AN: I have an acquired brain injury, and always have a lot of feelings about it on my birthday. This is my third year of drawing yearly birthday comics as a way to reflect on my TBI journey, disability, and where I'm at.
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[ID copied from alt text: A six-panel comic, depicting scenes painted in greyscale watercolour with text added digitally.
One - The art shows a path through a wooded area. It reads "I'm 35 today. Half-way through this decade, five years into healing. I've been dreading this birthday for weeks."
Two - The path now travels alongside water, and the art is close up, showing the path and a sliver of grass and water in one corner. It reads "There's too much meaning caught in the passage of time, and five years feels heavier than four, three, two. I keep trying to find words about hope and moving forward, but it all feels trite."
Three - The art shows a pond, with reeds at the shore close to the viewer, and fir trees on the other side. It reads "Grief never really leaves, but this year it walks close at my side, naming my losses one by one."
Four - Close up art of reeds and grasses, with cloudy skies behind them, as if looking up through them at the sky. It reads "I love my life, but this still isn't how I wanted it to go. And I'm still learning how to hold love and grief in the same hand."
Five - The view shifts back to the pond, showing a large snapping turtle swimming through the water. It reads "But I can feel the sun on my face, and the grass beneath my feet, and maybe that's enough."
Six - The art shows me, a chubby nonbinary white person with glasses and a curly mullet, sitting at the side of the pond and looking out into the water. My back is to the viewer. It reads "Maybe, some day, this life will be enough."
Each panel has the watermark @ watercolourcritters. The last panel is signed hank graves '24. End ID.]
gonna start asking hockey dudes on tinder if they can define goaltender interference and if they give me any answer other than “i don’t know” i’m unmatching them