Ep 75: Valerie Paris reCHARGED (rebroadcast)

You may have heard that we’re changing things up. It’s true: we’re retiring ReCHARGE Your Life and dropping a brand new show very soon! In the meantime, we’re looking back on one of our favorite episodes from 2021: a beautiful and important story from our guest, Valerie Paris. Summary: Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Valerie Paris shares with us her favorite book on ideas. How they move through the universe, how they visit you and how they leave you. Profound words on the concept of ideas. And that is just the beginning of our conversation with Valerie.  Valerie discusses her decision to transition two years ago. Her transition began when she asked herself the question: If you could live your life how you want to, and you could do anything, what would that look like? And she realized that she would be happier if she transitioned to a woman. She shares her story and, in particular, her fear that she would be fired when she told her company that she was going to transition. Throughout her story, Valerie illustrates her courage and how it manifested itself during her life. And, we talked about understanding our fear and how the world could change if we stop acting on fear. It is an incredibly personal story. And, we recorded it on International Transgender Day of Visibility (an amazing coincidence and we are thrilled the universe made that happen for us—beautiful!).  Valerie Paris is a game designer with a background in marketing, community engagement, and immersive storytelling. Having worn many hats in her professional experience, from designing escape rooms to improving operations, she is passionate about creating experiences that help connect people in meaningful ways. Her latest games have focused on exploring themes of gender and LGBTQ+ issues, as well as building positive queer community in the often hostile world of games.