When I first got to college, I was shy and horrified to speak to anyone.  I spent most of my days crying from homesickness.  The Dark Knight had just come out the summer after my high school graduation, so when I got to college I started writing fan fic to try to cheer myself up.  I wrote more than I ever thought I could, made some of the best friends I’ve ever had, and had the best time of my life.

Then a little over a year ago, depression hit me harder than ever before and I stopped writing, stopped reaching out to the community, and stopped interacting with anyone.  It’s been a long way to the point where I am now, but I’m on medication, seeking help from friends and family, and I finally uploaded a new chapter onto FanFiction.net today after over a year without updates.

I wondered if anyone still read the stories I’d written a few years ago, when I was inexperienced and my writing was much clumsier than it is today.  I clicked on my author stats page, expecting to see that I’d had a few views and telling myself “You’ve been gone for a year, don’t get your hopes up.”  And then the page loaded.

“August Stats: For the month of 2012-08, there have been a total of 18,958 Views and 2,588 Visitors to all of your stories.”

I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so happy that I cried.  To every reader, anyone who reviewed or enjoyed my work: Thank you.  You mean the world to me.