shenglung
Artistic Viking
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2007
- Posts
- 2,958
My time on Lit and the lessons I've learned from the amazing women I've had the honor of calling friend.
I've been on this site according to the box below my name since Sep 2007. Like a lot of people here I lurked for awhile before signing up, in my case about 2 1/2 years before that. This is a story of my time here and the amazing women I've met and had the honor of calling friends in that time.
I originally came to this site in 2004 on recommendation of a friend I met playing my first mmo. She sent me here to read a story she had posted and also thought I'd enjoy discovering others here. I'm thankful to her everyday for introducing me to this place and her continued friendship to this day. (Though she could be a little more humble about kicking my ass online)
Not long afte I eventually found the site had these forums, and I initially just enjoyed poping in reading the interesting conversations going on. It was equivalent to a digital form of people watching while setting in a cafe with my morning coffee. Then one day I came across a post by a woman I didn't know was about to become my first Lit friend.
I sadly don't even remember what the post that made me have to create an account and message her was even about anymore, but it shaped a lot of my feelings about this place. What I do remember is one silly Pm led to years of back and forth messages and a friendship that I still hold find memories of today.
That leads to some of the first things I learned here at Lit. 1. Take a chance if you don't you never know what's going to come your way. 2. Don't have any expectations I didn't send my first message thinking It was going to lead to a new one in my inbox everyday for the next 4 years. 3. Enjoy whatever happens cause yes it wasn't my longest friendship here but it was an amazing one that I'll always remember. So enjoy the trip not the destination.
Now despite my comments about taking a chance, you probably noticed up to this point I've had 0 posts myself. As I said above the forums for me until I sent that first Pm were a passive escape for me. For the most part they still are. Now my interaction with my first friend on here did encourage me to message others here from time to time. Depending on my state of mind and other factors going on in my life that wasn't always a good thing. So 4. Be mindful of your own emotional state when talking to others cause you will sooner or later make a fool of yourself. For those that do get a message from a fool though unless there a complete ass maybe give them a second chance we all have off days or things going on in our live that lead to bad choices.
Continuing my journey down memory lane I eventually met my next Lit friend in the amateur pic thread, where she was posting beautiful b&w self portraits. At this time I was working as a freelance artists mostly doing logo designs and general commission work. Seeing her photos though spoke to my personal preferences though for simple sketches with lots of contrast of light and shadow. So of course I messaged her politely letting her know how much I enjoyed the composition and framing of her photos, and then asking her permission to use them as reference for my own art. This fortunately led to some of my favorite work I ever did and the results led to a lot more commission work in a style I prefer.
This now leads me to two other things I feel the need to get across. First a general message to how people handle there Pm's, and second a part of why I didn't post for so long. On sending Pm's always be respectful this should be obvious but for some people it's not. Don't get upset if things don't go how you imagine with a bit of respect it can lead to something more rewarding in the long run, and if it doesn't don't blame the person you messaged thinking there a jerk. The message system on this site is not perfect they may not have even gotten your message that misunderstanding has bit me in the ass a number of times. So if you don't get a reply back 1. They may be busy and not have gotten around to it 2. Your message may not of made it to them 3. They may have replied and it just failed to deliver to you. Concerning the second thing of how this last friendship continued my lack of posts. As I said at the time I was doing freelance art and some of my clients were more family oriented brands. So despite loving the art I did thanks to some of the lovely ladies on this forum. I couldn't take the risk of posting here and someone connecting my professional work to my private commissions. Now yes I could have used a different name and signature but then my art wouldn't be true to me. I'm going to leave that portion of my lack of posts there for now cause my complicated feelings about my art is long and completely separate rant, and this post is getting long enough already that I'm considering breaking it into multiple parts.
Moving on again the next friend who changed my life here was another young artist. Once again the friendship came out of another random post, and of course it wouldn't of happened if I didn't take that chance of sending a polite message. I didn't go into this eventual friendship seeking anything others than a fleeting conversation either. Now this particular friendship advanced much quicker than I expected which was both a good and a bad thing. Our conversation flowed well do to similar artistic taste and goals. Unlike my past conversations though that were mostly friendly with maybe a random flirt or compliment, this one developed much further much quicker. This led to her becoming the first person from Lit I actually met in person. But what made this relationship so important to bring up is again it didn't go how you would think. There was plenty of sexual tension and fun together online and we had a very nice weekend together, but... nothing happened we met and despite the tension in person it ended up a nice friendship. One that lasted another ten years and as much as I was attracted to her the chemistry wasn't 100% there for both of us. So again never have expectations and just see where the journey takes you. I wouldn't traded the years of friendship after for that meeting to have gone any different.
