Blog

Hello. My name is Erick Boustead. Welcome to my blog. Before anything else, a content warning. The following will include stuff about suicide, drinking and addiction, grief, and “mental illness”. (I may add to this list as I go)

This is the first time I’ve ever attempted blogging about personal stuff. I’m calling it a travel blog for now since I *am* currently traveling in Europe (until September 17, 2019), but I’m realizing that I’m going to use this to try and work some general life stuff out as well.

Some context…My mom passed away on November 21, 2017, so grief is either just below, or very much above the surface on any given day. It was ruled a suicide, but to me it’s more complicated than that. She was diagnosed with some type of bi-polar about six years before she passed, but no one could fully determine *what* that all entailed and how to treat it. She also struggled with addiction and was very involved in the NA community and spent a lot of time sponsoring and supporting others. You can read more about her here if you’d like. (she was quite rad)

This trip feels like a way to really sit with that grief, connect with some heritage (also complicated), and hopefully get some rest and rejuvenation. Ohhhkay, on to the posts…