Changes are taking place at Medium.com. What’s new? Will a new CEO be the saving grace that will make writing worth it again?

Or does it even matter what the platform gives, as long as we can share?

As long as we can think?

As long as we can put our thoughts down somewhere to unburden our soul, to go about the day lighter and with a more acute awareness of existence?

Is your journal enough of a platform?

What about the margins of your favorite book?

Is the book you’re writing enough?

So what the hell are we talking about?

We’re here to write. Find a blank sheet and let your imagination soar.

I’m going to stick it out with Medium, whatever happens. It’s where I started on my writing journey, and despite the changes over the years, it’s always felt like home.

Maybe that’s my own fault. Maybe I should have tried harder elsewhere to make a splash — but I believe there’s value to building one thing, doing it well, cultivating it, growing with it, and seeing what happens.

It could take decades to make it here.

I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m on this platform to make it mine.

I’m here to show my personality and use my own photos, not only stock images we’ve all seen a thousand times. I’m here to tell a story, my story, one I think is universal in many ways, yet nuanced and hopefully inspiring.

I want to be real. I want to be vulnerable. I want to be me.

Consider how many people actually “make it” overnight, gain thousands of followers and a living at this thing.

Perhaps it seems like many, because those are the ones we see and compare ourselves to; we aren’t considering the thousands and thousands like you and me.

Yet I’m sure our problems are the same, those at the top and those looking up. Who’s to say who’s at the top?

If you write to understand, not to make it, you’ll go further than you could ever hope to go. It may not be apparent in the number of claps, reads or followers.

It’ll become apparent by the way your life changes.

I’m still finding my way, navigating this endless terrain of dos and don’ts — what it takes to be a successful writer.

Am I not successful already?

If not, why am I still doing this?

I do this because I need to.

I started writing in 2017 and quickly discovered that exploring the beauty, the pain and the purpose of everyday life gives me more meaning than anything else.

Writing grounds me; it inspires me; writing helps me appreciate the wonder of this mundane existence.

If I didn’t write I’d be lost, more lost than I am; at least I know I can always write, and that will lead me back to center, no matter how far I may stray.

I plan on continuing here.

I’m learning new things every day about this writing journey which reignites my passion for the craft.

As long as that happens — as long as writing continues to illuminate the strange and weird and dark and cold and lovely, poignant, profound, miraculous existence called being — I’ll be here, sharing my perspective.

I hope you’ll join me 🙂