If this puzzle had a theme song, it'd be "With A Little Help From My Friends". Without their constant encouragement I'd likely have poked around in the cryptic-sphere for a while, then gotten frustrated with myself and moved on. Everyone I've met in this hobby is interested in celebrating neat finds, and/or helping one improve their cluing abilities. The infectious enthusiasm of the wider Discord community (particularly BlueJay, Skald, Pix, Juff, GAIS, Rubix, and Joe) makes it hard to go even a day without thinking about something related to cryptic crosswords.
And I'd like to make another shout-out to Juff in particular, who was integral to shaping the vibe of this grid. Their comments really helped reign in most of my silly ideas and develop the seeds of my good ideas into good clues.