The PR Student

This is not the post I intended to submit, but here we are.

This has been one of the worst years of my life. On January 5, while I was in Las Vegas for CES 2026 –the largest consumer tech event in the world — to support a client launch, my mom died. She lost a multi-year battle with lung disease, cancer, and chemo-related dementia.

The next day was supposed to be my first day at my new job, too. I’d been transitioning from 10-years of freelance PR, going back to my agency PR roots. Instead, I was on a red-eye flight back to Seattle, where I’d proceed to completely shut down for three full days before taking on the sole responsibility of celebrating and burying my mother.

Fast forward two weeks, and I’m starting my new job, only to be completely wiped out by Covid. I had to cancel a trip to Austin for SXSW, which I’ve still yet to attend despite 18 years in tech. But I digress.

Fast forward to February, and my father-in-law is hospitalized with a major heart attack. It’s not looking good, but luckily, he recovers and is home a couple of weeks later.

Then it happens. Just this last week. My dad is in the hospital after trying to end his life as he continues losing his battle with the grief of my mom’s passing. Despite not being around much at all during my childhood, my dad was my mom’s caregiver for the last several years, and it’s been hard for him to adjust to live without her. He’s still there as I type this post. My dad and I have a destructive past, but the idea of losing him is weighing heavy on my heart.

But it’s also completely exhausted my mind, and I’ve had to step away from both school and work, just to keep my life together enough to maintain any sense of normality for my blind and autistic 10-year-old son.

Back to the improving

I’m hoping that my work so far this semester will earn me the opportunity to submit a “final video,” even though it doesn’t align with the actual assignment.

In my role with tech startups and PR, I’ve been forced to learn –on my own — a variety of software and tools that help create videos for social media and media relations.

The one I’m submitting is just one example of the types of videos I create daily, using services like Adobe, CapCut, Canva, and the latest AI tools on the market.

After you watch the video, click here for my post on how I made it using Adobe—just as I would have completed my actual “final video” project.

Maybe this will be worth a few points and save my grade.