DAD HUGS FROM THE PROFESSOR

I’m Proud of You, Even if Your Parents Aren’t

We Accomplish So Much Despite Our Upbringing

Many of us in life had wonderful upbringings. We were encouraged in all we did and told that we were loved while receiving plenty of hugs. Our parents came to all of our school performances or sporting events and genuinely seemed to enjoy us as kids.

Still others succeeded despite our parents. Not all childhoods are the same wonderful experiences. Some had it really damn rough. Or were abused.

There are no rules as it relates to creating a child. Not every set of parents has the wherewithal to raise well-adjusted children to adulthood and make them feel loved and safe. I wish that was the reality for all, but it isn’t. Some parents can barely take care of themselves, let alone two or three children.

Read a few posts on Facebook or Twitter, if you don’t believe me. Especially after midnight on a weekend. Oy vey.

For those who didn’t have a wonderful upbringing, I’m truly sorry. If you didn’t have breakfast waiting for you at the table on school days because Mom or Dad were sleeping off the drugs or alcohol from the night before, that’s a tough one. A small child shouldn’t have to forage for food before a long day at school.

And if you didn’t have one or both parents come to Parent/Teacher conferences, I’m sorry. Or someone to attend your sporting events or musical performances. I know that some parents work into the evening and can’t always attend them.

But it still hurts. Especially if they never came to a single one. I know people who have had that happen during their childhood and it’s a bitter pill to swallow. My Bride’s parents never came to anything of hers at school, other than graduation.

This is when I’d love to have a time machine and support anyone who had it rough growing up. I’d love to be the one to cheer for your drama club performances. I’d enjoy watching you play Hot Cross Buns on your recorder and flinch at every last squeaky note. Or see your excitement as you made your first shot on the basketball court.

I had the joy and pleasure to do this for my own children. There were many times when we attended every game of their sports season, Improv Club performances, and saw them in major roles in plays and musical theater. I have to think that having both parents cheering them on meant a lot to them.

Since I don’t own a DeLorean with a flux capacitor, the best I can do is to be supportive of all of my writer friends here on Medium. If you don’t have parents, siblings, children, or friends who support your writing and tell you how wonderful you’re doing, I’m here for you.

Let’s not bullshit ourselves: Most of us don’t have a ton of people in our corner, as writers.

Most of us are trying our damnedest each day to further our cause as writers. Most of us are not paid what we’re worth. Especially those of us who write exclusively on Medium and don’t earn much more outside of this platform. I recommend diversifying and getting your writing in front of more people than just here on Medium.

Because nobody is going to put your writing ahead of their own. If the day is long and they’ve just returned home from their full-time job, I doubt they’re looking to seek your writing out to read, clap, highlight, and comment on. They’re probably more interested in writing and publishing their next piece with the limited time they have.

I get this. I do this. But I also try to be an encouraging force for as many writers as possible.

I stay up until well past midnight trying to respond to and leave as many comments as possible. I want to read and clap for all the articles I have time to enjoy before I fall asleep in front of my laptop while sitting up. I hope that people wake up and smile when they see my encouraging comments about their writing.

I know how it feels. I receive a lot of love here on the platform from y’all. It reminds me of having actively involved parents as a kid, relating to my school events and such. Though I know an overly religious upbringing wasn’t ideal and at times, really sucked, I never doubted that my parents loved me or cared about me.

I want the same for you. Whether your upbringing was rough, or you didn’t get prioritized in your parents’ daily busy lives, I’d love for you to have that now. So I’ll keep working hard at making you feel special, as it relates to your writing. I care about you and want good things for you.

If we all support and encourage each other in our writing, we’ll all succeed. Medium doesn’t always make things easy for us on this platform we seem to love and enjoy writing for. Until there’s a better place for us to write about anything we desire to, this is as good as it gets.

So let’s be excellent toward each other. Read each others’ work. Clap for it. Highlight a passage or two and leave a comment. We can help each others’ stats and earnings by doing for others what we’d want done for us.

The Golden Rule certainly applies to writers. I love doing my part to follow it as closely as possible. I’ll be your virtual Writing Dad if you don’t have the support and encouragement of your family or friends.

We’re part of a pretty amazing, exclusive club, as writers. Think about how many professional, paid writers you know in real life. I bet you can count those people on one hand. You’re amazing, don’t let anyone else tell you differently. &:^)

© 2024 Jason Provencio. All rights reserved.