I Never Thought That I’d See the Day!
A Good Half Thousand People Following Me Already?
I had a simple, modest, and honest expectation when I started my journey on Medium. Of myself first and from Medium next. It essentially comprised three parts:
- Don’t make a fool of myself
- Improve my English as a non-native speaker
- See, understand, and experiment on whether I could touch other people's souls from afar, connect with them—if remotely—and have fun while doing all that.
See, nothing too serious or complicated here. But it all started funnily: One day while browsing the web to find answers to my taboo topic of "aging," I was served an article through Google. I later understood that this was not just a random article that Google yielded to my query on the topic, but a Medium article. (what is Medium?) So at the moment, it was not clear to me what this post was or where it was coming from. Was it a blog post? Or perhaps a featured article in a psychology journal? Then I looked closer, and this article argued that people after the age of 45 to 50 should prepare themselves to only enjoy a few and limited experiences at that stage in their lives and later. I do not recall the details, but the resume was that if you are 50 this time around, you should feel grateful for being able to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk in the park, and pretty much every other pleasure of life is “out of the question.”. I was immediately agitated. Unheard of. So I saw the piece was open to comments, and I went and jumped in to write my comment, which ended up being twice the size of the article itself! lol!
I forgot all about it, as I think people of any age, even in their 20s, should not be disrespectful to their seniors and generally to the elderly.
A few days later, a message popped up in my inbox: Your comment has new answers. So I checked back, and that reply of mine had gotten hundreds of views, comments, and claps. Remarkable! To cut the story short, I have never had such high engagement ever since.
So by chance, my Medium activity started. I said, Why not? Maybe some people like to read what I write. And then my next story followed, ahead of the 2020 presidential election in the US. It went well. And many others until today. The habit of writing somehow clicked with me.
But how do you get your first 10 followers? Let alone 100 to qualify for the Medium Partner Program.
I continued writing and sharing without giving it much thought, only using my experience on subjects in which I have genuine experience, and mostly supported by actual examples rather than assertions made out of thin air. And several kind people, like the kindest I have met in a long time, followed me and my stories, often further sharing them. Miraculously, I reached 300, 400, and now this. Five hundred! The number is fluctuating a tad, but the 500 mark is now engraved, and it is here to stay and grow. Who knows.
To all of you who think this is easy, I ask with sincerity:
Do you know 100 people in your life in person? Do you have a hundred real friends? Individuals that you can call friends, and they see you the same way too? Well, I do not.
And if I were blessed or gifted to have so many, I doubt these would have been meaningful friendships. And I wouldn’t know how to handle them all in the first place.
You see, being your typical next-door introvert, I cannot stress enough how honored I feel. I wish I could shake your hands in person, each one of you. Although Medium does not allow direct interaction between writers, there are workarounds, so I managed to connect with some of you, and they stand out as genuine friends, no matter the distance.
Let me celebrate this one more time:
Five hundred exceptional people, from all walks of life, all age groups and genders, all colors, cultures, and locations, are taking the step to subscribe to receive your stories once they are out. This, in my opinion, is no small accomplishment. Even more so if you are not selling anything to them.
If you are with me in this, you already know I am not selling anything. I ask no one to buy me a coffee—I would rather make my own. Pun intended. Nor do I sell expensive programs that will make you super successful at something. This relationship we have is between you and me. It is much more intimate and strong than populating an email list. I do not keep emails for one. This is not in my nature; what can I say? Perhaps I am missing out on things; so be it. The core of my thought is to add value by sharing experiences. My childhood superhero was not Spider-Man or Batman. It was Leonidas of Sparta. He started and finished with an army with a headcount of 300. That’s all he needed. But those three hundred men were worth millions, as they proved in the battle against the Perses.
This is how important you all are to me! Getting to know you, your writing, and your ideas—always following back—is priceless!
Thank you for reading and joining me in escaping mediocrity!
