First Posted: 12/12/2014
Dear Mom & Dad,
The year 2014 has been a really good year for me. It may have started off like shit; finding myself out of work because my employer refused to pay me and living at home with my parents at 27, but the good thing about being on the bottom is that things can only go uphill from there. Thanks to the unconditional love (even when you want to kill me), support and encouragement that came with never telling me I couldn’t do something (even when you should have), I had the confidence and determination to play the hand I was dealt like a poker player who ran out of prostitute-money in Vegas.
I made the best out of the year by grinding hard and chasing my dreams.
I created an online talk show called “The Millennials” to provide a platform for my generation to have their voices heard and develop an educated voice. I filmed nine shows in six months and raised more than a thousand dollars toward an RV rental to take the show on the road next year. I met amazing people that shared their stories, such as a young man who wanted to perform a song he wrote in honor of the sister who suffered from depression that he found hanging in his shower and a gay man in the military who explained how he rationalized fighting for a country that didn’t allow him to marry the man he loved.
There was no better feeling than to see my dream light-up the highway when “The Millennials” appeared on a series of billboards throughout northeastern Pennsylvania.
I also landed my first full-time job in print journalism as an entertainment reporter.
When your dreams start to come true, it’s selfish to keep that feeling of pure excitement to yourself.
That being said, I want to end the year in gratitude. I know how much life can suck. I also know how awesome it can be when your wishes come true. That’s why I am on a mission to help grant a wish for a child with a life-threatening illness by raising money for the local Make-A-Wish foundation.
What better way to raise money than with a battle? Since I’m a lip-syncer, not a fighter, I decided to challenge someone to a lip-sync battle that will serve as a charity fundraiser for the dream-granting foundation.
The only real enemy I have is a recovering drug addict that is too busy bouncing from one sexual partner to another to lip-sync, so I decided to challenge someone I know can handle the heat: the area’s most popular drag queen, Estella Sweet. She was a no-show at a taping of my online show this summer, so we are kind of enemies.
On Sunday, Dec. 21, inside Club Evolution at The Woodlands, Estella Sweet and I will participate in a lip-sync battle at the beginning of her annual Christmas party that will kick ass and raise money for a great cause. Admission is $6 and 100-percent of the proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish.
Sorry, Mom and Dad, that I am spending God’s day with a man in a dress, but I promise it’s for a good cause.
Love and Hip-Hop and Crushed-up Xanax,
Justin
