Ugly Duckling ~ Caged Swan

I've not been in the best of moods recently... I've been feeling rather caged. I can't seem to shake these feelings. As though I've constructed a cage around myself, designed by all my fears and misconceptions, and even though the cage is unlocked, I'm cannot muster courage enough to leave it....

Anyway it got me thinking about the ugly duckling. Instead of braving the world and growing into a swan, he was put in a cage, found contentment within it, and so he stayed in this cage and never left, until he was too large to ever leave, and eventually the cage would tear away at him.

(I did not do as much as I could have to tidy up the drawing, I just didn't feel like continuing...)

From searching Wiki, I've found this behavior to be a learned helplessness or having a victim mentality (which upon reading, I realized I may have had these problems for a long time actually). I need to change... It's completely screwing with my body and mind, and I can't envision a happy future at this point, everything seems pointless.