I Realized Something Surprising While Writing My 1,000th Medium Story
Reflections on a dubious milestone
As I was pulling a draft from my stories page this morning, I just happened to look at the number of articles I have published here, and because my brain only retains song lyrics and quotes from movies, my first thought was a paraphrased version of a Bill Nighy quote from the questionable Christmas classic, Love Actually:
As dire chance and fateful cockup would have it, here I am, late 50s, and without knowing it I’ve gone and spent the past two years and eight months of my life writing 999 articles on Medium.
That’s right, dear readers; this is my 1,000th story on this platform. I’m as surprised as you are.
When I saw that flashing number (it wasn’t flashing in reality, but in my mind it definitely was), I very briefly considered walking away from Medium right then and there. Like Barry Sanders retiring from the NFL in the prime of his career or The Smiths breaking up after just five years, the idea of slamming on the breaks just short of what is truly a massive number seemed appealing in a what-might-have-been sort of way.
Then I remembered that even as poorly as this place pays these days, it’s one of the main ways I’ve chosen to afford the essentials of life…
