I’m a stripper, but that’s not all I am. In fact, would you believe I can’t even dance? I don’t have rhythm. But what I do have is a mouthpiece. I am a professional trapper blessed with the gift of gab. I can sell water to a fish. I can’t even swim, but I’m a great white. I’m an enigma.

I am rare, not like any other stripper I know. I don’t know any other stripper with three degrees, a million accolades, and certifications. This isn’t to condemn anyone else. The strippers I’ve met who are in school are often pursuing nursing, cosmetology, and just recently, I met a girl was studying to be a plane electrician. She recently graduated from her program and has already been hired! So, we’re not all dumb stereotypes, like prostitutes and groupies. While many strippers do fit those stereotypes, there are some like me and that girl who break the mold.

I don’t think I’m better than any other stripper because, at the end of the day, we’re all hustling for something. But this is my platform to state my peace. In my experience, most strippers are materialistic, buying Louis bags, Gucci bags, and cars they can’t afford. These women look up and they’re 40 years old. Of all the states I’ve stripped in, Nevada is the only state where you can be 40+ and still be a stripper. Sometimes, it’s like I’m dancing next to my mom.

I remember when I first started stripping in Las Vegas, I quickly thought I didn’t need to go to school anymore. So, I deferred from UNLV, my original purpose in coming here in the first place, because I thought I had found my pot of gold in stripping. But as time went on and I had conversations with people, I realized the environment was quickly making me dumber. I constantly found myself having to dumb down what I felt is everyday vocabulary to make someone else understand. So, I realized quickly this wasn’t something I could make into a career. Education truly is powerful. One of my favorite things about college, and the thing I miss most about physical classes as a primarily online student pursuing my third degree, is the class discussions. There is nothing like having academic conversations with like-minded individuals. It’s valuable and something I really need. I feel like I’m a career student. I need education to expand my mind; it gives me purpose in life. The constant assignments, papers, exams, and peer-reviewed research articles help my mind stay sharp, helping me keep up with the day-to-day expansion of technology and not be dumbed down by the stripping environment. I am more than a stripper.

Pursuing my second and third degrees, I’ve utilized the sometimes idle time strippers have waiting for customers by doing homework. I’ll never forget one time at my main club, where I danced for nine years. A stripper saw me reading in the locker room. She said to me, “Are you reading?” I responded, “Yeah,” confused by her curiosity. “Do you not read?” She said, “No, that’s what social media is for.” I bet you that dumb bitch is still there! I wear many hats. I’m more than a stripper.

I am unorthodox in my pursuit of greatness. I can’t be confined to a 9 to 5. They would have to pay me like $500 an hour to work for anybody. Why make another corporation wealthier when you can pour into yourself and invest in yourself? Why invest 40+ hours a week to make an already wealthy corporation wealthier while you struggle to maintain life? People often ask me how I have lived in Vegas for over a decade and I’m not an alcoholic or a gambler. I say, well, it’s a gamble to go to work every day because strippers have to pay a house fee. There is no guarantee that we’re going to make the house fee back. Some days, we leave in the negative because you have to pay the house fee upon “clocking in.” I’m one of the coldest strippers I know, and even I leave in the negative sometimes because what’s meant for you is for you, and no one can take that from you.