight… I can’t exercise though, because my back hurts… I understand, but you need to lose weight. My 34 year old self, if she could talk to a barely-28 year old me, would say ‘STOP WORRYING ABOUT EXERCISE GIRL, your mental health is the solution’…

29 years old; my best friend of 19 years is marrying the love of her life, in front of God and everyone who loves them, in the same church her parents said their vows. My own internal battles continue to rage through this year as well, but during that trip (as evidenced in these photos), I was too jazzed for bestie to remember I had problems at all 😂 We celebrated her nuptials in July 2019, the same month that saw the release of Avengers:Endgame, Boris Johnson chosen as the new Prime Minister in the UK, and Trump was calling Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” before blaming the Congressman for it. Special counsel Robert Mueller also confirms Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump. For my part, I’m just starting to learn about filter bubbles, realizing I consume only left-leaning media. I found a podcast called Left, Right & Center, and start listening weekly.

Saturday, March 7, 2020: Right before the world went crazy. 8 days later, my company sent everyone home indefinitely; five weeks later, they laid me off.

The pandemic was brutal; I had been employed since the day after my 16th birthday, and unemployment was monumentally boring. I did Uber driving while I considered my next move; it was also during this time that I went viral unintentionally on TikTok the first time. That video turned into a series, which would turn into an ongoing little side job over the next few years; an unexpected and dumb-lucky honor. I gained quite a bit of skills over that time, just self-learning how to run a channel and community. Perhaps most importantly, I was getting help… after 2 years on the waiting list for a primary care doctor at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, my name came up; they referred me to behavioral health, and I finally got some formal diagnoses… five, to be exact! It might seem a strange thing to be proud of, but I am; being diagnosed with a mental illness is just getting more information about yourself, so you can take better care of you. This photo was taken very early December of 2021, the last week of my twenties.

March 2023… I was 32 years old, and it was the best year of my life, even better than 24… I had a KICK ASS job that was so much fun, and even sat on the board of my local chamber. After years of unchecked mental illness, meds and therapy produced near-immediate effects, and all those problems that had piled on for years suddenly seemed smaller; more manageable. One by one, they were addressed, and life got even better… and yes, I finally got to see Taylor Swift for the first time, on opening night of the Eras Tour. While my own world was thriving, my political views were shifting, yet again; getting Trump out of office was a win, but Joe Biden and the Democratic party had lost my confidence. Afghanistan, inflation, Gaza… I started turning to studying America as a whole, and I found myself incensed at the share of wealth held by the Top 0.1% of citizens. It was this same month I posted a TikTok about America and it went super viral. The questions from users in those comment sections sparked hours of research that turned into months of research, and the beginning of acquiring a pretty useful set of skills.

Remember how I theorized that the world is not likely to give you two best years in a row? Well, it definitely held true for me… 2024 was as nuts and wild and life changing and painful as it gets, in every possible way.. As for the photo… July 27th. Remember that conversation with the doctor about my back years earlier? Well, we both turned out to be correct: I did need to lose weight (mission underway, ~110lbs so far), and something was very, very wrong. Rest assured, my recovery has been miraculous and we got it before permanent damage was done. 2024 was nowhere close to being done with me; there was a breakup and an estrangement and a couple deaths and all my financial progress wiped away… and during all this, my country was in the midst of the wildest, most what-the-f*** campaign of our lifetimes: on the one hand, Trump was using literal Nazi sentiments on the campaign trail. On the other hand, Biden had absolutely destroyed my belief in the Democratic party, and Kamala Harris was almost verbatim in policy, as well as being cozy with several billionaire donors. As I saw it, the country was going to continue getting worse under both these candidates, guaranteed; ultimately, my vote went to the person who believes all people are created equal.

This is me 2-ish months ago. Arizona was having one of its last beautiful days before the real heat came and I could sit outside without catching sunburns in ten minutes of direct sunlight. My country and I are twinning right now… we have no idea what our futures look like (I’m feeling ever so slightly more optimistic for my own fortunes than the country, but that’s not saying much). I’d love to make some grand plan, but between the rise of AI and the fall of democracy, I’m not entirely sure what the hell I’m supposed to want right now. I’m finding joy in the ground-level things: Incredible, phenomenal, top-notch friends. The world’s most beautiful dog, period. My legs, and the ability to walk. A new somebody I’m falling in love with, and a love of learning that never dies.

That special set of skills I spoke of is what led here, to The Brie-fing.

The value I aim to provide for readers is factual reporting of stories with my honest reactions: I like to call it news journaling, though I’m sure someone has thought of that term already. My biases and opinions are littered throughout, but it’s always, always factual. While I make no promises of objectivity, I still aim to be truthful and accurate in everything I write. If I’m ever wrong, and if (especially if) my mind is changed, I’ll be the first to tell you. Being silent is scarier than being wrong, and having your views challenged (with facts and civility) is always a good thing; either your conviction becomes more solid and better argued, or you become smarter and think in a new way.

I’d love to be a full-time creator, like many thousands on this site, but I’m literally, keenly aware that most people in America are stretched way beyond thin. Furthermore, self promotion is physically painful… there’s info on my page if you feel so inclined <3

I’d be honored if you’d follow along (and I’m even more honored if you read this whole piece!).