Check Mate

If I attempt to explain the backstory to this blog post, you’ll only be able to escape the tangent by clicking the ‘back’ button or inevitably, hitting the ‘X’ to close out. Instead, I’m going to give you the link to the previous post and provide a little symbolism utilizing what has become one of my favorite pastimes (and date nights!). For those of you who don’t play chess, I’m going to enlighten you. For those of you who do, you’ll get a better understanding of my approach. In chess, the Queen is {arguably} the strongest and most useful piece on the board. She’s powerful because she can move in any direction in a straight line. This means the Queen can attack at many angles: up, down, sideways and diagonally. The Queen usually has the ultimate goal of capturing the opponent’s King while overtaking its protectors along the way. With that tidbit out of the way, envision a Queen that is so greedy and ruthless to overtake the King that it simply overlooks—or forgets—to monitor the other pieces on the board.

In this particular scenario, we’re looking at a failed attempt to claim complete success and capture the King. The Queen has plotted and captured the protectors of the King. She has acquired a rook, both knights, 3 pawns, and forget the bishops, they are long gone. But during her masterful attack, one pawn has managed to wearily make its way across the board to the other side. For those of you who don’t understand the newfound possibilities for this simple pawn, it’s just this: “once a pawn reaches the other side of the chessboard, it can immediately be promoted to any piece, based on the player’s preference. The pawn can be exchanged for a queen, bishop, rook, or knight. This is known as pawn promotion.”

I say all of this to tell you: the Etsy shop I opened in 2013, also known as “The Scribble Studio” has officially been released to me by Etsy. After years of seeing my abuser sell my designs on this platform, I couldn’t be happier to tell all of you that I am opening up my shop again. Etsy was extremely supportive to me throughout this difficult situation and they did everything in their power to ensure things were resolved ethically and respectfully. I can officially share, you can find Double Dare Creative Co. products through multiple online retailers and at select stores throughout the US. Stay tuned for the full details.

For those of you still questioning the chess reference: I am the escaped pawn, I’m promoting it to the Queen and I am attacking back.