A Very Big Win for Cat

So earlier in the month, I felt a little bit inspired on a random Sunday morning and popped off a new Medium article after weeks of just focusing on my freelancing for a while. It was an advice article aimed at younger people in their 20's, filled with all the things I wish at 44 that I'd understood at their age. It did pretty well initially -- enough to make me happy. It got curated, as well as picked up for publication by The Post-Grad Survival Guide -- very cool things that I was proud of and grateful for, but nothing that hasn't happened to a bunch of my other articles so far.

Then a couple of days ago, the damn thing started going bananas and blowing up all of a sudden. At this point, it's accumulated tens of thousands of views, reads, and claps. It's even eclipsed the initial success of that first article I published over there -- the big "beginner's luck" win I've been trying to duplicate for the past six months -- so I'm super excited. This means a very badly needed chunk of money in my account next month, as well as plenty of exposure for my work that I probably need even more. (I am trying to make fetch happen, after all.)

I think the most gratifying part of this may be the feedback I've gotten from other people. Sure, there are always a couple of trolls who feel the need to swoop in and criticize what you wrote or just be salty in general because they're big mad they're not in your shoes. The great majority of these folks who reached out to me were kind, supportive, and sweet as far as the things they wrote though. People tweeted me, they emailed me, they added me all across all my social media platforms, and they thanked me for what I wrote because it resonated with them. That sort of thing is very humbling and validating for someone like me, as all I've ever wanted in life was to be heard. 

Over the years, I've come to appreciate copywriting and ghostwriting for what they are, especially as ways to make an honest living as a writer, but being other people's proxy voice has in no way helped me feel seen and acknowledged as a human being. I try to set all of my Medium articles apart by including personal examples from my own life, but this particular article was chock full of them and I wasn't sure how people would react to that. I've heard from too many in my life that I'm self-absorbed and need to stop expecting other people to care who I am or what I think, but this shows me I should just keep on doing me. Especially when it comes to my writing. 

Last time I checked, I was up to 1.6K followers or so over there on Medium, meaning I crossed and exceeded that 1K benchmark I've been after. I'm thrilled over the fact that all these new people are there because they're hoping I write more articles just like 8 Life Lessons. It makes me excited to think about what to post over there next.