*I don't know who exactly reads these things, but I figured an "official announcement" would be best.*

To those of you who watch me, you've probably noticed that I haven't submitted anything in over a year. While I still love the site, and I view, comment, and "favorite" many deviations here, my own personal life has taken up much of my time and I don't really feel very inspired to make any sort of art right now.

The past couple of years (2006 until now) have been very trying for me. I graduated from a 2 year school only to have what I thought was my calling in life no longer appeal to me. My health hasn't been well as of the past couple of years and I'm just now starting to get medical attention (no health insurance until a few months ago). I'm trying to get my life in order, but it's hard when you realize you have NO IDEA what you want to do. I think I could be having some sort of quarter-life crisis.

It boils down to this: while I don't believe I have outgrown this site, I know I have to start doing more outside the internet (as scary as that really is to me) and since I'm not feeling moved to make art as of now, I'm removing myself from it for a time.

I don't know if I'll submit things again, but I will continue to watch those I've been watching and comment on articles that matter to me, but that will be it. I hope to get the itch to submit again, because creating things and submitting them helped me get a lot off my chest, but creating things just seems so taxing to me right now... I can't really get any pleasure from it and I WANT to, but it just seems so forced. I've hidden all my deviations for now, since you can't totally delete them (according to the dA FAQs), so I'm sorry to anyone who enjoyed looking at my stuff.

I apologize to anyone who has begun to "watch" me in the past few months and not seeing anything new. Now you know why.

I've seen some really amazing stuff on this site and "met" some talented, wonderful people. I'm not completely gone, just not as active.

Thank you to my friends who have encouraged and inspired me over the years, I'll continue to support you. I hope all of you are well.

Amanda