Now I said that friendship progressing so quickly was both a good and a bad things. The good was it showed me that the pace things develop at needs to be felt out, not every relationship has to go slow nor should all of them progress at break neck speed. Unfortunately for me I didn't get that lesson immediately and I had a string of brief acquaintances and relationships that suffered do to it. Once again we all have moments in life where we are the fool, or ass of the story. And now we are at the point that was me. While I'm not going to go into great detail about any of these moments, there is a simple lesson to be had. Sometimes you need to just step back either for yourself or the other person and say I'm not comfortable with how this is progressing. No matter if you feel it's going to fast or to slow for you step back and tell the other person. Be honest with them and encourage them to be honest with you, and when the person on the receiving end be honest back but understanding as well don't force the situation into drama that isn't need it. In short don't be an ass, and if you are apologize if your lucky you'll get a second chance. If you don't though just move on learn grow and become a better you.
So this is much longer and more cathartic than I expected it to end up but if your still reading hopefully you'll bare with me just a bit more.
After many times of being the ass in the situation I eventually learned some of my lessons. I'm not saying I've learned them all, again we all have bad days and periods in our lives. So I ask just always keep in mind that those you converse with have other aspects of there lives you may not be privy to. Be understanding and again while no one is owed a second chance it's the grace and kindness of those that have been willing to give them that stand out most.
Now just before I ended up taking a long break from Lit I met two more important women in my time here that effected me greatly again. Both leading to another aspect of why it's taken me so long to post. One was nothing but the kindest most honest woman you could have the pleasure of knowing. A woman who no matter what was never afraid to speak her mind, and tell you honestly what she thought if you agreed with her or not. The other flat out lied to me on everything about them from day one. Now don't judge them to harshly yet as I've repeatedly said we all have other things in our live that may dictate a behavior that is not our norm. Both these women very good people but very opposite of each other too. One again was honest to a fault which I admired but unfortunately not everyone on here does. She suffered a lot of both public and private drama due to this and I sometimes regret not speaking out on her behalf. As I said though she was a strong opinionated woman though, and would have kicked my ass for even thinking she needed me to try and play white knight for her. Even the strongest person however can only take so much and eventually the drama was to much and she left Lit. What's worst of all it was unwarranted drama over non issues but some people can't let things go and just want to make others miserable.
The other woman in this tale she as I said was very different she was unsure of herself, shy, and not outspoken at all. None of these traits alone are necessarily bad but together, under the right circumstances can lead to unhealthy situations. In her case her lack of confidence and the anonymity of the internet led her to feel the need to lie about herself. Now being guarded online is a good habit to have, but there are good and bad ways to go about it. In her case she decided to instead of saying I'm not comfortable sharing and being honest which I respect, she lied regularly about herself. One day her lies came back to haunt her, she decided to send someone she was chatting with a supposed image of herself. I know it's easy to see where this is going, but yes she was unaware of reverse image search. Needless to say her life on Lit collapsed after being called out and shamed. Now I don't condone doing that to someone publicly no matter how much it may be deserved or a persons lies may have hurt you. Forgiveness is a virtue and even if you can't bring yourself to forgive, please don't be vindictive. As I've said we all have outside lives others may not be privy to. Now as I'm sure we all know being lied to sucks and I considered this woman a friend, and gave her trust even when others expressed doubts before the revelation. That being said it hurt immensely when it did came out cause I told her many times I don't care if your avatar is really you or not your a kind person and that's all that matters to me. She chose not to take the out I always left her though and doubled down on her lie till it bit her. Now this eventually led to her deleting her account and as far as most knew leaving Lit. However she made a new account and learned her lessons and presented the real her from then on. Our friendship though was never the same again however, while I was proud she was living and honest life now and chose to tell me her new ID. There was always an awkwardness after.
My point with this is be honest and kind to each other. If you don't get along with someone walk away don't try and make there life hell to make yourself feel better. If you talk with someone here and you don't feel completely sharing yourself with them be honest about it. Say I'm not comfortable enough to talk about that part of my life yet maybe someday don't feel the need to lie. If your the person told that be understanding of it, and say " I understand and I look forward to the day our friendship is at that point". Again don't be an ass, politely encourage honesty and understanding.
