Hey Kellie. Sounds like you had a good new year’s as well, as your response came across a little hangovery. I think you make a good point, and I think parts of my essay did sound somewhat condescending. I see you are also a fan of fighting fire with fire. Allow me to bring some water, as it will help with your headache as well.

My point was certainly not that I don’t care about you. I also understand how frustrating it is to put your time and emotions into writing, and then ‘get little’ in return. If you peruse my other essays, you will see a nice chronology: essentially me working through the stages of grief, due to feeling irrelevant on M. If any of this seems passive aggressive, that is not my intent, it is likely the anger stage talking.

The truth is kinda harsh, but most people will not notice if you or I leave Medium, so threatening to leave is a useless bargaining chip.

But some people will care. If you and I, and everybody else continues to put it out there, and get feedback, especially the kind you have given me, then we will improve. And as we improve, more people will care, and we will get noticed. We all decide how much we need.

I included myself on the ‘slippery slope’ of self esteem, but clearly that translated more like an angry father, at least to you, which was not my intention, or parenting style for that matter.

I’m going to hit the ball back a bit harder now.

I am not a successful writer in the commercial sense. I am a successful writer if I define it by how much I enjoy it, and how much I value causing people to feel something, by the things I write. Disdain was not the look I was going for, and reflects my lack of skill, not perspective on you, or ‘the kids these days’.

I work everyday with kids and teens with multiple problems, including autism, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, trauma, and gender dysphoria. Please don’t belittle or reduce mental illness to such a trivial stereotype, while accusing me of stereotyping you. Where I work, the ‘crying kids’ sometimes kill themselves, perhaps you didn’t see that episode on Netflix.

Kids these days have it harder than I ever had it, and I respect and admire their ability to adapt to today’s changing society better than I can. I hope my 4 and 6 year old daughters never move out. Since their mother and my Wife died, at age 35 from metastatic breast cnacer, it has changed how I see things, and what is important. Their happiness is everything, and the reason I started writing in the first place. Just in case I go too soon as well. I include this information not to bring the room down, but rather help you understand a bit more about who I actually am.

Kellie, I am pleased to meet you, and I will make some edits to my post, and watch that similar biases and privileges don’t appear nearly as often in my future work.

Also, you are kinda like those sharks I was talking about. But I guess to you, I am too. STMD