I began stripping in California when I was 22 and 3 years later, I’m finally a travel dancer! From May to August, I’m stripping in sunny Micronesia. As I type this, I’ve worked two shifts so far at my club. When I was still in college, I told myself I’d travel dance after I got my degree. I dropped out of college because sex work pays better for less hours than jobs that require a degree. I stripped at 5 different clubs in northern California before I got hired at my current workplace.

 

For the first time in my dancing career, I’m going by a name other than Felicity. No one at my club is allowed to have a name with more than three syllables. I didn’t want to argue with the owner but I believe some of my co-workers have stage names that plenty of patrons would struggle to say. I was told that a majority of customers would be American military men. In the past two days, most club patrons have been either Korean and Japanese tourists or Pacific lslanders.

I’m living with my mother in law and she is a godsend. She knows I’m a sex worker and shares everything about the island where generations of her family have spent their lives. I’m going to take rapid COVID tests regularly these upcoming months. The only thing worse than infecting my co-workers is infecting my 61 year old mother in law without health insurance.

There are few strip clubs where I reside but I contacted every club prior to finalizing my decision. I used whatsapp to contact club owners because locals prefer that form of communication with each other and with outsiders. Not only is my area popular for American travel dancers but for non-US citizens as well. I’ve heard of strippers all the way from Sweden signing contracts with strip clubs nearby me!

I didn’t inform my parents nor siblings long before I moved to a remote part of Oceania. I stressed for months to my friends about how I’d break the news. One of my best friends was raised by helicopter parents in California but has spent a portion of his adulthood in Japan and Hawaii. He told me “The sooner you tell them, the better”. He currently lives in a relatively remote part of California with only one strip club. 

While WiFi is unreliable in pretty much all of Oceania, I’m writing frequently on paper. It feels good to go back to the basics. While I’m grateful I was taught computer literacy as a youth, I’m glad I was the last generation to grow up completing assignments offline. Expect more articles from me about stripping and panty selling in Micronesia.