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Thrilled to announce that I have received my LMSW license and am approved to begin accruing clinical hours for my independent license!

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So the first piece is almost 3 months old, but have two more of my D&D characters: my bard, Lyra, and my monk, Knox! Just one more to go and I'll have reference sheets for my entire crew :)

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My friends, I've done it. Six long years of hard work; countless late nights; more textbooks than I'd like to count; and so many wonderful friends, faculty, and mentors. All of that was absolutely worth it, and I'm so unbelievably proud of myself for pushing through and earning my MSSW. My license is soon to come, and I look forward to many years of mental health service in my community ❤️

(Plus a special birthday/graduation dinner photo with my baby sister 😅)

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So thrilled to announce the receipt of my MSSW from the University of Tennessee College of Social Work! I will be graduating in Knoxville on May 17th at 8:30 a.m. EST, which will be broadcast live, and in Nashville on May 20th at 2 p.m. CST. I will also be attending the Knoxville hooding ceremony May 18th at 9 a.m. EST, which will be broadcast live. For more details and a link to the livestreams, visit https://commencement.utk.edu/spring-2024-commencement-ceremonies/

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Wanted to try a neutral evil character for my next campaign, so meet my Tiefling barb, Bryseis~

(Plus a bonus of Thia that I don't love so much because I tried out a CMYK color profile for my canvas and *hated* it)

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I know I haven't made any art in almost a year, but I finally found the creative energy and free time to draw a *very* simplified version of my D&D character Thia 🥳

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Thankful for all the birthday wishes! My birthday weekend was lovely ❤️

Forgot to take pictures celebrating with my local family, but Angela and I got to visit a Harry Potter pop-up bar before dinner 😀

(I did at least get a picture of the delicious birthday dessert I had while out with my family)

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Graduation Announcements

Hi friends! I'm thrilled to announce the receipt of my MSSW from UT this May, and I would love to send an announcement to you! If you would like to receive a physical and/or digital copy of my announcement, please use the link in the comments to send me your contact information :)

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Happy Halloween! My first crack at Pizza Skulls went pretty well. I haven't *quite* gotten the hang of using molds, but they were delicious anyway 😋

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Brunch with my favorite gals ❤️

If y’all are looking for a brunch spot in Murfreesboro that has an absolutely ginormous breakfast burrito, both savory and sweet crepes, a large coffee selection, and bottomless mimosas in fun flavors, I definitely recommend Joanie’s! It’s cute and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day, which is a huge plus!

Not pictured: the huge canvas of Inigo Montoya and the hilarious table cards (I was Ron Swanson)

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“Bury Me in Springtime”

Going through some shit this past year, but art therapy is a gift

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Trigger Warning: Child Sexual Abuse

Hi friends! I’m conducting a research study and need to pilot my survey first. The survey is about PTSD and CSA, so please only take it if you’re comfortable.

If you do take the survey, it’s completely anonymous, so I won’t know in any way if you’ve taken it or what you answered. Also, please answer this fictionally, as if you are a teenager who was sexually abused.

Again, only take this if you’re comfortable! I have other participants, so this is just to expand my sample.

Link is in the replies!

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Abled Person: Hey man, can you hold this wad of $2,000 and this one penny for me while I open my wallet?

Disabled Person: YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOL!

The United States Government:

(Watch how many people don’t get this.)

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TW: Discussion of substance use disorder (alcohol) and religious trauma (Mormonism)

Let’s talk about my early relationship with alcohol.

I was raised Mormon and formally left in my *very* early 20s, which also happened to be during the beginning of the pandemic. For two decades, I was taught that if I ever had a sip of alcohol I would struggle with alcohol use for the rest of my life. I didn’t drink until I was 21, when I was living off-campus. Eight months in, I returned to on-campus housing at my Mormon university (no, not the one you’re thinking of).

When I first started drinking, while I was incredibly cautious (my roommate was Mormon, and we agreed upon, in hindsight, pretty strict rules regarding my drinking in the house), I never thought about having rules around my drinking as a way to avoid issues with substance use. It wasn’t until I moved back on campus that I started believing I was an “alcoholic” (spoiler alert: I wasn’t). But what could have changed to make my views shift so dramatically? My housemates, indirectly, told me I was. On phone calls with their parents (which were very audible as our walls were paper thin), they would explain that they were living with a “high-functioning alcoholic”. But was I? Let’s take a look at my early drinking habits and the rules I imposed upon myself.

While living in that apartment, I had a maximum of one drink per night and two drinks per week (usually no more than 5% ABV, despite the fact that I had primarily been an 80 proof whiskey drinker for the previous six months—still my drink of choice). My rules were as follows:

1. No drinking if I was upset in any way (depressed, sad, angry, etc.)—I could only have a drink if I was in a good mood, in order to “prevent drinking from becoming a coping mechanism”.

2. No drinking on school nights or if I had work/another serious engagement the next day.

3. No drinking if I needed to drive anywhere within the next 24 hours/no driving if I had had a drink *at all* that day (even if it was several hours prior). While not drinking and driving is a good rule, this is excessive.

4. No drinking anywhere in my house that wasn’t a private space (including my room if my roommate was home).

5. I could not tell anyone that I drank outside of my housemates (who I felt I needed to tell in order to respect their religion).

6. My housemates could veto my drinking at any time—if they ever became uncomfortable with the idea that I drank, they could demand that I stop drinking in the home (in which case I could only drink in a bar/restaurant or at a friend’s house).

7. I could not be “visibly intoxicated” (their words, not mine) in front of anyone (I’m not a lightweight, but my face turns ever so slightly red after one drink).

After 8 months of living in this apartment, I realized that I was not a “high-functioning alcoholic”, but I was still concerned that I might develop a less than healthy relationship with alcohol. As a result, I had one more rule (which I still roughly follow as it’s good practice to regularly assess your drinking habits, although usually only once a year now): twice a year, I would go dry for the entire month (usually Dry January and July/August).

Even though I now know that I have a very healthy relationship with alcohol, I still followed the first four rules until about two months ago. And then I realized that these rules weren’t actually healthy and that they were *creating* a poor relationship with alcohol. Being so restrictive out of the fear of becoming dependent on alcohol put me more at risk than a more relaxed attitude around drinking would.

But this fear still runs *very* deep. And it’s unjustified. But that was how I was raised.

And Mormons wonder why so many struggle with substance use after they leave.

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Very late this year, but I wanted to wait until after I was 23 and the new poly flag was announced to make this year’s Meet the Artist and What’s in My Bag

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I wish I could even start how to write about how tropical or even "warm" places are never portrayed as "home" in art (especially in pop culture), if that makes sense. They are always portrayed as wild places, exotic places, or both, but they're never shown as places were people live their lives.

Main characters don't ever come from a tropical country. There aren't sitcoms set in a hot city in the tropics (well, of course there are telenovelas) about the daily lives of normal people. Fantasy and science fiction series often start in places that look suspiciously like medieval Europe, and when they go to a jungle or desert land or planet, it's because something Exotic is about to happen.

Temperate climates (and their cultures) are The Default. Every other place, in real life or in fiction, is judged against them.

To the point that people who live in the tropics are jealous of snowy Christmas. Because that's what we've been raised with with the cultural monopoly of the US/Europe.

It's so weird. Everything has to have snowy winters, orange fall leaves, and pine trees in fiction. I live in a place where winter lasts a month, there are palm trees everywhere, and long, hot summers. I could never relate. Bro I'm j jus existing here.