Hey everyone! Hope you've all been safe and well during these strange times. I just wanted to check in and see how everyone's been doing since I've been on hiatus for so long and this whole pandemic has made everything I knew about both the Maple community and entertainment industry in general flip upside down. If anyone's reading this, I'd love to hear how you're doing these days since there's much catching up I have to do. Mental health is so important right now, so if there's any positivity you want to share OR stress you want to get off your chest, this is the place to do it. Preferably optimism, but it's also ok to admit you're not feeling ok. I'll go first if no one does. I think we can all agree 2020's been a complete shitshow. I spent the past few months depressed and anxious. Not only did I almost lose my personal project files aka 13 years of my life's work in a hardware accident, but my dreams of working on theatrically released movies were nearly crushed. A lot of my friends have lost loved ones and either left LA or the film industry altogether due to the impact of COVID, and with people at my company getting laid off and taking pay cuts, I thought I was next. I'm pleased to say this is not the case. This past month, I updated my portfolio my boss extended my contract for as long as he can pay me. I also recovered and backed up all my hard drive files on a new laptop and external hard drives (RIP wallet). Currently, I'm taking the time to revisit old hobbies and learn new skills in editing and animating. With the job market (and the world) on fire, at least this is a good time for everyone to be exploring and rediscovering themselves, imo. Despite all the madness, I still believe in a future for humanity. We just gotta play it safe for as long as it takes. Wear your masks peeps! Will try to be around the forum and Discord more often, now that I'm slightly less stressed and occupied, but I guess I just wanted to say I missed you all. I miss a lot of people. I hope some will come back and reconvene with me one day. Stay strong y'all. Talk soon!
I am Emilia now. Spoiler Further studying through Zoom, and I have about 1 more year left. I might continue through the Graduate program, but I'll figure things out when the time comes. Pursuing a Graphic Design major, learning 3d modeling, game making, Ui/Ux building, having a clearer picture of what I really want to do in the future. It's been rough working as a clerk on Weekends, but thankfully people in San Francisco understand social distancing and masks. I also went into a really, really bad depression slump as well early on, so I can relate to what you went through. I also had a realization and now I changed my alias Emilia and I'm a female now.
I came back for a while, I hope I'll stick around to improve my animations. I'm also planning on releasing a series of basic flash guides in Hebrew for my peeps at Israel and hopefully inspire some to start animating. I'm generally hoping to be more active here as I've felt kind of distant ever since i joined. I wish you all well during these strange times :)
