popping in

hello everyone, this is so surreal. i was surprised and elated that some of you were still posting to here (cough cough riff, hi riff)

some of you know that i've battled with mental illness for pretty much my entire life. around the time i disappeared i was having a falling out. i wasn't sure what i wanted to do with my life, or if i even wanted to continue my life. recently, i ended up having two, serious nervous breakdowns over the course of about 4 months and it got to the point where i couldnt even recognize my own reflection. i was living in a far away city to attend college, but i hated it. my grades dropped and i eventually had to drop out completely and move back home to recover. my family really came to me and sort of intervened on me and it wasn't until very recently that i've started to feel like myself again. even though i'm not completely sure who that is. i'm taking baby steps, but i'm finding that i long to draw online with others like i used to.

my fiance and i are still together, but since he is away with his job, we don't have a date to be wed yet. i'm not worried about it. we're happy and that's all i really could ever hope for. he's been the most supportive of me and really helps me get up when i start to stumble.

i'm enrolled in a great university now and i've been really working my ass off to get good grades and push myself towards my degree. i'm majoring in video game art and development- something i've always been interested in. i'm about to start my first real, professional, college level drawing courses and i'm really excited to brush up on my skill, finally develop a style, and take art a lot more seriously.

i really hope that i can use this website as an outlet like i once did with sketchfu. again, i'm really sorry to my friends here for disappearing. i hope you guys understand and forgive me. i had to pretty much drop off of the globe in order to build myself back up.

i hope we can catch up! love, shannon

ps how are all of you?