Foreword
Crawling serves as a sequel to Drowning, Kelliher’s first essay collection. Kelliher composed Drowning while she, as described, was drowning herself. In the midst of a psychotic episode, Kelliher battled waves of PTSD and mania while consuming ketamine every night. Her essays were reviewed by school officials, deeming Kelliher as “motherfucking crazy.” After a few months locked in a white room completely isolated, an intense break up with a secretly homo best friendship, and several self discovery efforts through portobellos, Kelliher composed herself. And with herself, these essays. Her ego is no longer fragile. Kelliher knows now. She knows facts about herself, she knows who she is and who she is not. She spent years sinking, she spent a full year drowning. And now, she is learning to walk again. She’s still weak. She’s still haunted by her past. She’s as uncertain as ever. And she’s young, she can not do much even if she wanted to. Right now, she’s waiting. She’s itching for the moment she can sprint out the door of this waiting room. But she does not wait still. She listens, carefully, to those who worked before her.