About Corry Frydlewicz

I was born in New Jersey, the first in my generation in our family. My younger brother was born two and a half years after me. Our parents were musicians and public school teachers. My mom was a nurse that became a school nurse while I was young. My dad briefly worked on Wall Street as a stock broker but hated it so much he didn’t stay long.

We lived in a small town called Roselle, where I had no idea what our socioeconomic status was. In hindsight I know we weren’t quite middle class. My extended family was better off than we were, so we had some safety nets, but I had no idea as a kid. My friends were working class too, and I don’t remember thinking anyone was rich unless they had Jordans or clothes they didn’t get secondhand or at K-Mart.

I was a difficult kid. Creative, hyperactive, moody, and uninhibited. I acted out in school because the environment was stifling, traumatic, and hostile. I was severely bullied from preschool through at least 8th grade. No stranger to principals’ offices, detention, and suspension because they punished both the bully and the victim whenever a fight broke out. I was frequently sent home with behavior reports, but as a latchkey kid I’d “lose them” on bad days.

My parents divorced when I was 8. We moved and changed schools. This prevented me from having any real friends from 3rd grade until high school. We lived too far from school to hang out much before or after, and my weekends were spent in my dad’s apartment.

My skills in art, math, and creative writing gave adults a glimpse of “my potential” which became a cudgel they’d emotionally beat me with whenever I didn’t perform in other ways. In middle school, my best friend and I — who felt like basically the same kids to each other — were evaluated and split up. He went to special ed and I went to gifted and talented. Our lives diverged in ways I feel are horrifically unfair. I still tear up when I remember the moment I realized I wasn’t going to see him very often anymore.

I began puberty and hated it. My life wasn’t great. My mom remarried a man who acted nice to us when they were first dating but then almost immediately became an asshole when we moved into his house. My dad was annoying at best and stifling, controlling, and hypercritical at worst, and now he was unmoderated on weekends. I made my first suicide attempt when I was 11.

Eventually I survived middle school. I emerged with passions for computers, chess, singing, visual arts, and creative writing.

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9/11

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Arizona

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Mobile Gaming QA

Las Vegas

I was abruptly laid off from Cantor Gaming. After about 10 months working there, I’d produced the visuals for several of their best-selling games, and designed concepts for multiple upcoming titles they were actively producing. I was about to go on my first paid vacation in my life to visit family back in New Jersey. I had my luggage with me in the office on Friday and was leaving at 5 to catch my flight out when my boss called me into his office and told me.

I’m sorry, but I have to let you go.
This isn’t at all related to your performance.
This is effective immediately, so you won’t be paid for the vacation time you’re about to go on.

(paraphrased)

Yay, right-to-work states!

I later heard rumors he’d been fighting upper management to keep me, but they forced him to drop one artist and the other two had seniority over me. He did it at that horrible moment because he was putting it off as long as he could, but that wasn’t as merciful as he allegedly intended. It ruined my trip, too late for me to cancel it, and hurt my already-struggling finances more than it would’ve if he told me a week earlier.

After that I decided not to work in gaming anymore.

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Maryland

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San Francisco

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Autism Awareness

Gender Experimentation

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In late 2020, my pandemic partner of approaching 4 years and I decided we were going to break up once it was safe for us to each move to our own new places. We agreed not to announce it until we knew when we’d be vaccinated and had a move-out date. Prior to that discussion, we were shopping for both of our first home together. When we decided to split, I began considering if I could do it solo.

I closed on my condo in Emeryville on March 4th, 2021 and moved in a month after that.

A few days after moving and unpacking, I went on my first date with this really cool, patient, COVID-conscious, hairdresser named Bethany. I wasn’t looking for anything serious, but she seemed fun and coincidentally lived right next door! At the very least we could have a casual rebound fling or new friendship.

In 2023, I joined my HOA board after being encouraged (peer pressured) into it by neighbors. It’s been stressful, tedious, time-consuming, and difficult, but also very rewarding and affirming.

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In November 2026, I ran for city council in Emeryville, CA. You can read about my entire experience running for local office in 2026. That process began in mid-2025, but really came to fruition from July – November 2026.

I went to Japan with Sihaya in January. Helped Ember survive major airway surgery in February, then soon after helped her come out as a trans woman for the months after. Bethany and I went on our honeymoon in Spain and Portugal in June. I had Facial Harmonization Surgery in August. Sihaya and I broke up while I was recovering.

Ember died suddenly and unexpectedly on November 1st.

2026 can go fuck itself.