Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I mean, who cares, really? Compared to all of the advertising copy I wrote many years ago, and compared to the pages and pages of technical documentation I’ve churned out over the last 16 years, one hundred blog posts is nothing. Compared to other D-bloggers, the heroes I read every day, who have written thousands of posts and who are way better than I am, one hundred is nothing.

Spoiler alert: I need to get some thoughts out of my head here. I won’t think less of you if you don’t read any further.

To be honest (with both the reader and myself), I have to look at the big picture here. When I started writing this blog, I had the fever: I was stoked about everything DOC-related. I probably went a little overboard. Or a lot. Lately, I’m not enthused about every last thing I read, every experience I see depicted in writing, photos, podcasts, and video. Sometimes, I’m less than enthused. What does that mean from a big picture point of view? It means that neither extreme is the norm. I suspect I’ll move a little more toward the center of the spectrum again soon.

How about the writing? There have been some good posts, and some not so good. Strangely, some of the things I’ve written that were well thought out, carefully worded, about timely subjects, were among my least viewed posts. Some other things (recipes, for example) have generated more views, likes, and comments than they probably deserved (three likes for fish tacos?). Maybe I should change this to a cooking blog. Maybe. But that’s not where my passion is right now. Big picture? I need to be thoughtful and measured, and always try to improve.

At the outset, I had three goals:

1. Don’t expect to be read. Don’t expect to get comments. I’m doing this to keep a written record of my life, not to be a web star. Stay humble. Rinse. Repeat.

How am I doing? No problem. I’ve gotten what seem to me like a lot of views, but not very many comments (note: I wrote this before yesterday, where I got the most comments I’ve ever gotten in a single day. Thanks!). I enjoy keeping a written record of my life with diabetes, and I think about that often when writing.

2. Where I can, be an advocate for others. Not a necessity as a blogger, but I need to remember that it’s not always about me. And there are always people who need help more than I do.

How am I doing? I’m trying to remember that I’m very, very lucky, and I’m trying to keep my fellow PWDs in my thoughts all the time. I’ve also been looking for opportunities to advocate where possible, and to that end, I have this to show you:

Gotta admit… I’m kinda jazzed up about this. I may not get to mentor someone for a while yet (unless you count the time I spent on the phone Sunday night with my sister-in-law… newly diagnosed with Type 2). But I’m glad that I’m at least on the road toward doing something positive.

Aaaand, 3. Enjoy

How am I doing? I had forgotten how much I like to write. To be honest, there were 14 Like These Links posts, so you could say that this is only my 86th post. But who’s counting? Anyway, I’m definitely enjoying the process, whatever it is. Or however it’s counted.

There’s still more story to be told, I think. I’m still finding my voice. It must be around here somewhere. Maybe the next hundred posts should be focused on that.