At this point I took a very long break for Lit I was tired of seeing important people to me go through drama on here. I had enough drama in my day to day life at the time with sick family and real life relationships crumbling apart due to circumstances outside my control. So to get a bit more personal here I lost two of the most important people in my life back to back during this period. One a truly physical loss the other well it's more complicated and could be a greek tragedy on its own. This led me to not picking up a pencil to draw for over 5 years. Anytime I tried my heart wasn't in it anymore. The most I managed in that time was a very rough doodle for a clothing design that went nowhere. Fortunately I had developed other practical artist skills that still left me a partial outlet for my creativity and turnd for a time to 3d modeling and printing and that paid the bills for a time. But I always missed my drawing and the joy I was able to bring others even with my worst work. As I said before my work means a lot to mean and has to be true to myself and my own feelings. Yes I went into another part of my complicated feelings about my art cause it's unfortunately inseparable from who I am as a person.
That brings us up to just a couple years ago to just before the world went to hell. I would peek in to Lit from time to time still as despite some negative feelings there are still a lot of good memories here. I even with as many of the important people I've met here that I've gone over it barely scratches the surface. So I'm going to jump two the last two women who made an impact on my life here. One began chatting with just before the current state of the world, as I was trying to explore new aspect of myself. Ones in hindsight I wasn't ready for. This part is a bit of an apology to her, as well as a thank you. At the time I met her I had just suffered another loss in my family and big changes in responsibilities in my life. As a freelance artist I'd always been able to coast from one thing to the next nothing tying me down accept what I choose to. Things changed though and found myself changing job paths temporarily again and was looking for an escape from my day to day. As in the past I ran across a post by an amazing woman again, her words and ideas left me with feelings and thoughts about myself I realized I had never taken the opportunity to fully explore. As before I sent off a message expressing interest in having a conversation, still just hoping to see where the journey takes me and maybe learn a bit more about myself along the way. I enjoyed every minute I spent with her how she provoked my mind to consider idea I hadn't before and explore aspects of myself I had never been afforded the opportunity. For a short while all my day to day problems drifted away, but this is where the apology comes in. I was not ready for everything I had learned about myself and to open up the way she was hoping. Now I spoke earlier about when things aren't going at the pace right for both people to take a step back and talk honestly. Well that's the reason this is an apology as once again I somehow forgot my own lessons and was the ass. I should have realized sooner that this wasn't moving at the pace she was looking for. If I had been honest with her as well as myself things may have gone very different. I'm actually happy that she realized her own needs and said stop this isn't working, and want to say I'm sorry I wasn't able to be honest with my own self at the time. I still think she is an amazing woman who deserves nothing but happiness.
Once again be honest with people especially yourself. That amazing woman retaught me that and while I'm probably still not 100% in touch with everything about myself yet. She sent me down a path that I'm hopeful will get me there.
Finally that brings us to now. The last woman I wish to talk about I haven't known long, and she is just as vibrant and amazing as all the others I've mentioned. After the world went to hell so did the rest of my life, in the last year I've had my motorcycle wrecked twice. The first time while really bad for the vehicle didn't injury anyone and didn't involve me. Long story short retreads off a tractor trailer hitting radiators at 70mph is not good. That though led to unfortunately the second accident which left me laying in the middle of an intersection on cold wet pavement. The take away from that never trust your maintenance shop and get a second opinion if there is any doubt about there work. Second good traffic awareness, safety gear, and knowing how to tuck and roll can save you a trip to the hospital. Can't always save you from a totaled vehicle though. Anyway this all left me at a pretty low point fortunately I had been following a thread on hope and post in by the final amazing woman of this evening. And this one is purely a thank you to her for be the kind, generous, wonderful soul she is. It's thanks to her words I was able to get through a lot of pain, and self doubt. Her words also inspired me to pick up pencil and paper fully again after 5 years, and while my skills have waned in that time it's still the happiest I've been creatively in a long time. So even though I've only known her a short time her friendship and kindness means more than my words can ever express and I thank you for giving this very flawed individual the chance to be your friend. Also thank you for encouraging me to post this *hugs*
So there you go that's what Lit has been for me the last 16 or so odd years. Lots of up & downs, lessons learned, friendship earned and lost. In the end just be honest, kind, and respectful to each other. See where your journeys take you and take chances more than I did for good or bad and learn from them.
With that I hope someone finds this post useful and others maybe get inspired to share there own experiences and lessons learned. Thank you for listening to my story and getting it off my chest.
