Shana Gerald

AUSTIN, Texas — You can tell a lot about someone by how they order their drink of choice. Long Island Iced Tea? You must still be in college. Margarita? You must be feisty and like to dance. Jack on the rocks? You must be our next guest.

Please welcome, Shana.

Shana and I meet up to grab drinks at Wax Myrtles and dive a bit deeper into what makes Shana, Shana. As we do, I order some Mezcal neat – Shana asks “Are you drinking water? I don’t see anything in that glass!” I reply with a smirk and gently let her know that drinks don’t need colorful to be full of body and taste.

Shana takes a few moments to look over the menu before saying “I don’t know why I’m looking – I’m a jack on the rocks type of girl.” And from that simple statement I knew instantly the type of person I would be speaking today.

We dig in.

“I was born in Chicago which I loved – but worked in the ad agency space and just became super burnt out. It just started to not feel right – so, I quit my job, packed up my things – and moved to Bali for 2 months” Shana explained. “After living there I met a local who said the only other place that reminded him of Bali was Hawaii – so again I said – why not and moved to Hawaii and lived there 9 years with my ex before moving to Austin”

But it wasn’t always palm trees and sunshine in Hawaii.

“I was living with my ex and our relationship was not good and extremely toxic – add in COVID which was terrible in Hawaii, I just needed to get away” Shana described. “But once I got back to Chicago after taking a break from Hawaii – it started to snow and I thought – yeah this isn’t going to work”

Enter Shana moving to Austin.

“My brother in laws parents are from Austin and it always looked like a place I’d like so I said, why not. I’m also obsessed with owls so when I saw the Frost Tower I took it as a sign” Shana says laughing. “I also drive a truck, so I was destined to live here!

Shana’s musical taste also aligns to what the city has to offer.

“I love to dance and love EDM – oddly enough I also enjoying singing and songwriting. I grew up In a very musical family so that’s always something that will be close and important to me in my life” Shana explains.

In addition to music, you can likely find Shana on the ware more in Austin than in Hawaii. “What’s crazy is how much more I use my paddle board here in Austin vs. Hawaii, it’s much more of a connected community in pretty much every activity that’s going on”

Shana, like most of us gravitates towards meeting, learning and connecting with new people. Her personality screams “Sign me up for that!”

“I’m pretty sure I was at the first Highbrow Lowbrow event – that’s where I first met Tanner and got introduced to the Secret Disco crew. Then I heard about Sphere because – how could you not being around all these people!” Shana explained.

As Shana would say – in her own words “Collaboration, connection and being there for each – that’s really what I started to manifest, and I’ve found that here in Austin.”

It’s true – sometimes in life we need to go through trying times to look inward to determine what want, need and desire in life. Shana’s story is the perfect example of this – but as many of us have previously, we have all found something special here in Austin. This looks different for everyone, but the one constant is connection, collaboration and being there for each other.