Nine Years

Backward A black and white confessional comic with text boxes over stippled hands.

Note

I drew this a few days before I walked across the stage.

Text Description

A black-and-white comic. A stippled, realistically-proportioned hand hangs from the top of the image. A caption reads, "About nine years ago I started college." One hand clenches, angular, while another contorts itself to grip the first hand's wrist. The next caption reads, "Eight and a half years ago I dropped out because of my increasingly disabling anxiety disorder." A hand grips the caption, "Then a lot of stuff happened." A hand gently reaches up. "Yesterday I opened a website," a hand clutches. "And saw that I passed all my classes this semester, Spring 2025." A hand grips a pen. "After a decade of part-time, and isolation," a closed, warped fist, "and panic attacks, and failures," two hands grip one another desperately and unevenly like a root system or a dead octopus. "I now have a B.A. in Applied Math." A hand hangs loosely, relaxed. "I did it." Then, in blank space, "Now all that's left is the rest."