Nearly 2 yrs later and I still love this page... (Patreon)

Source: SWFTD Ep 32 - Page 8I was rereading this part of the comic for the first time in almost 2 years and I got emotional because I found myself experiencing a lot of the same feelings that Grave went through in this moment. I never experienced anything as severe as war, but having an unstable childhood can really be damaging to a person's development. They become an adult and maybe if they're lucky, they eventually realize: "fuck, I have to fix myself...but how?"

There can be years, even decades between childhood and that realization, where you're just on autopilot, behaving in self-destructive ways and not even realizing it. And it doesn't have to be anything severe like drugs or alcoholism, it could be things like not sleeping properly, eating poorly, letting your body deteriorate, giving your time to people you know are bad for you, watching media that keeps you in a constant state of rage, fear, and panic, constantly delaying responsibility, and in my case, self-isolation.Sometimes I wonder if people think Ellie is my self-insert. I give her a lot of the clothes I would personally wear, and hobbies I would like, but she's more like my foil. I've met some people who've been burned a lot of times, and I've seen animals that have been severely wounded and betrayed by their care takers, yet they manage to still be so sweet. I don't feel bad for not being as strong as Ellie, some are just built differently, but people like her make me want to try harder. I really like those kind hearted individuals who manage to stay so sweet and help out others who are struggling even though internally, they've been hurt a lot. I've said that many times before, and years later I still feel this way.

There will be moments where I doubt my writing or I look back and cringe at things I wrote, but it's moments like this where I feel like I got it right because I was able to elicit the exact emotions from myself that I was trying to convey to others.Sorry for the extra rant, but I felt a bit proud and wanted to share. I promise I'll get my butt back to work soon!