**a slow crawl to my 30s commences as of today!** other than gathering with family yesterday, celebration has mainly been isolated to myself. to be fair, i haven't been putting myself out there offline and online quite recently. it's been a real slow crawl rebuilding everything about myself from scratch, especially in regards to meeting new people to befriend. for context: i cut myself off from almost everyone i knew before the pandemic hit and, looking back on how i felt being with a number of them back then, i cannot say i'd feel comfortable with reconnecting with past people that i thought i could trust and/or even call friends. plus, i feel i need to call it: i'm burned out in almost every aspect of myself. not just with my art, mind you, but also with getting out of bed, looking for ways to support myself, and even making myself compatible with others. basically, it's been hard convincing myself that love, respect, and compassion are things that i can have in reality and not just in my dreams. on a slightly brighter note, i've been recently trying to find ways to make space for myself through keeping a private journal and making a schedule for myself to follow. plus, i feel like i'm doing well in being intentional with how i interact online; it's a real eye opener having to comment/reply and do anything else to interact with someone that isn't merely liking, reacting, or resharing a post from them. i wish i was a bit quicker with getting my shit together but progress is progress, i hope and suppose. here's to another year! 🎂