Need a tissue, Ine? You’ve got a word balloon coming out of your nose! (Thankfully, I fixed that in the final page!)

This first chapter of the comic is one of several that is based on my own life experience. I served a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years before attending university. When I returned home, my aunt and uncle who lived near the school let me stay in a room in their basement for my first two semesters for the very low price of occasionally mowing their lawn or shoveling their driveway… when I remembered to do so… 😅 It was a very nice arrangement of course, but as happened with Ine here, after two semesters they gently encouraged me to find a new place to live in order to have the full “Utah Valley college experience.” In all seriousness, looking back years later, I am very grateful for the push. If they’d have let me, I probably would have stayed with them for another couple years or more. While it would have saved me rent money, I would have missed out on a great many valuable experiences, some of which went on to inspire more chapters of the comic!

Ine’s Uncle Lane (the bearded dragon) and Aunt Jen (the puma) are loosely based on my own uncle and aunt I lived with. Those aren’t their real names of course, but while they get comparatively little screen-time in the comic, I had them in mind while writing and drawing this chapter. If they’re reading this now, thanks for giving me a home away from home as well as the nudge I needed to forge my own path. In so doing you became a very real catalyst for all the stories that followed, which I wouldn’t trade for anything! ♥