I've been on this site according to the box below my name since Sep 2007. Like a lot of people here I lurked for awhile before signing up, in my case about 2 1/2 years before that. This is a story of my time here and the amazing women I've met and had the honor of calling friends in that time.
I originally came to this site in 2004 on recommendation of a friend I met playing my first mmo. She sent me here to read a story she had posted and also thought I'd enjoy discovering others here. I'm thankful to her everyday for introducing me to this place and her continued friendship to this day. (Though she could be a little more humble about kicking my ass online)
Not long afte I eventually found the site had these forums, and I initially just enjoyed poping in reading the interesting conversations going on. It was equivalent to a digital form of people watching while setting in a cafe with my morning coffee. Then one day I came across a post by a woman I didn't know was about to become my first Lit friend.
I sadly don't even remember what the post that made me have to create an account and message her was even about anymore, but it shaped a lot of my feelings about this place. What I do remember is one silly Pm led to years of back and forth messages and a friendship that I still hold find memories of today.
That leads to some of the first things I learned here at Lit. 1. Take a chance if you don't you never know what's going to come your way. 2. Don't have any expectations I didn't send my first message thinking It was going to lead to a new one in my inbox everyday for the next 4 years. 3. Enjoy whatever happens cause yes it wasn't my longest friendship here but it was an amazing one that I'll always remember. So enjoy the trip not the destination.
Now despite my comments about taking a chance, you probably noticed up to this point I've had 0 posts myself. As I said above the forums for me until I sent that first Pm were a passive escape for me. For the most part they still are. Now my interaction with my first friend on here did encourage me to message others here from time to time. Depending on my state of mind and other factors going on in my life that wasn't always a good thing. So 4. Be mindful of your own emotional state when talking to others cause you will sooner or later make a fool of yourself. For those that do get a message from a fool though unless there a complete ass maybe give them a second chance we all have off days or things going on in our live that lead to bad choices.
Continuing my journey down memory lane I eventually met my next Lit friend in the amateur pic thread, where she was posting beautiful b&w self portraits. At this time I was working as a freelance artists mostly doing logo designs and general commission work. Seeing her photos though spoke to my personal preferences though for simple sketches with lots of contrast of light and shadow. So of course I messaged her politely letting her know how much I enjoyed the composition and framing of her photos, and then asking her permission to use them as reference for my own art. This fortunately led to some of my favorite work I ever did and the results led to a lot more commission work in a style I prefer.
This now leads me to two other things I feel the need to get across. First a general message to how people handle there Pm's, and second a part of why I didn't post for so long. On sending Pm's always be respectful this should be obvious but for some people it's not. Don't get upset if things don't go how you imagine with a bit of respect it can lead to something more rewarding in the long run, and if it doesn't don't blame the person you messaged thinking there a jerk. The message system on this site is not perfect they may not have even gotten your message that misunderstanding has bit me in the ass a number of times. So if you don't get a reply back 1. They may be busy and not have gotten around to it 2. Your message may not of made it to them 3. They may have replied and it just failed to deliver to you. Concerning the second thing of how this last friendship continued my lack of posts. As I said at the time I was doing freelance art and some of my clients were more family oriented brands. So despite loving the art I did thanks to some of the lovely ladies on this forum. I couldn't take the risk of posting here and someone connecting my professional work to my private commissions. Now yes I could have used a different name and signature but then my art wouldn't be true to me. I'm going to leave that portion of my lack of posts there for now cause my complicated feelings about my art is long and completely separate rant, and this post is getting long enough already that I'm considering breaking it into multiple parts.
Moving on again the next friend who changed my life here was another young artist. Once again the friendship came out of another random post, and of course it wouldn't of happened if I didn't take that chance of sending a polite message. I didn't go into this eventual friendship seeking anything others than a fleeting conversation either. Now this particular friendship advanced much quicker than I expected which was both a good and a bad thing. Our conversation flowed well do to similar artistic taste and goals. Unlike my past conversations though that were mostly friendly with maybe a random flirt or compliment, this one developed much further much quicker. This led to her becoming the first person from Lit I actually met in person. But what made this relationship so important to bring up is again it didn't go how you would think. There was plenty of sexual tension and fun together online and we had a very nice weekend together, but... nothing happened we met and despite the tension in person it ended up a nice friendship. One that lasted another ten years and as much as I was attracted to her the chemistry wasn't 100% there for both of us. So again never have expectations and just see where the journey takes you. I wouldn't traded the years of friendship after for that meeting to have gone any different.
