Daily Inspiration: Meet Chevy White

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chevy White. 

Hi Chevy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My name is Chevy Ray White. Yes, like the car. In fact, the inspiration for my name came from my dad’s first car: a 1969 Chevrolet. 

I was born on September 8th, 2002. A Virgo. To date, that makes me nineteen years old. I was born in the small, rural, Eastern town of Bennett, Colorado. My parents moved out east because they wanted to escape the suburbia lifestyle that they had always lived in Denver and pursued large acreage of land. On top of wanting to escape the suburbia lifestyle, Bennett allowed my dad to chase one of his biggest dreams — building a custom home for our family. 

One of the biggest personality traits that I have indoctrinated living in a rural area (with a lack of true community) is the emphasis on individuality and wanting to ALWAYS be left alone. 

I hold a lot of animosity towards Bennett; however, I am so fortunate to call ‘Bennett’ my home and I wouldn’t change a thing about that. Bennett holds so many memories: riding ATVs across fields of wheat with my family, catching the kangaroo mice that fell into our window-well, and driving to our nearest (but still not-so-near because Bennett is a food desert) gas station to get a jelly-filled donut. My hatred of Bennett comes from its crime, political culture, and consistent misfortunes. Growing up elicits realizing who you are. Finding your true identity comes with the desire to express one’s individual personality — whether that be through body modification, accessories, dress, i.e. All throughout middle school, I struggled with my identity. I began to experiment with hair dye — blue, green, black. You name the color. If it’s in the rainbow, it was on my head. As I transitioned into middle school, I also began to express my personal interests through dress more comfortably. I wore Miley Cyrus tee-shirts, purple skinny jeans, and basically, everything that could scream out: “HEY LOOK AT ME! I AM GAY!” Those around me (schoolmates) weren’t quite as comfortable with both my sexuality and manhood as I was and began to harass me for my differences. 

In 2015, my dad took me to a live showing of the “Milky Milky Milk Tour” by Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz in Los Angles. Being in the LA environment at that time, surrounded by sweeping amounts of LGBTQ+ populations, allowed for me to be more comfortable with my own sexuality at the time. I am so grateful for that experience. 

In my 8th-grade year, I decided to transfer schools to try to escape to torment that I was habitually facing on a daily basis. My mental health got better, I made more friends, and I became more inclined in academia. 

Months into my first year of high school, I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder that would change the course of my life. It would predetermine the amount of perseverance and strength I as an individual would have. After having two grand-mal seizures in the course of one day, I was instantly diagnosed with epilepsy. What many people don’t understand about epilepsy, is that it is very personal. It is all about treatment and diagnosis, which is in fact the worse part. Throughout my 4 years in high school, I was placed on seven different antiepileptic drugs (each with its own distinctive side effects, limited but not excluding: drowsiness, immense weight loss, muscle fatigue, rash, insomnia, and psychosis) in an attempt to stabilize my juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. It wasn’t until December of 2021 when I was placed on Zonegran that my neurological disorder began to show signs of stabilizing. As of today, I am one-year seizure-free. 

Senior year is a time to make those final life decisions: whether it’s that college applications, the military route, or going to work right out of high school. Throughout high school, I found a passion for film. It was something my dad and I built a relationship on growing up — a love for cinema. I never had any censors on what I could watch, and that was the best thing. I was 6 years old watching Tom Holland’s “Childs Play”. I have a euphoric love for horror movies, which continued into my teen/adult life. My favorite movie to date is Ari Aster’s 2019 film “Midsommar”. To me, this movie highlights what an unhealthy relationship looks like. When I saw it in theaters with my (now) ex-boyfriend, I noticed numerous parallels between the protagonist, Dani, and her boyfriend, Christian, and my own relationship. This only added to the horror of the movie. The protagonist’s revolution within the plot only made me realize how unhappy I was in my own relationship, driving me to end it. This year, I got a ribcage tattoo of the protagonist Dani Ador as the Mayqueen as a tribute to my love for the film. My close association with movies and cinema during my senior year only pushed me to pursue a career in the field. I applied to film schools across the nation, including those in my home state. By December of 2021, I was ecstatic to announce that I had been accepted to Colorado Film School and planned to attend in the Fall. 

By January 2022, tragedy struck in my family. January 26th, 2021 is a day that will be forever embedded into my brain — the day my dad got into a horrific car accident. Driving home from work, he slid on black ice, flipped his car, and was ejected from the vehicle through the sunroof. Despite the cliché saying, “Seatbelts save lives”, here’s the miraculous thing: My dad was not wearing his seatbelt. And had he been, he would have been killed. The accident left the roof of his 1999 Toyota Four-Runner completely crushed into the rear portion. Days after the accident, I remember going to the junkyard to retrieve my dad’s tools and any remaining gadgets that remained in the calamity. I remember the ill-mannered landfill worker’s attitude that day. I remember just about everything that day. Especially, the disturbing sight of my dad’s Toyota. What made it more unsettling was the fact that I hadn’t seen my dad since the accident. Since the morning before he left. I hadn’t talked to him since he called me on my lunch break the day of his accident to ask me about a car he was looking at (because my high school graduation date was steadily approaching and he was eager to surprise me with a car that I liked). My family didn’t know if my dad was going to make it. Doctors and general surgeons were throwing out medical terminology that didn’t make sense to us at the time, which made the whole situation even more overwhelming. 

