deviantART Birthday

Today marks exactly NINE YEARS since I first joined deviantART. I've been a user on and off since then, usually corresponding with my mental health issues; when I'm very mentally unwell I tend to write more, strangely, and then when I get well again I pootle off and get on with real life. 

This time, though, I'm back for good and really trying to integrate myself, trying to become a useful member of the deviantART community. I truly love this website, I love everything about it really, especially what its members have done for me and my writing over the years. I hope to become one of those members who is truly valued!

Can you believe that on 20th July 2004, when I first signed up for deviantART, Wee Chum didn't even exist yet? Can you believe I was still living with my parents, in a house that isn't even their home any more? 

Between then and now, I've left my parents' home for my own place (nearly eight years I've lived here now!) had two failed relationships, had Wee Chum, worked and lost several different jobs (some paid and some voluntary), had two mental illnesses diagnosed, become physically disabled and learned to embrace my limitations, come out as transgender and met and married Jesse (my spouse)! Phew! And all this time I've been writing about it all - sometimes here in the form of poetry, sometimes on my LiveJournal (yes, some of us still use LJ!).

I'm so grateful to deviantART for being here for me for the past nine years, and hopefully it'll still be around in another nine. Wee Chum will be nearly seventeen by then, and I will be approaching forty. And hopefully I'll still be writing, and who knows - maybe he'll be a member here by then, too.

Take care everyone, and thanks for reading.