This description is going to be long so here's a short version:
This beautiful wolf is Aria Goldberry , she was my first furry friend and the one that not only gave me the confidence to interact with the furry community more, but also inspired me to become an artist. Thank you for everything.

This is the long one:
October 2nd, 2021. That is the earliest date I can find where Aria and I interacted. At the time, I had made decision to actually have my fursona made. I had been a furry so close to two decades at this point but did not have one, at least not one I could show. I knew I wanted a black wolf, but that was about it. I wasn't sure how to even go about having my fursona made, alot of this art side to the community was foreign to me and I had never bothered to look into it. Then I saw an artist who was opening up slots to draw references for fursonas and OCs so...well what did I have to lose? I made contact with her and she eventually drew my fursona for me. She made my fursona come to life and I was greatful, but the transaction was done so, that was that I suppose. But it wasn't, not really anyway. I had enjoyed my conversations with her and wanted to get to know her more. So I commissioned her again in the hopes of communicating more. And we did. Eventually it got to the point where I made my intentions more clear, I enjoyed talking to her and wished to be friends. I expected her to decline and explain that this was just business, but she didn't. Instead we talked more, and she would show me drawings that she was working on and the things she had drawn before, and I would show her my cat and the things I would see at work.

Slowly but surely, we became friends. I would still commission art from her but it was not longer as an excuse to talk but instead me trying to support my friend. A few years passed and then a strange feeling had come. When I was younger I always enjoyed drawing but I was never so artistically skilled to make what I wanted. But now after talking to my friend who was an artist for a few years and seeing more of the process that went into it, I decided I wanted to try drawing like she did. I bought a drawing pad and showed her my work, and she encouraged me. Even when my art wasn't the best or not to a standard I wanted, she made me feel as though I could progress, like I could be better. So I continued to draw. But I never showed anyone other than her and a few close friends my drawings. Actually the commissions I did have her draw I asked her to keep them private as I did not want the larger world to see what I drew or my fursona. I was very private about these things. I still am to some extent, but not like how I was before. And yet this urge to share my work still existed.

A little less than a year of drawing I was improving, and thought maybe it would be ok if I shared my art with people, and she encouraged me. She suggested I started small and then begin to show more people as I grew comfortable with it, and so I did just that. I started sharing my drawings in facebook groups I was part of, then that eventually became me posting on bluesky, and then eventually here. This process though was not without its hurdles however. All throughout the years I knew her, and even now still, I did not like myself or my art. No matter how much I improved it was never enough, I was never enough. These things, these drawings, I spent so much time on them and yet I would like them upon completion, but after...it was the same story. But she was there for me, her praise and advice kept me going. I struggled alot with these thoughts, still struggle through them to some extent, but she was always been a beacon for me to try and be better.

You have seen many sides of me, you have been there through my best and my worst. You have showed me the care that I could not show myself. You have been the person who has made me want to be better, to try and be better. I still have work to do on myself I think, but at least with my art, I finally feel like my skill is at the point where I can do this. In truth, everything I have drawn has been practice. Everything, while a drawing I still intended to do, was a way for me to hone my skill and create this. This is for you Aria, this is the only way I could think of that would in some way show the thanks that I have to you for being my friend and being there for me through so much.

Thank you for everything, I could not have gotten here without you.