What’s so great about Medium?

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t really start using Medium, let alone know about Medium, until the second semester of my sophomore year in college. And I have Tim Cigelske, my Media Writing professor, to thank for that discovery.

It was my first day of class, and he’s having all his students sign up for a Medium account. No one really even seemed to know what it was except for the few who may have had to get an account for another class. Day 1, and he was having us write small pieces and upload them.

I’m sitting there writing some random piece, thinking to myself, this is going up online, everyone’s going to see it, and it’s going to be some ridiculous post, and it’s going to be awful, why did I take this class?

I love writing. It’s a passion of mine, but what I don’t love is letting other people read my work. It makes me nervous, uneasy. I think if I never let people read my things, I’m somehow avoiding finding out I’m bad at it or something worse.

Every year I’ve told myself I’m going to start a blog and get my work out there and every year I find myself avoiding the fact. But then there I was in class publishing my work, work that I was writing in a day during class to be exact.

It was definitely something I’d never done in any other class before. Day 2 though didn’t seem to annoy me as much. I actually started to enjoy it. I know it took me two days to warm up to the idea. But when you think about it, it really is a great tool.

Granted, not every piece of writing that I’ve published is perfection or even worth the read, but there are some pieces that I’m really proud of and because of Medium, I’ve started to publish my work and put it out there for others to read.

In a matter of minutes, or an hour if I’m being honest, I am able to whip up a short piece and then publish it within a matter of seconds. It’s basically like my own blog without having to do all the complicated stuff. Anyone can read my work and anyone can share it. It’s what I have been trying to achieve for years now, and it ended up being so much easier than I thought.

Now I love Medium. I find myself after uploading a piece for class, going back days later and editing it, adding to it, making it better and republishing it. And now, I’m writing something that’s not even for class — shocking, I know.

Using Medium has been quite the eye-opener. It’s an outlet for me to try out different styles and practice my editing skills, among other things. I’ve even started using some of the work I’ve published for writing samples on my resumes.

With Medium, there are so many possibilities that I didn’t have before. I mean it may not seem like the most conventional teaching tool but it is definitely the most rewarding and hands-on tool I’ve ever used for a class.

Without it, I’d probably just be think these things to myself, but now I’m writing it down, publishing it, and sharing it, something I never thought I’d get myself to do.