I never got to see my dad for an excruciating lengthy two weeks after the accident. Because of Covid-19 guidelines in the hospital, I had to get the Coronavirus vaccine to even enter the hospital. The day I saw my dad is another day I will never forget — the strapping tunnel vision I got as I walked down the white hallways of University Center Hospital, the anxiety-ridden journey in the elevation to the 5th floor (where critical care patients were held) as I clenched my older sister Trina’s hand, but most of all, I will never forget that instantaneous moment that I walked into room number 112 and saw my dad lying in his hospital bed with his head-wrapped, ribs and vertebrae broken, and helpless. From there on, to distract myself, all could think about is a photo of him and me from when I was 6 — holding me up on his shoulders that were now dislocated from his horrific accident. 

My dad’s accident was a detrimental catalyst for the downfall of my mental health. With 4 months before graduation, my mom tried to console me that film school, a career that I previously mentioned was a passion of mine, was no longer a realistic opportunity. The vast amounts of hospital bills and the loss of income in my household put my parents in a situation where they could no longer financially support me through college. Luckily, I had received a scholarship from Colorado Mesa University for full tuition for academics. The downside? No film program. I remember as I was alongside my dad’s hospital bed, telling him my new college plans as I sorrowfully applied to CMU. Within the span of two weeks, I felt like my life had fallen apart. My dad was in the hospital, I was going to a school that didn’t provide the major that I wanted to pursue, and I began struggling in school. 

By the beginning of February, I started using copious amounts of marijuana on a daily ground to cope with the trauma and grief in my life. I would go to school high. I lost several of my friends because of the stigma behind weed because what they saw was a “loser stoner” instead of someone who was trying to cope and deal with their personal grief. What would tribute to this is how I would go to school and nobody would talk even acknowledge me on a day-to-day basis. This only made my substance use worse. Because truly what I really needed during this time was a friend. Even in my senior class photo, I can be pictured under the influence. 

In April of 2021, my dad was released from Craig Hospital Rehabilitation Center, with a traumatic brain injury and various medical-related complications from his accident. With my dad back at home, my mental health and academia improved. By the following May, I am elated to express that I was able to overcome all the events that occurred during my final semester of high school. I graduated. And with a 4.38 GPA as Salutatorian of my graduating class. During my graduation speech, I was able to highlight all the values that mattered most to me — from my family to my future, to Miley Cyrus. After receiving my diploma, as all my friends began to celebrate in excitement of their accomplishment, I walked off the stage towards my family and said: “Let’s go to the car”. Despite feeling the most accomplished at this moment, I still felt isolated and alone at this moment because I didn’t have any friends to celebrate with. 

I am a Sophomore at Colorado Mesa now. I am mid-way through my second semester. Life has gotten so much easier. So much better. I have found a passion for other things in life, not limited to just film. I am majoring in Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology with a Minor in the Spanish Language for a Pre-Med Track towards graduate school at CU Denver. I have found that through my struggle with antiepileptic drugs, I want to help diagnose and treat children from diverse backgrounds with their neurological disorders. My dad’s traumatic brain injury is now a factor that inclines me to do better in school. At one point, it was a traumatic element in my life that restrained me. Today, it drives to push me to learn and always do my best. I never had a good relationship with my parents, especially my dad. We never verbally expressed our, “I love yous” or our “Thank yous”, but today there are times when I find myself wearing his Coorslight jacket. When I put this jacket on, this is when I feel most like a man. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road the whole way, please resort to the “My Story” for reference. 

Some of the struggles I have dealt with are: 

1. Identity Crisis: Trying to Figure Out WHO I am.

2. Family Crisis: Dad’s Car Accident and all the Detrimental Consequences That Followed

3. Substance Use

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have pursued a side hobby in film and photography. What ‘sets me apart’ from other photographers is my love for techno-color in photos. I’m not into plain, boring portraits. I want the subject to POP with color and contrast with its background. 

I like to say that I am pretty amateur at what I do, but I’m great at it. I draw inspiration from things that I love and I apply it to my own work. I use my work as a de-stressing practice, which works wonders. Through all the trauma and grief, I’ve been through, I’m able to apply and devote that to a passion that I rather love. 

https://sites.google.com/view/chevy-white-photography/home 

What do you think about luck?
My mother’s maiden name is Payne. We have a joke in the family that ‘luck’ is always out to get us to be a “Payne in the Ass” because we never seem to have ANY of it. Throughout the span of my life, it has consistently felt as though life has continuously tried to push us down. That’s why perseverance is one of my most notable personality characteristics. 

Contact Info:

• Email: crwhite2@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
• Website: https://sites.google.com/d/1YFmCR0l5mqASygOEhz9RQ6R6Mo5797Fa/p/1wnXyIBv8Q7uiEJonre9wbefYP7sMb4wl/edit
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chevyrwvisualart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV9PCFklIRgpWQucYE4RF2A