Self-employed: and then you have to get surgery

Being self-employed, my plan was to get surgery and get straight back to work afterwards. I really didn’t want to let anyone down or disappoint anyone by taking too long to recover.

The thing with being self-employed is that if you’re not doing any of your work, you’re not getting paid either. But at the same time bills keep piling up since you’re still running a business. I was physically and mentally not in the position to do any work until a while after the surgery and I was incredibly frustrated about that. Truth be told, I did try working even when I barely had the energy to stand up straight for longer than a few minutes. My body was crying for rest.

A few years back, I thankfully set up a Patreon, so I was able to survive and pay the short-term bills. But honestly, it shocked me how much my bank account has gone down while being out for just those few weeks. I always kept going, through heartbreaks, moving house, illness and mental health issues, through highs and lows. So I never noticed there was going to be an issue when I would have no other choice but to take a break.

I never thought that there would ever be a day where I wouldn’t be able to do my work. And ever since it did happen, I’m so scared to lose it all. I love it here, I love my job, I love you guys most of all, you’re everything to me. Our Planet Prudence is literally my driving force through life. Art and our community has in many moments saved my life, and I really want to give back as much as I can. In a moment though, I thought I would’ve never had the chance anymore, that I had to step back, let it go, because it was taking too long for me to come back to work fulltime.

I read in an article that you need about 1000 true fans that will support you through thick and thin to be able to survive your company through hardship (thank you, Patrons, for being my stability, my heart, soul and warmest family -we’re so close to 1000 so that number truly touched a string!), but honestly without you I wouldn’t be able to even recover at all. And the fact of the matter is, no one would’ve been able to do it for me either.

I’m thankful for you 💜

xoxo

Prudence

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