Before E-Pal
My name is EruAnne and I am a 38-year-old Ukrainian-American living in New York City. I was born in the former Soviet Union and my family and I emigrated to the United States three decades ago to follow the rest of our family members into the Big Apple. Because the national language of the USSR was Russian, I am fluent in that instead of Ukrainian, and when I started school in the states I took Spanish as my second language (though it is my third) and became pretty affluent in it.
I ended up getting my Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, because my family always said I had a knack for medicine and wanted me to pursue it, but a long distance relationship I was in at the time drew me to the airline world so I could fly for free to see my partner, and I ended up being accepted for a job at Delta Airlines. Though a very different field from medicine, I fell in love with the job, and even though my relationship didn’t last my career at Delta did; I truly enjoyed my work – flying for free was just a bonus!
Because I always enjoyed video games (I have been playing World of Warcraft for over 20 years – more than half my life) eventually I discovered Twitch. Some of the streamers I followed suggested that I try to do the same as them and I created my own channel. Though my viewer base isn’t particularly large I did garner a small but dedicated following, and have recently celebrated my 2-year Anniversary as Twitch Affiliate.
Join E-Pal
When the pandemic started it hit many businesses very hard. The airline business was one of the few that took the hardest hits. Employees were being asked to willingly step down or take extended unpaid time off in order to help Delta save money and keep from having to fold entirely, like some of the competitor airlines were forced to do due to the amount of revenue lost. I accepted an unpaid year off, during which time my grandmother fell ill, so I was forced to give up my job entirely to become her full time at home caregiver.
I got paid to be my grandmother’s caregiver through the CDPAP program, but in January of 2024 she ended up in the hospital for a lengthy stay that ultimately ended with her being enrolled into a long-term nursing home facility. Since I only got paid to take care of her when she was at home, I essentially lost my income. The way I found out about the potential income of ePal was rather unusual. You see, that same summer I also found out that I had a half-sister.
When my family and I emigrated to America all those years ago, my father immediately divorced my mother and I never saw her again, but apparently…she remarried and had another daughter who was exactly 19 years apart from me. When she turned 18 years old our mother gave her my contact information in case she wanted to reach out and she did. We started talking and got friendly, and when I told her about my financial issues she told me she was working freelance on a gaming site called ePal. She referred me to it and the rest is, as they say, history!
After E-Pal
My start at ePal was slow and steady. I joined the Discord community, I participated in voice team rooms during the day, I started to gain a few clients and gradually got a feel for the way things were. I loved the freedom of being able to set my own hours and have complete control over when I wanted to work and how long and how much I wanted to earn. There are very few jobs – if any – that allow for that kind of flexibility. I became rather ingratiate in the community early on, wanting to learn everything there was to know about ePal so I could use my knowledge to help other novice ePals have an easier start. When ePal opened a Community Volunteer program I applied right away, wanting to be more active and more helpful.
As volunteers we were given different areas of ePal to be allowed to assist with and I chose to focus on Discord. I became a Trial Mod and steadily worked my way up to full Mod and eventually Lead Mod, which I was recently promoted to. I also used my Twitch channel to apply for – and be accepted into – the ePal Influencer program, which allowed me to be involved in the community events that are usually simulcast to the official ePal Twitch channel, which I also moderate.
Over the last half a year ePal went from something I was tentatively trying out for a bit of extra income to a huge part of my life. I love the people, I love the clients, I love the community; I realized recently that most of my days are spent either on the ePal site or talking about ePal related things or thinking about ideas for ePal activities and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. I am so glad that my half-sister reached out to me, because not only did I discover I wasn’t an only child, but I also discovered the best companionship website on the internet and can proudly call myself a member of it. ePal changed my life for the better and I will always be grateful for that!
EruAnne E-Pal Link：https://www.epal.gg/@EruAnne
E-Pal blog 