Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 - Thoughts On A Year

(Before I type anything New Year's related, I want to say that posting Rema online has been so therapeutic for me. I'm so grateful to all of you who have visited the site, even if you're just looking at the drawings. I'm probably driving my friends a little crazy spamming them with so many links to the Rema blog, but I can't emphasize enough how helpful it's been in sorting out my life. Thank you all so much, especially to those who have actually taken the time to read it. My heart is yours!)


2012 proved to be a big year for me, both good and bad. In some ways, I feel as if the last few years were all together one really... long... year packed with crazy event after crazy event. One too many days were spent in the hospital for people I loved. One too many funerals were held. Too much illness and too many doctor visits. For a while there, it really DID feel like the apocalypse! The birth of my son and daughter were, of course, the bright spots within the chaos (both unintended natural births!). I never imagined myself to be a mother, just as I never imagined myself to be married, yet here I am, stay-at-home mom dabbling in storytelling.

Being so wrapped in Life, Death, and the spectrum in between has made me sort my priorities, and has made me a better person. Whereas before stories and ambition were the center of my life, my family is now the center. The stories have become a world I go to when Time permits, a fantastic place that keeps me sane. For a while that world was for my eyes only, but it kept my spirit strong through difficulty. It kept me alive. I want to share these stories with as many people as possible in the hopes that they might be a raft to float others across choppy waters, too.

There's a lot to look forward to in the years ahead -- the growth of my children, the love of my husband and best friend, and many, many stories to finish. The key word is finish. I'm sitting on two novels, several short stories, and a few comics that need completion. Some of them are 90% done, some are only 1%, but all them make me so excited to draw and write. For a writer, inspiration is the side effect of so many life-altering events. However, if these stories are to be shared, they have to be finished. And so, it's my goal -- Time permitting -- to complete as many of these projects as possible and share them with as many people as I can, starting in 2013.

I hope 2013 will prove to be positive, fruitful, and forward-moving as possible for you too. Happy New Year, and thank goodness we all survived the apocalypse!