PERSONALIZED BIRTHDAY CARD AND A THANK YOU TO A SPECIAL PUBLICATION

Not Just a Birthday Card But Also a Thank You to A Special Publication

I wanted to write the publication a birthday card and thank Dr Mehmet Yildiz and the rest of the editorial team over the past year

I’m An Amateur When It Comes to Designing Things But I Made a Card for Illumination’s Third Birthday

Okay, so as you can see, I definitely got a little assistance with the design of the card as I used a free greeting card website to design and share the card with Illumination and with the rest of you today. March 19, 2023, is the three-year anniversary of this wonderful publication and I thought that I would bring my own contribution to the celebration.

I wanted to do something, at the very least. I’m not much of an artist. I did a painting once and shared it on Medium. It looked like a kid drew it but it was mine so I was proud.

I’ve Come On In The Past Week And Have Been Able to Support Writers In The Same Way As I Was Once Supported

As many of you know, this last week is when I joined the editorial team of Illumination and its family of publications. It’s been a very amazing week so far. I’ve already been able to help out wherever I can and I find that I’m able to commit a decent amount of time to help to support and edit many writers’ stories.

For the ones who I haven’t published, I’ve definitely offered alternatives and support in any resources that they’ve needed. I am happy to give something more back to a community that has supported me since January 2022, when I started writing for them.

Here are the first two stories that they published in this publication. They were two very early pieces in my writing career. I’d also gotten a lot of support from the editors at Illumination early on.

These two stories were very personal to me and definitely gave me a big boost in confidence going forward as they were both published in January 2022. Illumination was the second publication that I joined since I started on Medium in August 2021 and has continued to be a big presence in my writing journey despite the fact that I went on to start and publish in my own publications over the last year.

A Wonderful Publication, To The Future, and A Big Thank You Plus Special Birthday Wishes

The thought of creating a physical birthday card for the publication on its third birthday was just a passing creative thought that I had on the day of the celebration for ILLUMINATION. I hope to be on as an editor continuing into the next celebration for 4 years but of course, I can only take things one day at a time and I will just continue to enjoy these things as they come in the moment.

I’m happy, blessed, excited, and thrilled to be part of such a caring, smart, and committed group of people dedicated to lifting up many people’s voices. Especially the voices of people like me whom I never thought I’d see publishing so much on an online platform with such a growing audience.

So again, I say, thank you, ILLUMINATION and the wonderful team around it. I mean this from the bottom of my heart, you have inspired and changed my life in ways I couldn’t possibly fully express. I hope to continue to help to build on the continued success of this amazing family of publications and help support many of the brilliant minds and great writers who contribute every day.

Happy birthday! Maligayang Bati. Alles zum Geburtstag. Joyeux anniversaire. ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Grattis på födelsedagen. Fijne verjaardag. Buon compleanno. And all of the other languages I couldn’t think of from the top of my head.