Reached the psychological 100 — what’s next?
First of all, I want to say thank you to those who take an interest in reading my stories and commenting about them. Please keep doing that. I am truly grateful for all the supports and positive feedback I have received.
Yes. I have reached 100 follower mark on Medium (128 to be exact). And No. It didn’t take me 6 months to get it, only 2.5 months, which is still a huge achievement for me.
To be honest, I thought it would take me longer, considering this is my first venture of creating content on the internet, apart from also doing YouTube before which went horribly wrong.
Although I know: more followers don’t directly translate to more readerships — I am still very grateful for this. Knowing that my story bring value to those who read it is kind of feeling I can’t describe. All I’m saying: it’s remarkable to have people from different part of the world get connected through story and life experience on this platform,( yes making money too), and I’m glad to be a part of this community.
What’s Driving me to Share my Story?
In Indonesia, I take ride hailing service almost every single day. We don’t have Uber or lift, or even DoorDash here, but we do have very much similar players like Grab and Gojek, which are basically like Uber and Lift (FYI for Uber fans out there). BTW they are everywhere — and they are doing promo all the time.
I depend a lot on these services: going to work, buying food delivery, groceries, sending off package, you name it — they got it ready. Very handy indeed.
Anyway, whenever I use one of these services, I could guarantee you that I would be involved in some type of conversation with either the driver or delivery man on that day, who are feeling particularly chatty. They will usually ask the following questions:
- Are you really blind? Yes.
- How do you walk? With a stick.
- How did you order this ride? Who helped you? Me.
- How do you tell between day or night? Duh, work.
- And other silly questions that I would’ve asked myself, if only I wasn’t blind in the first place.
Mind you, while all the questions can be kind of silly sometimes, I never shy away from those conversations. People are just sincerely curious about the topic of blindness. And they can’t help themselves from asking.
As a matter of fact, I do quite enjoy it. It can be fun sometimes engaging with strangers, sharing and learning new things. So no need to be rude about it.
Everybody got a Story to Tell
Almost every time, once I get off from the ride, the designated driver that day would say:
“Thank you young man
You really inspired me today.”
Honestly, I do not think that I’m inspiring — I’m just living my life. After all I’m more than just my blindness. Apart from having to live life like I’m blindfolded, I am also a:
- Classic rock fan
- Crypto enthusiast
- Runner and a swimmer
- Musician (sometimes)
- Writer
- Young man from Bali
- And yeah, I’m also happen to be blind at the same time
But nevertheless, I can’t help but feeling great inside knowing that I have made someone else’s day, let alone a stranger.
While I’m usually very chill about it, it makes me feel good to be able to influence other people in a good way.
Nice feeling to have really.
Everyone has a story to tell
The more I think about it, the more I come to a realization that everyone has a story to tell.
No matter who you are. You got value to share. Regardless:
- Your background (rich or poor)
- Your current difficult situation
- Your insecurity about life and everything
- Your shitty co-worker or job
- And nitty gritty stuff about life that nobody has figured it out yet
Trust me, You got story to tell. Well, maybe not all but you get the point.
Now, tell it to the world. Do something about it. Your original self is the best value proposition out there. My journey with the Uber drivers and Food Ninja people have made me realized how valuable my story are (this is based on their review though). Therefore, I decided to do something about it. The answer, which I found out, is through writing and sharing it to the world. That’s what I did indeed.
Yes. There might be nobody reading my story, and that’s fine.
Worse case: I get no views and I end up improving my writing — not a bad deal if you ask me.
Moving Forward
As a blind creator who are fascinated about the idea of creating something on the internet, I decided to take a plunge and share my story to the whole world, and Medium was definitely suit my preference for this mission. I started with little expectation because I know everything takes times. I’m trying not to be perfect — and keep it stupidly simple. For example I don’t:
- I don’t write grammatically good story since I’m not taking any IELTS test
- I don’t use any images/visual contents on my story since I’m blind
- I don’t do follow for follow (not quite) I just engage with other writers
- I just write what I know, (i.e., my life experience)
And amazingly, number of people find it of value. That really makes me happy.
So what’s next Wikan?
Nothing. I will keep on writing. Follow my same schedule, and sharing my life experiences as a blind man from Bali. My beloved island.
I’m not going to join the Medium Partner Program either, since it’s not yet supported in my country. I wish I could though. Maybe there will be another ways I can earn money from my contents in the future? Who knows.
Until then, I will keep doing what I’m doing best: being me. And hopefully people out there will find it of value!
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