Help Jocelyn fix her teeth

Hi, my name is Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick. I'm an author, artist, and creator of the webcomic, Rain (and hopefully many more stories to come after).

It's not something I like to talk about much, but I also have really bad teeth. I didn't take good care of them as a kid. Undiagnosed ADHD back then meant that even with the best of intentions to take care of myself, I would still forget to do so unless I had constant reminders. For better or worse, I rarely experienced much pain either. I mean, on the one hand, no pain is technically good. On the other, pain would've been a valuable reminder for me to do more about it before things got out of hand.

And unfortunately, things got out of hand. Now as an adult, I'm more aware of how my brain works and am better about setting alarms for myself where necessary. But the damage is long since done.

In my adult life, I've meant to do something about this for some time. But I work for myself, and don't have dental insurance. I try to save, but there's always something else that requires money. And the longer that went on, the worse my teeth got. I thought about setting up a fundraiser for this a long time ago even, but I was afraid. I was afraid to share my dental situation with people I didn't know out of fear of judgment. Out of fear that no one would be willing to help me out with this problem I thought I'd made for myself. So I backed off, so as not to bother anyone.

Now in the present day, I did finally save up what I thought was a substantial amount, and recently went to the dentist. He and his staff are very nice and very understanding, and the thought that I could soon shoot a toothy grin for the first time in decades feels like a dream that may even come true. I'm so close, at last!

But the amount I'd saved ended up only being about half of what I'll need in the long run. Sure, I can save up again, but it took a very long time the first time. And I fear that once I've saved enough to do the rest of the dental work I'll need, new problems will have arisen, and I'll just need to save more money (or worse, I'll have to effectively start over).

I don't want to do this song and dance anymore, though. I just want to not feel ashamed to smile. And I'm terrified to ask for help, but it's the only thing I feel like I can do at this point. So, I'm here hoping that you would be willing to help out, even just a little. I don't necessarily want anyone to break the bank for me, but it would mean the world to me. Whether it's 1 dollar or 100 dollars, every little bit helps.

Even if you can't donate anything yourself, I understand - money's tight for everyone these days. But again, if you can spare anything at all, that's super helpful. And if not, even just sharing this fundraiser around may help me immensely.

Thank you for your time, and for listening to my story. Please take care of yourself (and your teeth) and have a wonderful day.