Thank You 2020 - AOP Donation

Hi Fishy Fries!!!

Sorry for the late night post! No new merch updates or anything--if anything it's more of a personal post before the year ends! You're more than welcome to skip this post if you want to but if you decide to tag along and read it through, I'd much appreciate it 💖

So it's been about 6 months since I started patreon--and almost a year since I started running Umvvelt!! I never would have imagined the amount of success I would be receiving just this year alone and I truly, truly cannot begin to express the amount of gratitude I feel for each and every one of you who have chose to support me every step of the way!

I haven't gone too much into my personal life, but it was a goal of mine to start Umvvelt as a way of combining my love for drawing and my passion for marine biology. I attended university as a marine biology major but became unsure of the path I was taking after a few years--going into the field as a scientist would probably mean I wouldn't be able to commit a lot of time to drawing, which I felt had really became a huge part of my life & allowed me to form really good relationships with many of the friends I now have. I personally faced a lot of inner turmoil that I won't go into too much detail of, but it ended up with me dropping out of university in 2018.

Dropping out of university became my biggest shame for the longest period of time--I felt a lot of anxiety for not completing what I felt like what was now considered a basic need to be accepted in society and I was unsure if I would be able to pursue what I wanted well enough to make it a sustainable job. However, I mustered up my courage & made it my 2020 new year's resolution to take the risk & start Umvvelt after twiddling my fingers anxiously for about a year after I dropped out of school.

What resulted from that leap of faith is now my life's pride and joy--I've never been happier doing anything than what I do now. Whether it's creating new designs to release on my main store, drawing fun little stickers & researching information for the sticker & pin clubs, I thoroughly enjoy sharing every single thing I've made with you all this year!

Umvvelt's mission is to inspire a sense of compassion and respect for the ocean & its inhabitants through a combination of education and unique products--this was my initial goal at the beginning of the year when I first started Umvvelt. And although, I feel like I still have a long way to go, I'm happy with the progress I've made this year towards my goals & I can't wait to see how much further I can move forward in 2021!

As Umvvelt got larger, I also wanted to look at donating towards causes I believe in once I was in a more financially stable situation. That's something I'm still working on (and hope to plan more of in 2021!) but, I was looking through my funds for this year, specifically from patreon alone and I decided I wanted to put those funds towards a cause I believe in.

Tonight, I went ahead and purchased every single item on the Aquarium of the Pacific's Wishlist that they posted earlier today on their twitter--which included items such as toys for animal enrichment, supplies for exhibit maintenance, and supplies for their classroom to help support their on-going work, which totalled at around $2800. (EDIT: as of 12/17/2020, I purchased the last two items on their wishlist--which puts our total at $3200!) I used the money specifically from what I earned on patreon to pay for this, so I hope you all can feel like you also contributed towards helping a good cause this holiday season! I chose this aquarium in particular just because they hold a special place in my heart as a place I volunteered at when I was in high school--and being in a truly enriching and encouraging environment like theirs is what inspired me to be who I am today.

A lot of sappiness tonight, & since it's close to 3AM here there are probably a lot of grammar errors or mistakes!!!!!! (Sorry about that ahhh) but my point is, I really just wanted to express my gratitude to you all and do something good this season ^__TTT Thank you again for this whole 2020, and for making Umvvelt possible!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please take care & as always, all the best!

Kir