We were lucky to catch up with TaiReikca L.A. recently and have shared our conversation below.

TaiReikca, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

We can prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career, by changing the educational system. It should be a system that gives them the tools and knowledge to both know what a fulfilling life and career means for them as individuals, and how to create that life and career in the world they enter after school. I would expand what is taught, how students are taught, and build a system that can grow based on the students and the world they will enter, instead of forcing students to fit into an outdated system that leaves them unfulfilled. The changes I’d make would advertently better prepare students to create such a life for themselves, that they can love and thrive in.

My educational system would teach students about all of their options for a career. From active income to passive income, finance/taxes classes, collegiate studies, entrepreneurship, trade skills, etc., every student will be well-prepared to face the world and have the tools to navigate it and build for themselves within it. This system would also offer multiple classes/groups for self-growth, health, help, and development. How can one know what they want, if they don’t know themselves? This system would also be one where self-development is weaved intricately into the curriculum. This teaches students the importance of knowing themselves, bettering themselves, and inevitably how to blend these discoveries with the life/career they’re building. That way they build a work of art; a life they love, that gives them meaning/purpose.

These two changes to the educational system, I feel would in and of themselves together, prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m just an interdisciplinary artist doing my best to create a masterpiece out of my life. My main fortes are acting, writing and management. I guess you can say it all started when I was a child. From imitating the actors on tv, to always carrying around a notebook & pen, to randomly trying to organize anything out of order, acting, writing, & management were always a part of me, and just things I did. As I got older, I began to learn that they were actually skills and they started coming in very handy as I moved through school, eventually studying theatre. That has led to a career in the theatre industry, consisting of acting on stage stage managing/assistant stage managing, working run crew, and other technical theater jobs; transitioning acting and managing to Zoom; and now using acting to step into tv/print. What sets me apart from others, (it may sound cliché), is that I am myself, and I bring my whole self. I’m going to bring my own ideas, while staying open to others. I’m going to collaborate with you. I’m going to listen to you. I’m going to treat you like a person. That’s what sets me apart and that’s what I’m most proud of; above all else, I’ll see those I’m working with and I move through my job from a place of love. Yeah, it sounds a little mushy, however, that’s how I move. And that’s how I intend to change the world with my art.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was the myth of living in a box, the way you’ve been told to.

I am a non-binary, queer person. Growing up, I didn’t have the language to describe myself. I just knew that when they started separating the girls from the boys, it never felt right saying I was a girl, or a boy…or having to choose sides at all. It’s like there was this middle ground between the genders, yet outside of them that I couldn’t see, but I could feel it inside of me. I longed to see something in the world around me that matched this feeling; a place I could belong. Naturally, I tried to explore what that would look like in my day to day life, only to be told by my peers that because of my “gender,” I couldn’t do that. “Only boys can do that. You’re not a boy.”

From daycare all the way through college, people never hesitated to remind me of the gender I was assigned at birth and how I needed to go along with the roles, rules, and controls that came with it. And I tried…tried to go along with it and do as I was told. I forced myself into a box that couldn’t hold my magic for the sake of other people’s comfort. And then, I found myself in a place where I could be free from the judgment of others. Free from their stares and opinions. I became free to give myself room to explore and grow. And for the sake of my magic, I ripped that box to shreds, and began creating my own path in my own life.

Have you ever had to pivot?

At this moment of time, I have had a slight pivot in life and in some parts of my career. With the crazy time that was 2020-2021, my industry just about fully shut down. However, this has been a time of massive transformation for not only my career, but also my personal/spiritual life as well. With the rise in numbers of Zoom Readings, I’ve been able to expand my skills to different virtual platforms. While certain situations have limited theatre opportunities, I’ve still been blessed with chances to continue my art. As well as, set certain aspects of it to the side in order to grow them along different career paths I hadn’t considered before. This pivot has also freed up time for me to pursue other passions, such as martial arts, languages, and painting. I’m taking this pivot as a lesson, to allow life to happen for me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @tydiggady
• Facebook: TaiReikca L.A.
• Linkedin: TaiReikca L.A.
• Twitter: @tydiggady
• Youtube: TaiReikca L.A.