THESE PAST COUPLE YEARS.

I did some unexpected reminiscing/remembering and it just kind of struck me all the things I’ve made it through up to this point.

  • Worked nights for 13 months, resulting in some pretty bad depression
  • Got in a car accident and toughed it out without a car for a couple months, which made the depression worse
  • Used my entire savings to buy my mom’s car from her, locking me into my terrible minimum-wage retail hell for some time after while my finances recovered
  • Depression got so bad that I couldn’t take it anymore and took a significant pay cut to just be back on days and feel normal again, and so I could actually look for something else
  • Managed to get a new job that paid a lot more and was vaguely relevant to my degree (not really) even though it was a 45-minute commute at the time
  • …which was somehow even more soul-crushing than the minimum wage retail hell, but at least I was making a livable wage.
  • Found an apartment that I could afford on my own that was close to my boyfriend and had a reasonable commute time to said job
  • Gradually lost more and more free time for comics, but I eventually made good on plans I’d made in 2011 and started making pages of The Hues, even if it was a year behind schedule
  • Was generally kicking ass and taking names, juggling my comics career with a physically demanding full-time grownup job
  • And then two days before I was set to launch The Hues, I got laid off
  • Survived on a pittance of Unemployment for the better part of this year, as well as kindness from friends and family
  • Worked on comics
  • Applied for jobs
  • Worked on comics
  • Cried
  • Worked on comics
  • Applied for Jobs
  • Cried
  • Worked on comics
  • Cried A LOT
  • Launched a Kickstarter
  • Did more crying
  • And now I’m doing art for a living technically? Maybe?

I feel like I’ve gone over the hill on a really big roller coaster, but the air is foggy and I’m not really sure what the whole track looks like, I can only see the immediate things around me, and I don’t know how long the hill is or the bottom, or when it’s going to twist and turn.

All I know is what’s immediately before me, and that’s The Hues.