The name is an alias but the picture and story are real. Cadaline Helm is an anagram of my first and middle names. I came up with it years ago, originally as a pen name. Over time, it's become a symbol of attempting to figure out who the fuck I am. Rearranging my name seemed like an appropriate way to embrace my past while reshaping my future. 

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Otherwise, I'm a single mom to a 17 year old son. We have no family. Mine is all dead, disowned, or a stranger. And my son's dad is a narcissist who lost parental rights after threatening to shoot me. He then turned his family against my son when he went no contact. We have a few close friends we consider family, but that's it. 

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Professionally, I've been doing software development for over a decade. I absolutely love it. The critical thinking involved tickles my brain in all the right ways. The work environment sucks big hairy donkey balls, though. Especially if you're one of the poor saps like me who actually takes pride in the product you create. I've been having a bit of a midlife crisis the past few years with all the layoffs. Definitely feels like I've been working my ass off the past decade for nothing. I'm worse off today than when I started in a lot of ways.

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Hence, why I'm finally launching this project. I'm still terrified of telling my story, but I'm harnessing the rage of being laid off AGAIN to say fuck it, let's do this and see what happens.

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