Dark-Oak-Trails

<sub>Hey all, sorry I dropped off the map... Again...
My laptop officially died (just won't charge!) a while ago and that meant I sorta forgot about deviantart as it wasn't on my browser. I feel really shitty about the timing being right in the middle of getting to know so many of you! I feel even shittier about this next part...

I'm closing my deviantART account. Not in the 'delete all things' sort of way, but just no longer logging in to it.

My photography account will remain open. That is DeepOakTrails it isn't very active, but will be circa May when I get back from Israel. So if you need to desperately contact me that is the place to go!

Art wise, I'll probably continue but under a new name. I'm not going to disclose that name as it would go against the very nature of a fresh start. My art won't be recognizable though since all my old tools for art are lost to me now.

Why am I doing this?

I've changed a lot over the years, and I often feel pressured to act the same way as I used to. I'm simply not the same person though. A deviantART example of that is responding quickly, and if I don't do that I feel bad then I just put off responding for ages - something I'm sure you've all seen me do! Not to mention how cluttered this account is! It's not just here that I'm 'cutting loose' and starting fresh it is that case for me all over, with real life people, I've kept firm contact with maybe 4 or 5 people from my school days. It's hard to explain why I'm doing this, but so far it has proven good for me and it has some deeply personal reasons I'd rather not disclose (Something I always did too much of online!). As a result, if you think you have 'found me' again on deviantART please note me (or who you think is me) directly rather than speculate with others so I can confirm or deny then keep it private. I really, really, really want to start anew and that involves people not knowing me. Luckily for me I'm terrible with names and usually remember people by icons/art (I often check out a gallery to remember who someone is after my many breaks!) so I'll be fresh slatin' everyone too. I want to be able to get to know people as me not 'Dottie' on my new account so friends may be lost and that is sad to me. I wasn't going to close this account when I did my mass fresh-start, but at the start of this month I ummed and uhhed over it and decided it would be for the best. I know it sounds weird, but trust me, I know what I'm doing and its not without deep thought.

The new art account will be exciting for me as it will be entirely art and I can really get to know people as it (hopefully) grows. If you are insanely desperate to know my knew account, you can do some crazy Sherlocking with the following clue: 'Wales'.

I'm sorry my explanation couldn't be more in depth. I know I share a lot with you all, but there is so much you don't know. I will miss you all, you have meant so much to me over the years - even if it didn't seem like it. I hope my explanation will suffice. I couldn't leave without saying something, as I have done everywhere else, and I wish you all the best. I hope you know this is very hard for me to do, but its for the best.

So long, fair friends!

Dottie / Sarah</sub>

I recently realised that I used to speak to about 60%-70% of my active watchers and now it is more like 10%, if even that. I'm not heavily watched, but over 300 people (granted some may no longer be active!) isn't small enough for me to find the sociable ones!

That's not on. I miss seeing and going "Ooo! So and so liked that! Oh remember that conversation we had. I should make my next piece inspired by that!". That little bit of recognition was always nice. Some names I see often and recognise but they never comment on journals/art so I don't really know them. So whether you have commented on stuff before or never typed a latter to me, it is time for us to get to know each other a bit better!
 
Rather than making the comments of this journal all cluttered, drop me a note! Just go to my page and by the watch button you can see the send a note button.

You can just say hi, literally list some interesting facts about yourself, say something weird or maybe trow some gifs and memes by way. I don't mind! I will reply, maybe not super quick (quicker than the days of post though) but I'll reply.

I'm currently trying to fix my broken tablet by re-installing drivers so even if join.me wasn't temperamental I can't make use of that right now.

<sub>My premium membership has run out it seems. Bye bye premi!

It is approaching 2 months since my little boy passed away and since I last logged in. Thank you all for your sympathetic comments, sorry I haven't replied, but I read them all and they were appreciated. I sorta banned myself from the internet that month as I was grieving all over the place as I had no one IRL to grieve to. I'm coming to terms with his loss, but I still keep going to hold the door open for him to follow me, or expecting to see him appear around the corner, so I guess it hasn't fully hit home.

I got my A-level results back shortly after Izz passed and got straigh A's. I'm pretty shocked as during the year I think I did like 5% of all homework set, wrote my English paper fueled on red bull the night before it was due and had failed to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles further than what was read in class (I'd read Brave New World before and Blakes Songs of Innocence and Experience), I also failed to read the entirity of The Great Gatsby (Weird, I liked what I read but cleary I self sabotage), received one official 'notification of concern' due to poor attendence and a unofficial one. How the hell I scraped that one, I don't even know - just imagine if I was privately educated!

Gap year right now, gathering money for Israel in January. The organisation I was going to go with to the Kibbutz appears to have disappeared, the only other organisations are for those who are Jewish or want to learn Hebrew. I don't want to be all alone nor do I want this year to 'feel school like' so I searched alternatives. The closest and most intriguing I found was WWOOFing, and I have some places that take on large amounts of volunteers that I have in mind to apply. I'll do some local WOOFing for a weekend to get a taste in the winter... Hopefully. In May/June me and my friend will inter rail Europe for 2 months. We planned a route (Both sacrificing places to fit time scale) which goes in this order, 'passing through' indicating just getting off for the day at that point in the journey: England, France (passing through), Switzerland, Italy, Croatia (Passing through), Serbia, Hungry, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany (Passing through), Denmark (Passing through), Norway, Denmark, Belgium if we have time, Germany (passing through), France for remaining time and then back to England! Right now I'm working to raise money!

Then in September 2014 I decided to go to Exeter. Sorry Durham, Bath and Brunel! I'll be studying a new course to the UK, Liberal Arts, and in this case will be its second year running. Hopefully all the bumps will be smoothed out and it will be awesome! It seems likely right now I will major in archaeology with anthropology and either Italian or an ancient language as my language of choice. Small pay be damned, I love archaeology! I have already being accepted on to MA course with a year abroad, which is cool. Right now it looks very likely I will end up at Amsterdam for my year abroad. Yay!

My brother is currently home (Well out with friends at the moment) and is due to head out to Afgan in just over a week. He will be there by the time my Birthday rolls around. We have spent time together in the form of film marathons, we watched LOTR and POTC so far

Oh, and I've taken up ninjutsu!

That's what is up. Who knows where I am in terms of art!

~Dottie</sub>