Oh illiterate honey that isn’t the topic of discussion
always be suspicious when someone tries to derail a conversation by talking about people taking ‘advantage’ of a social safety net. brings this to mind:
First of all, I want to apologize for all this time that has passed, and thought of updating you guys with what’s been going on.
These past days were horrible… I hit rock bottom after a lot of pressure with my degree and my university responsibilities. I reached the point of absolute isolation. Of being scared to talking it out, and being doubtful of my future. Of overthinking “what if I fail”. Of feeling like I wanted to reach out from this scary, dark place and hang out with my friends, but being too afraid to do so. I once felt lost and scared before, but this… this was different. As if I had no escape at all.
This horrible thing you feel on your back, you know? Like it drains your will and your energy, and tells you over and over again you are not going anywhere, you are not good and will never reach any of your dreams, not even the smallest, despite being less than a year away from graduating. That hideous self doubt, even the fear of looking at yourself.
I wanted to drop everything. I wanted to give up. I felt alone, scared of my own thoughts. I didn’t want to answer my phone, my emails, nothing at all. Kept beating myself mentally over the idea that I was handling twice as many school projects and exams last year and I was fine. I was healthy and happy. I was strong. ‘What happened?’
And after a while… I went back to replies and messages you guys sent me. Some I saw super late (And I’m incredibly sorry about that) but still, read them with my mind cooled down and I felt grateful after a while. They were all small but steady hands for me to hang on to and climb at least as high as I could from that cold rock bottom.
Hopefully this message is not too long, but if you reached here, I just want to thank you all sincerely from the bottom of my heart. This is a fight I will try my best to win, or at least to keep on looking forward.
I know I am not the only person in this awful struggle and I want to tell all of you: whoever is in the same battle against anxiety, depression, or whoever could potentially be threatened by it: hang in there. There is someone out there who loves you. Regardless of degrees, of your archievements. Of what you might think defines you or qualifies you. You might stumble and fall, maybe feel disoriented, but you’ll find a way through.
I just want you guys to know how much it means to me to have received even the smallest gestures to go through this. I’ll try to fuel my heart with all your words and thoughts. I’ll try to hold on tight. I’ve decided to fight this battle and try to learn to appreciate who I am today, regardless of how scary the future may look.
Thank you sincerely. Thank you all, from my heart and soul. Never forget I love you. Please take care you out there. You all matter.
Let’s compare other big brands, things that sell clothes sorta similar to Cloak:
I chose three brands; Under Armour, Nike and Victoria’s Secret Pink (which sells athletic/lounge like wear).
Besides the fact that these brands did include models of different races on their website (which I was happy to see), when it came to various body types? Pretty much the same across the board. Athletic, skinny, ‘perfect’ body types. (I was going to also use Hot Topic for a completely different branding type but they have actually added an array of plus size models so that made me quite happy!)
Ok so let’s compare that to some of the models on Cloaks website:
“Don’t think about what can happen in a month. Don’t think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.”
Druid: “I’m out of spells and all of my weapons are short range, so I’m going to take the hip bone of a nearby skeleton and throw it at the mimic.” *As he rolls* “Pelvic thrust!”
*Five minutes of laughter and three points of improvised weapon damage later*
DM: “You do five damage to the mimic. You get two pun damage and- it’s the mimic’s turn. The mimic doesn’t know how to follow that, so it just stares at you and misses its turn because it can’t believe you just said that.”
*Cue the rest of us trying to get pun-damage for the rest of the game and turning the Raveloft one shot from horror to sitcom comedy*
Harvest Guardian 