Almost two years ago, I joined Medium. Like many others, I dreamed of writing brilliant articles and, while simultaneously enlightening others, making enough to quit my day job.
So, that didn’t happen. What did happen was I found an amazing community of writers with diverse and unique perspectives on life and everything that involves.
One of the first authors I started following was Shannon Ashley. It was partly because we share a our first name. It ended up being because she has a compelling writing style and a hard, but interesting, story to tell. She puts her heart and soul into her writing. Her determination comes through — the determination to make a living on Medium so she could stay at home with her daughter. And she did it. Unlike me, who struggles to have energy to write a page, she worked from her cellphone and posted article after article until she was noticed and created a significant enough following to be able to support herself and her daughter. That’s amazing to me. The drive and energy that took to get to that point.
And now we learn, during all this, she managed to succeed while battling a horrible disease. The worst part is that she is struggling to even be able to continue writing, and to have any hope of supporting herself and her daughter, she needs surgery that costs $60,000. That’s not pennies, folks. Although, as Jessica Wildfire said…
