Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Glenn.
Hi Christine, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My ‘story’… as I writer, I think about story quite a bit; the way we string together the disparate chapters of our lives in an effort to make sense of it to ourselves and to find a way to translate our experience to others. This is an interesting challenge for me because unlike many who have chosen to follow a more familiar or trustworthy path— I wandered from the trail time and time again in search of uncharted waters.
I was a creative child that began acting and dancing at a very young age and found myself working professionally before I had even graduated from high school. Like many artistic people, I found it difficult to reconcile my creative aspirations alongside the expectations of emerging adulthood that seemed to coincide with my college years. While others found themselves in the predictability of a ‘degree plan’ and like-minded peer groups I felt as if I had placed myself ‘on pause’ and had little interest in most of what college had to offer. It never occurred to me that I had a choice, that I could take a gap year or pursue an acting career in addition or in lieu of a traditional four-year university. It wasn’t until I graduated that I felt the agency to begin my creative life anew. I started acting and writing again and I designed and launched a line of eyewear that became surprisingly successful. I formed the first of many companies I would build alongside a life of varying creative pursuits. Today, I own a specialized consultancy that works closely with companies and organizations who are undergoing change, growth or challenge, I am a working actor and print model represented by the Brown Agency in Austin, TX and I am poet and writer working across multiple disciplines.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I spent the better part of my young adulthood trying to manage expectations, both those of myself and of others. My life growing up in Upstate New York and later, Oklahoma did not allow me to be introduced to role models or examples to follow of how one can carve a unique path all of one’s own making. Rather, I often felt a real or imagined pressure to conform to a more ‘mainstream’ life and existence. This led me to abandon myself time and time again. Only to find myself in that familiar state of ‘underwhelm’ that marked my young adulthood; a feeling that became a well-known signpost that I needed to reinvent and/or reimagine my life once again. It goes without saying that had I realized that these seemingly sparring aspects of my personality need not be at war with one another sooner, I could have avoided some periods of painful disruption and personal heartbreak. As I have gotten older the need to ‘prove’ has almost completely vanished and in its place a luscious and insatiable curiosity has taken up permanent residence in all aspects of my life and work. If I could leave it in my will or gift it to others, I would as it is a far more benevolent master to serve than enslaving oneself to status quo and the myth of security.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an actor, a writer, a trusted ear and on occasion, shoulder to cry on (consultant) and a homesteader. There is no siloed aspect of my life, nothing compartmentalized out of fear that I won’t be taken seriously or that it will somehow diminish the way others perceive me. I have worked for decades to integrate these aspects of myself and had I not done that work, I would be of less use today in virtually all the ways I show up for others and myself personally and professionally. This is what I am most proud of; there is but one me in all the settings I inhabit. I call that liberation.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Austin is a city in transition. For many, this is a point of contention and discomfort, as the familiar gives way to the unknown, it can be hard to know exactly where to ‘slot in’. To me, this is where all the power is. I much prefer the energy of reinvention over that of the ‘long past due’ and enjoy watching new and more innovative systems of human organization emerge. I remain hopeful that when the dust settles from the inevitable disruption of change and evolution, a more equitable, diverse and authentic Austin will emerge, one whose public relations campaigns more closely align with the full spectrum of its inhabitant’s experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: ChristineGlenn.Com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinesartlife/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe57RN_8lhGh1b-bO4zCEnQ
- Other: http://www.brownagency.co/ and https://www.christineglenn.com/