Now I said that friendship progressing so quickly was both a good and a bad things. The good was it showed me that the pace things develop at needs to be felt out, not every relationship has to go slow nor should all of them progress at break neck speed. Unfortunately for me I didn't get that lesson immediately and I had a string of brief acquaintances and relationships that suffered do to it. Once again we all have moments in life where we are the fool, or ass of the story. And now we are at the point that was me. While I'm not going to go into great detail about any of these moments, there is a simple lesson to be had. Sometimes you need to just step back either for yourself or the other person and say I'm not comfortable with how this is progressing. No matter if you feel it's going to fast or to slow for you step back and tell the other person. Be honest with them and encourage them to be honest with you, and when the person on the receiving end be honest back but understanding as well don't force the situation into drama that isn't need it. In short don't be an ass, and if you are apologize if your lucky you'll get a second chance. If you don't though just move on learn grow and become a better you.
So this is much longer and more cathartic than I expected it to end up but if your still reading hopefully you'll bare with me just a bit more.
After many times of being the ass in the situation I eventually learned some of my lessons. I'm not saying I've learned them all, again we all have bad days and periods in our lives. So I ask just always keep in mind that those you converse with have other aspects of there lives you may not be privy to. Be understanding and again while no one is owed a second chance it's the grace and kindness of those that have been willing to give them that stand out most.
Now just before I ended up taking a long break from Lit I met two more important women in my time here that effected me greatly again. Both leading to another aspect of why it's taken me so long to post. One was nothing but the kindest most honest woman you could have the pleasure of knowing. A woman who no matter what was never afraid to speak her mind, and tell you honestly what she thought if you agreed with her or not. The other flat out lied to me on everything about them from day one. Now don't judge them to harshly yet as I've repeatedly said we all have other things in our live that may dictate a behavior that is not our norm. Both these women very good people but very opposite of each other too. One again was honest to a fault which I admired but unfortunately not everyone on here does. She suffered a lot of both public and private drama due to this and I sometimes regret not speaking out on her behalf. As I said though she was a strong opinionated woman though, and would have kicked my ass for even thinking she needed me to try and play white knight for her. Even the strongest person however can only take so much and eventually the drama was to much and she left Lit. What's worst of all it was unwarranted drama over non issues but some people can't let things go and just want to make others miserable.
The other woman in this tale she as I said was very different she was unsure of herself, shy, and not outspoken at all. None of these traits alone are necessarily bad but together, under the right circumstances can lead to unhealthy situations. In her case her lack of confidence and the anonymity of the internet led her to feel the need to lie about herself. Now being guarded online is a good habit to have, but there are good and bad ways to go about it. In her case she decided to instead of saying I'm not comfortable sharing and being honest which I respect, she lied regularly about herself. One day her lies came back to haunt her, she decided to send someone she was chatting with a supposed image of herself. I know it's easy to see where this is going, but yes she was unaware of reverse image search. Needless to say her life on Lit collapsed after being called out and shamed. Now I don't condone doing that to someone publicly no matter how much it may be deserved or a persons lies may have hurt you. Forgiveness is a virtue and even if you can't bring yourself to forgive, please don't be vindictive. As I've said we all have outside lives others may not be privy to. Now as I'm sure we all know being lied to sucks and I considered this woman a friend, and gave her trust even when others expressed doubts before the revelation. That being said it hurt immensely when it did came out cause I told her many times I don't care if your avatar is really you or not your a kind person and that's all that matters to me. She chose not to take the out I always left her though and doubled down on her lie till it bit her. Now this eventually led to her deleting her account and as far as most knew leaving Lit. However she made a new account and learned her lessons and presented the real her from then on. Our friendship though was never the same again however, while I was proud she was living and honest life now and chose to tell me her new ID. There was always an awkwardness after.
My point with this is be honest and kind to each other. If you don't get along with someone walk away don't try and make there life hell to make yourself feel better. If you talk with someone here and you don't feel completely sharing yourself with them be honest about it. Say I'm not comfortable enough to talk about that part of my life yet maybe someday don't feel the need to lie. If your the person told that be understanding of it, and say " I understand and I look forward to the day our friendship is at that point". Again don't be an ass, politely encourage honesty and understanding.
