If you’re reading this, it means I officially completed six weeks of radiation therapy. 💙

After ringing the bell with the oncolgist radiation team that did the hard work. They were awesome (Victoria, Henry, Howe, Ron)

Six weeks. Thirty treatments. Done.

It’s hard to fully put into words what it feels like to reach this moment. There is so much relief, pride, gratitude, and emotion wrapped up in those four little letters: DONE.

But more than anything, I keep thinking about the people who helped carry me here.

The only reason I’ve been able to navigate this chapter as smoothly as I have is because of the incredible friends and family who showed up for me again and again. Every text asking how I was doing. Every phone call. Every person who offered me a ride while I was stuck in “car jail.” Every meal, visit, check-in, laugh, distraction, adventure, and little reminder that I wasn’t going through this alone.

Some gestures probably felt small to the people making them, but none of them felt small to me.

They all contributed to getting me to this moment.

The awesome receptionist who I chatted with every morning.

My radiation mask that I get to keep. Not sure what I”ll do with it. I’m sure it’ll become a prop in Tumi & Me!

So… what now?

Chemotherapy—the pill kind—is still ahead, but right now, a lot depends on my next MRI. Two appointments randomly appeared in my Kaiser app: an MRI on September 9 and an appointment with my doctor on September 11.

So, as far as I know, for now (as we say in the business)… we hurry up and wait.

And anyone who knows me knows I’m not particularly good at sitting around doing nothing while I wait. 😂

I have plans and I can drive now. So watch out world.

One of the things I’m most proud of during radiation is how hard I worked to take care of my body. I’ve been working out about five times a week, walking everywhere, eating clean, and doing everything within my control to go into the next phase as strong as possible.

But I haven’t just been training my body.

I’ve also been planting seeds.

I’ve applied to so many grants, fellowships, programs, and opportunities that I have genuinely lost count. I’ve continued writing, directing, developing projects, building Get Reelisms, and figuring out what the next chapter of my career can look like.

Cancer has placed limitations on my life, but within those limitations, I can confidently say: I have done everything I possibly can with what I have.

And some of those seeds are already starting to grow.

I officially made Round 2 of the 2027 Sundance Development Track with En Route and have submitted my next round of materials.

This one means a lot.

En Route has been part of my life since 2016. I’ve been developing, rewriting, refining, shooting, pitching, applying, getting rejected a million times, and continuing to believe in this film for nearly a decade.

And I’ve been applying to Sundance for more than a decade.

This is the first time I’ve moved forward.

BUT FINALLY. THE NEEDLE MOVED.

Whatever happens next, I’m allowing myself to celebrate that. Because sometimes progress doesn’t happen on the timeline we imagined. Sometimes you plant seeds for years before anything breaks through the soil.

But that doesn’t mean nothing was growing.

So here’s what comes next:

Donate to Tumi & Me

Finish the Tumi & Me proof-of-concept short.
Raise the $10K needed to finish it, then use the proof of concept to help launch the feature. I still need your help: tumiandme.com to do so… the cast & crew thanks you for enabling them to make a living. I thank you for helping me build my dream!
Keep training my body.
I want to enter chemotherapy as strong and healthy as I possibly can. Apparently, it kills everything, good and bad and destroys your protein.
Keep applying.
More grants. More fellowships. More opportunities. More seeds.
Keep building Get Reelisms.
I want to continue growing the community and creating resources that make the film industry a little easier to navigate for the people coming up behind me.
Figure out international self-distribution for Erzulie.
Because apparently brain cancer still can't stop me from having an absurdly long filmmaker to-do list. 😂

But underneath all of those goals is something much simpler:

Catching my friend, Mye Hoang’s screening 25 Cats from Qatar with Zucena! Great documentary by the way. Definitely go check it out.

I am grateful.

I am grateful to be alive.

I am grateful for my body and everything it has carried me through.

I am grateful that I can still move, create, laugh, travel, dream, make movies, spend time outside, and imagine a future that I’m excited about.

And most of all, I am grateful for my people. And a big thank you to the incredibly positive oncology team, who always had my 90s grunge rock ready to go during radiation.

Packing up radiation camp and moving back home.

Whenever I felt sad, scared, frustrated, or tired, I would go back and read the texts people sent me. I would look at the GoFundMe my friends created. I would revisit the videos I’ve been filming throughout this journey and remind myself just how many people have been standing beside me.

Cancer has made me think a lot about what it means to be lucky.

And despite everything that has happened this year, I feel extraordinarily lucky.

Lucky to be here. Lucky to have work that I love. Lucky to still have dreams worth chasing. And unbelievably lucky to have friends and family who have made sure that even during one of the hardest chapters of my life, I have never had to feel alone.

Thank you for checking on me.

Thank you for driving me.

Thank you for donating.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for making me laugh.

Thank you for reminding me who I am on the days when I needed reminding.

Thank you for staying with me through all of this.

I hope I get to spend a very long time returning all of that love and making you proud.

Six weeks of radiation: DONE.

The journey isn’t over yet.

But today, I’m not thinking about how far there is left to go.

I’m looking back at how far we’ve already come.

And I know one thing for certain:

I’m here because you helped me get here.

Thank you. 💙 Now, I need to get back to work. I can be on set now and I’m not tethered to daily radiation or to the hospital. How can I help you? Let me know. I have a lot of debts to repay.

Falling Forward | 6 Weeks of Brain Cancer Radiation: Gratitude, Healing & What Comes Next

So… what now?

So here’s what comes next: