So, ILLUMINATION, What’s In a Birthday Anyway?

Summary

ILLUMINATION, a Medium publication, celebrates its first anniversary with a reflection on its significant growth, community engagement, and impact on writers and readers worldwide.

Abstract

ILLUMINATION has reached a milestone of one year since its inception, marking a period of substantial growth and influence on the Medium platform. It has provided a space for over 8,000 writers to publish their work, generating a vast number of smiles, laughs, and comments indicative of the publication's vibrant community. The platform's reach extends across most continents, and its content has sparked countless conversations and debates, leading to moments of enlightenment and change. ILLUMINATION is not just a publishing platform but a metaphorical home for ideas, creativity, and diverse emotional expressions, fostering an environment where thoughts and feelings can evolve and interact constructively.

Opinions

The author reminisces about their first birthday with humor, highlighting the joy and novelty of the experience.
Birthdays, including ILLUMINATION's, are seen as occasions for celebration and reflection rather than just for the festivities.
The author expresses pride in the achievements of ILLUMINATION, emphasizing the publication's role in nurturing writers and sparking meaningful dialogues.
The publication is personified as a growing entity that provides a sense of belonging and community for its contributors and readers.
ILLUMINATION is acknowledged as an idea and a concept that encourages the transformation of thoughts into written words, contributing to the collective journey of writers.
The celebration of ILLUMINATION's birthday is suggested to be a moment for writers to reflect, make wishes, and partake in the joy of creation, much like one would with a birthday wish.

…everything

I kind of remember my first birthday. Propped up in a highchair; familiar faces all around and a cake that was on fire being placed in front of me. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do with it. Pour my cup of milk over it to put out the flames, maybe? Everyone around me began pursing their lips and blowing, which for a one-year-old, was really quite amusing. So, I did the same. I can’t say that I liked it, but what did I know.

That went on for a minute or so, until I accidently blew out a candle and that seemed to do the trick. Everyone applauded and laughed and started handing our pieces of the cake. Which was as I recall, filled with chocolate pudding, so, all in all not so bad.

Which brings us back to 2021 and the reason for this article.

Birthdays are for celebration, with or without cakes and candles. But often, the celebration itself takes center stage and not the reason behind it.

ILLUMINATION is a publication on a platform called Medium. It’s officially a year old and doing quite well, thank you. It’s grown larger than most do in their first year. Well above the normal curve for such things and as it grows, as it takes on new writers and new topics and spreads its message around the platform, it’s a good time to take a moment and reflect on what has happened during the past year.

As one of the unofficial “grandfathers” of the publications, I think I should point out a few of the achievements, as I see them.

We have spent just under 9000 hours helping people realize their goals of becoming a published writer.

That’s over 8000 writers and counting who have had the pleasure of seeing their article, poem or story, being released out into the world.

We have been in operation across most continents around the globe and rumor has it that there is someone in Antarctica, right now, with a laptop preparing their next article.

At last count we have generated 2,376,465,910 smiles, laughs and guffaws during the reading of our stories.

Somewhere in the neighborhood 32,012,769 comments have been written expressing thanks, appreciation, agreement and enthusiasm for the words put to page and sent out on their own.

Several thousand incorrect perspectives, uncharted areas of bias, wrong-headed concepts and moments of careless thinking have been modified or changed — all in the pursuit of higher understanding.

There have also been instances of doors slamming, hands slapping against desktops, voices raised, disagreements slung haphazardly across the room and points of contention fired into nearby walls and ceilings. Alas, we were unable to capture their numbers, but feel certain that they all came in the course of minds being changed or enlightened — and that’s a good thing.

ILLUMINATION for many of us is home. Not the literal one, as it would get god-awfully crowded in the editing room and no one would get any sleep.

But the metaphorical home where ideas and hopes, dreams and feelings of joy, sadness and anger, all find a place to reside, while they sort themselves out and become better at interacting with one another.

It doesn’t have a fireplace where one can rest with a good book and a glass of wine — but the work order is being passed around for approval and it should be installed by next quarter.

What ILLUMINATION is, is an idea. A concept put in place by Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, as a means of getting hands to keyboards and thoughts out of heads and heart and into our publication.

It may be a unique place in some regards and very familiar in others. But mostly importantly, it belongs to all of us as we journey through the writer’s life — reading and laughing and commenting and sending weird little emoticons through the ether — hoping they arrive safely and in one piece.

So, let’s celebrate it’s first birthday. If you have a candle and a cupcake, slice of pie, or a large cookie with a creamy center; light it up, make a wish and blow it out.

Or as I almost did all those years ago — pour your glass of milk on it and make a wish anyway. Cheers!