I’m Not Fearful of Rejection; I’m Researching
It’s the classic bit: “OK, I’m ready” and then the character turns around and tries to sneak out.
Hello out there! This is an introductory article; my first on Medium.
Read on to learn a bit about me, what makes me tick, and why I want to publish here on Medium.
It’s all about me
I wrote reams of fiction as a child and published a handful of issues of a fiction zine in high school. (Ah, the 20th century! We printed it using a dot-matrix printer and my friend’s dad made copies at work.)
The fiction dried up in my 20s and I’ve written technical documentation and training materials since then.
I’ve worked various technical jobs (help desk, desk-side support, server administration, and dev ops). Most recently I switched to my dream job: Software Engineer. (Actually, my dream job is Programmer but that, alas, is so 20th century.)
I want to publish here on Medium because I want people to feel the empowerment and joy I felt when I first programmed.
Everything happened to me when I was seven years old
Though it is likely more a product of memory, a lot of formative (or, more likely, deformative) things happened to me when I was seven (over 40 years ago).
The keys to me at seven would be:
- I finally understood why my parents didn’t live together.
- My mother didn’t have the capacity to take care of me so I went to live with my father (and changed schools).
- I was first exposed to computer and computer programming.
From the moment I sat in front of a computer, I knew this was something I could control. This was something that could not do a thing without me and my input.
I’ve never forgotten that feeling. And, particularly back in the 80s and 90s, I knew this was something I could do that other people couldn’t (or couldn’t do as well).
But I’ve always wanted to share the feeling with others. In fact, I wasn’t more than 11 years old when I tried to develop my first programming tutorial.
So do it already!
The classic definition of an extrovert is someone energized by social interaction.
Other definitions, like Extroversion Definition & Meaning — Merriam-Webster, suggest my truth:
I get gratification and derive my sense of self-worth from how I perceive others to feel about me and the things I do.
For those of you reading this who have published articles here on Medium, I’m sure you can remember back to what it was like before you pushed the (metaphorically) big green Publish button. (I like that it is green; that’s friendly, that is.)
Remember your worries about how your precious prose would be received and reacted to. Would anyone read it? Would people comment negatively?
For those of you that are lurking, not yet ready to publish, I know you know what it is like.
For a month now, I’ve been reading and bookmarking articles here on Medium. I like to tell myself I’m researching; getting everything ready for when I do publish.
And thus, in conclusion…
Imagine me grasping my lapel in one hand and pointing upwards with the index finger of the other as I make the following point:
You can wait years to share with the world the things that make you feel good and happy; that’s OK. But share them because you never know when someone will come along who can benefit from those good feelings.
