Gen Z Guide to FI

I spent the last week of my winter break visiting some homies in my old stomping grounds (aka Northern California) and attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah (a life long goal).

I gave myself a $500 spending budget for the week and I spent $514 so I am very proud of myself for sticking to it. Overall, the trip was mostly inexpensive: I used miles for all my flights and I paid ~$600 for my Airbnb in park city, Utah.

So overall, the trip cost around ~$1100 + miles for 7 days but it was very worthwhile. I got to see many of my friends while I was visiting NorCal. My close friend J and her husband hosted me in their house. J also picked me up from the airport and that’s my love language. My baby mama (a.k.a my best friend, I’ve explained this at some point in the blog) picked me up and took me to hang out with her and my little baby boy so I didn’t have to pay for Ubers. One of my college roommates that I love with all my heart drove down 2 hours to buy me lunch. An ex-coworker turned amazing homie came to eat KBBQ with me on short notice on my last night. In summary, I have great friends and they deserve everything good life has to offer.

Then, I went to Park City, Utah, which have the only acceptable mountains to be on.

Sundance met all my expectations. I was able to watch one film because it was really difficult to get into the movies. The film was called ‘Sly Lives’. It was a documentary about the rise and fall and rise again of Sly from Sly and the Family Sloane (a popular group in the 60s/70s). The film was amazing. You should see it when it comes out on Hulu.

What I wasn’t expecting from Sundance was how well I’d fit in there. I’ve felt like a fraud for a while now since my creative juices dried up some years ago. I am no longer interested in the creative aspects of filmmaking. I’m interested in the money. That’s why I came to get my MBA. That’s why I didn’t accept the offer to apply to the MBA/MFA program (that also would have cost an extra $150k). The fraud part of it all for me was that I felt that since I’m pivoting into marketing at any company that will take me (because a girl needs money), I wasn’t staying true to my initial goals of trying to work in the entertainment business.

But, at Sundance, I met different types of people in the indie creative space. People who work day jobs and use free time/weekends to produce independent films. It gave me hope that I didn’t have to do one or the other. I can still work in the business on my own terms. I just need to find creative partners & projects that I align with. In a way, this scenario reminds me of myself in 2021 when I worked on a indie web series for a whole year. That project has still not been released, as of 2025. That experience disillusioned me from giving my energy to creative projects. Instead, I channeled all that disillusionment into applying for my MBA.

Sundance peeps reminded me that there is not right or wrong way to make art. It’s also ok to not be an artist at all and be a whore for money. Every failure is one step closer to a success (cliché, ew, I know). 2021 me lacked the right creative partners. 2025 me now knows that this can make or break a project.

I met a lot of cool new people who I have to sort out on Instagram because we exchanged instagrams not LinkedIn profiles here (so hipster). And, I am truly here for that. I also bonded with a lot of like minded classmates trying to navigate the film industry.

In a nutshell, these trips were an amazing way to end my long winter break. It definitely helped cure my seasonal depression for a while. I just needed my friends and sunlight.

XOXO your hermit vampire in grad school

Gen Z Fire Baby