I just wanted to let you guys know that the past few months have been really stressful for me.

I haven't been able to focus on art or being creative for a lot of big reasons, and a lot of small reasons.

First off, I'm trans and I live in Florida. If you know anything about what's going on with legislature here, it's been very unsettling to look at the news, to say the least.
Things are made difficult because I'm also chronically ill. I was radiated back in 2018 for a thyroid issue, and the past five years I've been struggling to find stability after that. Every time I've gotten bloodwork since the treatment, something has come up as a concern. Your thyroid controls your urges to eat, sleep, be active, and a lot of other things, so if you have too much thyroid hormone, you enter a hypo-manic state, and if you have too little, you enter a bad depressive low where you're fatigued, to put it lightly. When my levels are low, I can sleep as much as 14 hours and still be exhausted, but when my levels are high I might only be able to sleep two hours every few nights despite how badly I want to sleep.

My hours have been increasing at work, as much as is reasonable for me to work with my issues regarding fatigue, so the higher-end of part-time. I'm making minimum wage. The state is set to increase minimum wage every year so it reaches $15 by 2026, but unfortunately the cost of living is skyrocketing and making it difficult for me to be able to afford treatment, HRT, and normal living expenses. I have to eat a specific diet to keep my health optimal, but unfortunately that means I also need to take supplements to cover the areas that a vegetarian diet can't reach. My diet gets more and more limited as the cost of living goes up. Even my housing cost is going up, as I just got a notice of a rent increase at a rate nearly triple what last year's increase was.

On top of all that, the most minor issue is I bought a new tablet to replace my old beaten and battered one. I've had it for a few months now and I cannot adjust to it for some reason. I'm mostly having to re-learn how to draw on my tablet and that's definitely taking up a lot of time and energy.

I keep telling myself I'm going to open commissions, but with all of these compounding issues I don't think I can reasonably do that.
I may potentially open a fundraiser, or link a tip jar somewhere at the bottom of this journal in the near future if I feel comfortable. Nobody is under any obligation to donate, it would just be a kind thing to do if you can afford it.

I don't really know the point of this journal. I'm tired. I'm scared. I guess I just want to be heard and understood. If you read this journal, thank you.
Hopefully, things may get better in the future and you can expect the content you were used to seeing at a more consistent rate.