One Year · 4:49pm Apr 1st, 2023
It's hard to believe it's been a year since my dad died. Sometimes it feels like a decade ago, sometimes it feels like it was just last week.
In that year, I've had breakdowns, was almost confined in a psyche ward against my will, traveled 1000 miles with only my wits, my car, and a month's worth of paychecks, survived in that car from the dog days of summer to the freezing nights of winter, made literally more than a thousand deliveries so I could afford gas and food for myself, re-enrolled in university and took full-time classes to pursue an engineering degree, got hit by an 18-wheeler and came out uninjured by the sheer grace of God, was forced to take a leave of absence from Uni to come home again, where I found out my mom and sister were on the brink of foreclosure and needed my help to pay the bills, took up a job substitute teaching because it was all I could find, learned the joys and pains of working with children, found spare work as a handyman, ALMOST closed a deal for a PRISTINE vintage car only to have it legally ripped out of my hands, and lived on potatoes and whatever discount meat I could afford ever since. Even now, the house we're living in will likely sell any day and I'm going to have to uproot my life again.
In a year. Geez, that feels closer to the contents of a full biography.
...Yeah, suddenly my updates schedule essentially dropping down to once-a-month makes sense. (In my defense on that, I HAVE about tripled my average chapter length for the last dozen or so chapters of Multiverse).
Every step of the way, you guys have been here for me, fellow adventurers. I can't thank you enough for that. Your understanding and support have been one of the only constants I've been able to count on being there, even at times when it's felt like the very ground I stand on might just crumble to spite me.
I know that, since my accident, I really haven't talked much about what's been happening in my life. Between teaching and trying to find more handyman work (that avenue for income dried up REAL fast in this tiny town), I've been trying to do everything I can without running here and throwing a pity party for myself... and if I were to talk about what's been going on in my life and what's on my mind most of the time, well, it would sound a lot like I was asking for pity.
I miss my dad. A LOT.
I'm angry at my dad. REALLY angry.
and I have to let myself feel those things. Trying to resist them just makes me more miserable.
It's been a hellish year, to be frank. But the sheer GROWTH I've been forced to make... leaves me feeling like, once I finally pull myself out of the mire that I've been thrown in by bad luck, I'll be capable of so much more than I ever was before.
It's been a whole year. I can't say I'm "over it." I don't think I will be for a long, long time. I stopped moping ages ago, however.
What comes next... I'm not sure, to be honest. Like I said, in all likelyhood my life's gonna be uprooted and thrown around all over again. But the lessons I've learned, the growth I've made, and the strength I've found... they're all inside me. They won't disappear.
And I would never have made it this far without your kindness and support, fellow adventurers. I can't thank you enough, beyond words.
Other than that... no big news. Sorry, I wish I had some big announcement I could give about the next arc of Multiverse or how the next chapter of Sapphire Scales is coming along, but... Everything's just in the works whenever I can spare the time and energy, business as usual.
I just wanted to mark the time and say thank you to you all. Sure, I like writing fanfic and all, but the community is the reason I stay here on fimfiction. You're the best.
With lots of love from me and all the characters, I hope that you all have happy adventures in the future.
-Pennington Inkwell
Definitely sounds like quite a year. With all those ups and downs, here's hoping there's more ups in the future for you.
o7
stay strong.