Throwing it back!

Since it’s Thursday I’m legally obligated to post a throwback picture. Now you’re probably saying “but Michael you almost never do a throwback Thursday”, and to that I say “creating content is hard OK God leave me alone.” But at the same time PLEASE DONT LEAVE ME ALONE

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This picture was taken in my bedroom in 2016 when I first started patreon and this room was literally all I had. Before the whole patreon thing I was working at a restaurant making pretty great money and living in a nice little apartment with my roomate and my two cats! I was always making costumes but it wasn’t really a job at this point. Eventually I decided I really wanted to try and make cosplay/patreon a full time thing. Sadly, in order to do that I needed to quit my other job. It was a hard decision, it was a scary decision, but I knew it had to be done. There was no way I could work full time and still be able to but enough effort into creating something people enjoyed.

Long story short, I quit my job and started to focus on building a cospaly brand. As you can imagine, I wasn’t making money at first so I eventually had to move into a new place with 5 strangers because that the only rent I could afford. My room was 9’ by 9’ and I did everything in there. I sat on my mattress and signed print on a chair becuase I didn’t have a desk. I used a kitchen cutting board to cut my costume foam, I put a tripod in my window to take pictures, and on top of all of that, I was hiding a cat in there and had to keep the litter box in my closet. It was a nightmare, but I made it work and I busted my ass.

Fast forward to today. It feel like a whole different world. I still live with a roomate but my room is big enough that I have a desk and I have space to not only create costumes, but to store them as well! On top of that I’m able to find my costume and support myself and my hobby by DOING my hobby. It’s wild to look back but I’m so fucking thankful. And I’m so fucking grateful. And both of those things are because of all of you folks. I will never ever be able to fully thank each and every person on here who has give me the chance to follow my heart, my passion and genuinely reach my dreams.

I’m playing dress up and people aren’t bullying me for it. If my younger self saw this he would never beleive it. All of this is to say thank you. Thank you so very very much, from the bottom of my heart. ❤️