At this point I took a very long break for Lit I was tired of seeing important people to me go through drama on here. I had enough drama in my day to day life at the time with sick family and real life relationships crumbling apart due to circumstances outside my control. So to get a bit more personal here I lost two of the most important people in my life back to back during this period. One a truly physical loss the other well it's more complicated and could be a greek tragedy on its own. This led me to not picking up a pencil to draw for over 5 years. Anytime I tried my heart wasn't in it anymore. The most I managed in that time was a very rough doodle for a clothing design that went nowhere. Fortunately I had developed other practical artist skills that still left me a partial outlet for my creativity and turnd for a time to 3d modeling and printing and that paid the bills for a time. But I always missed my drawing and the joy I was able to bring others even with my worst work. As I said before my work means a lot to mean and has to be true to myself and my own feelings. Yes I went into another part of my complicated feelings about my art cause it's unfortunately inseparable from who I am as a person.
That brings us up to just a couple years ago to just before the world went to hell. I would peek in to Lit from time to time still as despite some negative feelings there are still a lot of good memories here. I even with as many of the important people I've met here that I've gone over it barely scratches the surface. So I'm going to jump two the last two women who made an impact on my life here. One began chatting with just before the current state of the world, as I was trying to explore new aspect of myself. Ones in hindsight I wasn't ready for. This part is a bit of an apology to her, as well as a thank you. At the time I met her I had just suffered another loss in my family and big changes in responsibilities in my life. As a freelance artist I'd always been able to coast from one thing to the next nothing tying me down accept what I choose to. Things changed though and found myself changing job paths temporarily again and was looking for an escape from my day to day. As in the past I ran across a post by an amazing woman again, her words and ideas left me with feelings and thoughts about myself I realized I had never taken the opportunity to fully explore. As before I sent off a message expressing interest in having a conversation, still just hoping to see where the journey takes me and maybe learn a bit more about myself along the way. I enjoyed every minute I spent with her how she provoked my mind to consider idea I hadn't before and explore aspects of myself I had never been afforded the opportunity. For a short while all my day to day problems drifted away, but this is where the apology comes in. I was not ready for everything I had learned about myself and to open up the way she was hoping. Now I spoke earlier about when things aren't going at the pace right for both people to take a step back and talk honestly. Well that's the reason this is an apology as once again I somehow forgot my own lessons and was the ass. I should have realized sooner that this wasn't moving at the pace she was looking for. If I had been honest with her as well as myself things may have gone very different. I'm actually happy that she realized her own needs and said stop this isn't working, and want to say I'm sorry I wasn't able to be honest with my own self at the time. I still think she is an amazing woman who deserves nothing but happiness.
Once again be honest with people especially yourself. That amazing woman retaught me that and while I'm probably still not 100% in touch with everything about myself yet. She sent me down a path that I'm hopeful will get me there.
Finally that brings us to now. The last woman I wish to talk about I haven't known long, and she is just as vibrant and amazing as all the others I've mentioned. After the world went to hell so did the rest of my life, in the last year I've had my motorcycle wrecked twice. The first time while really bad for the vehicle didn't injury anyone and didn't involve me. Long story short retreads off a tractor trailer hitting radiators at 70mph is not good. That though led to unfortunately the second accident which left me laying in the middle of an intersection on cold wet pavement. The take away from that never trust your maintenance shop and get a second opinion if there is any doubt about there work. Second good traffic awareness, safety gear, and knowing how to tuck and roll can save you a trip to the hospital. Can't always save you from a totaled vehicle though. Anyway this all left me at a pretty low point fortunately I had been following a thread on hope and post in by the final amazing woman of this evening. And this one is purely a thank you to her for be the kind, generous, wonderful soul she is. It's thanks to her words I was able to get through a lot of pain, and self doubt. Her words also inspired me to pick up pencil and paper fully again after 5 years, and while my skills have waned in that time it's still the happiest I've been creatively in a long time. So even though I've only known her a short time her friendship and kindness means more than my words can ever express and I thank you for giving this very flawed individual the chance to be your friend. Also thank you for encouraging me to post this *hugs*
So there you go that's what Lit has been for me the last 16 or so odd years. Lots of up & downs, lessons learned, friendship earned and lost. In the end just be honest, kind, and respectful to each other. See where your journeys take you and take chances more than I did for good or bad and learn from them.
With that I hope someone finds this post useful and others maybe get inspired to share there own experiences and lessons learned. Thank you for listening to my story and getting it off my chest.
🛣 
️
my ass playa
, then went a little 
. After a long break, I returned and now just pretty much post and 
