ANXIETY | MENTAL HEALTH | SELF HELP

Oh No! I Accidentally Published An Article on Medium

How I Turned a Disaster Into a Learning Experience

It was 6 a.m. on a Sunday. I’d just finished checking off all of the boxes on my Medium editorial checklist.

I was excited. This article was going to be my third and most personal yet.

As I paused, I carefully considered my next step. I wondered which publication would be the best fit for my article? What hashtags should I use? As I pondered these questions, the fingers of my right hand drifted back and forth across my laptop’s touchpad.

Suddenly, the status of my article changed. It switched from draft to public faster than Road Runner could say “beep, beep!” And I was left feeling a lot like a dumbfounded Wile E. Coyote as I emitted a silent “What the F*#%!”

In what felt like a nanosecond, all my hopes for this next article were dashed.

But before I started to whip myself (like all good Catholics should), I took a deep breath and thought— I can’t be the only Medium writer to have ever made this mistake.

Thinking more clearly now, I went back into my stories and looked at my published work. Of course, my newly published article was proudly sitting at the top of my screen. But now that I was no longer in panic mode, I noticed something else on my screen. A little delete button.

Now, I’m not a religious person but dear Lord, I would have kissed whichever Medium developer or programmer saved me from myself that morning.

The moral of this story is that delete buttons were invented because we’re all human. If you find yourself in a similar predicament, take a deep breath and remember that life is the ultimate learning experience.