I have been drawing for longer than I have memories. My mother recalls me silently sitting for an hour in a high chair as a toddler drawing spirals over and over again. It's always been a background hobby, something I took pride in but never concretely understood how to wrap my life around. I've explored other career options - I was an avionics technician in the Navy and recently graduated with a degree in chemistry, but nothing felt quite "right". 

The decision to pursue my art more seriously came at the peak of great mental and emotional struggles. The weight of these has lessened considerably since doing so, and now I wonder: why didn't I see it before? This is who I was meant to be, what I was I meant to do. So I will.