Sorry and an Update

Hi all!

I know I’ve been super inactive for a while. I’m going to explain part of the reason why.

I went to the art show in Vancouver in April. It went really well. We had a lot of great submissions and showed some beautiful art.

Me subtly being Lady Loki at an academic event

I thought the panel on writing was also really well put together. Everyone was very nice and I was super happy with how it went overall.

Then I got home and the university started trying to back out of paying me for my flight home (something that was agreed upon beforehand). I still have yet to be reimbursed for my flight home and it was not cheap. It was the cheapest I could get and it still cost a lot of money.

Because I don’t know when or if they’re going to reimburse me (like they said they would), and because I have to start traveling to more cons to sell my own series, I’ve had to get a side hustle to off-set the costs of travel. I like my job, it’s a good albeit challenging part-time gig, but it frequently leaves me feeling tired. I’m still adjusting to it.

The reason why this has affected my work on Asexual Artists: I’m just tired, people. I’m worn out and I feel so used. I know I mentioned I was struggling with feeling burned out in an earlier post. This situation has just pretty much just doused whatever embers I had managed to reignite during the weeks I took off. I put a lot of time into this art show, time and emotional energy, and I feel like the university took advantage of that. I hate saying that because again, the people I met were incredibly nice. I got to meet a friend from online for the first time ever and that was thrilling.

I don’t often cry, but this actually made me cry. Because they didn’t just take advantage of my time, they took advantage of me monetarily. I feel so damn stupid for not asking for the travel costs up front. I should have done that (if I ever do something even remotely like this again, I will definitely learn from that mistake). I’m hurt and angry, but mostly I’m just tired.

I have interviews that need to be uploaded and scheduled and I’m going to do that, but I really need to take the month of June off. I really need some time for myself, to do the things I enjoy doing, to let loose and unwind a bit. I need to put work into my own projects.

I hate saying that because I know how important this site is to people, but I’m a human being. I can be hurt and I need breaks too. I love this site and I love that people get so much from it (I hate that there are people who take advantage of it and of me, but I know they’re a very small minority).

I’m going to try my best to dredge up the energy to upload and schedule the small batch of interviews that have been sitting in my inbox for months now. I’m really trying my best, people.

Again, I’m going to be taking the month of June off. However, I will still respond to any emails that are sent to me (so keep sending interview requests, please).

If you’re interested in my travels during June (or just want to keep up with me, I will be posting pictures on my Instagram (laurenjankowski27) and Twitter (lauren_jankowsk).

Thanks, everybody! I hope to bounce back soon 🙂