WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE
In 2022 I Found My Voice
A Taste For Life Weekend Writing Challenge — Prompt 6: At the end of 2022, I am glad for …
2022 has been a profound year!
We celebrated our 5-year Anniversary of being nomadic, we traveled around Africa and made many lifelong friends, we painted lots of artwork and left our mark in many places, and we returned to our beloved Bulgaria after being away for 7 long years. It also challenged me personally in ways that I never thought possible.
But mostly it brought me to Medium.
During most of our nomadic journey, I have felt adrift. Adrift in an endless sea of possibilities. Too many options, and too many choices to make.
Breaking away from the 9–5 and the structure of society meant that we were free to create the life we dreamed of. One with OUR OWN structure and our own rules.
One with unlimited possibilities.
But how does one decide what to do when every possibility is there to grab onto?
I was certain that traveling was the thing that I needed to be doing, but finding ways to make it work was challenging.
The shiny thing syndrome is real, and I certainly had it.
“Oh look, another bright shiny thing that could make me money………let me see if I can figure that one out.”
Finding it impossible to focus in one direction, I dabbled in many different things. I started multiple print-on-demand shops, by having my artwork printed on clothing and home decor items, I started a YouTube channel, and I promoted our travels on Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, and anywhere else I thought that people were looking.
I built a brand, made a website, and started a blog.
None of my efforts really paid well, and all the while, I just kept hoping that something would catch and take off, our financial pressures would subside, and life would get easier.
I loved sharing our traveling stories with the world, but doing so wasn’t putting money in my pocket. I felt like I was writing to a void, and spending a lot of time and energy doing it.
Then Medium came into my life.
I learned about Medium through a YouTube video by a Digital Nomad who was telling the viewers about his 7 different income streams. He barely even mentioned Medium and claimed that it was the one that brought him the least amount of money, only about $100/month.
But my interest was piqued. If he could make $100/month just writing about his travels, surely I could as well. Maybe I could make even more!?
Although I had my blog, I found it hard to think of what to write on it. When I looked at other travelers' blogs, they were mostly How To style articles about traveling.
- The places to go.
- The things to see.
- The hotels to stay in.
- The restaurants to eat in.
We don’t travel like that, and I never considered that my blog could be about anything. I also didn’t like the way it was set up and how it felt like I needed to log into many different windows to get to writing on it.
I was somehow stifled by it.
But when I took a look at what people were writing on Medium, I quickly realized that I had found my home. It seemed that I could write whatever I wanted, and I could build a genuine audience on the platform. Something that seemed impossible on my own website. Plus, the platform also seemed intuitive and easy to navigate.
After 2 weeks of reading other people's articles, I felt ready to write my own.
On January 31st, the floodgates opened!
393 articles, 2.3k followers, and 9.3k responses later, I can’t imagine how my life would be without Medium in it.
Medium has quite simply helped me to find my voice.
As we move forward with a knowing that 2023 is going to be OUR year, and that we are finally going to be able to make this life work in a comfortable fashion, I will never forget that 2022 was the foundation of all of that.
And so, to summarize the prompt and finish the sentence “At the end of 2022, I am glad for it all!”
There is not a moment that goes by that I am not thankful for this life that we have built for ourselves. Is it hard work? HELL YES! But it has made me resilient and stronger than I ever could have imagined.
A big thanks to Jason Edmunds and his publication A Taste For Life. Your writing prompts have allowed me to stretch my writing in ways that I didn’t realize were possible.
And of course, the biggest thanks of all goes to you dear readers! Without you, none of this would be possible at all.
I send out warm New Year wishes to everyone near and far.
May 2023 be your best year yet!
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