I’m Hypnotized and Surprised by My First Viral (ish) Article

I wasn’t expecting 2021 to go out like that

Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash

Hello. Belated Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! 2022 you’ve got a lot riding on you am I right? We can but hope?

I didn’t have much time to read or write over the past couple of weeks (an international visit from my Mom was a busy time earmarked by much Covid test organizing, quarantining, and other fun Omicron avoiding on top of the usual holiday travel hijinks).

On the few occasions I logged in to Medium I was shocked to find that an article I published in early December was cresting a wave of (in my world) viral spectacularity I had come to think would possibly never happen for me here.

Rather than earning, oh, a half a latte a day (if I’m lucky), this month, this one article has earned me I don’t know, maybe five lattes a day, for a spell of a couple of weeks. At its peak (sadly now over, all good things come to an end!), I was earning enough for lattes for all of my friends (I don’t have that many in fairness) and maybe a cookie or a scone too!

I was so shocked that any thought of writing anything else evaporated from my brain. I kept gazing at the stats in awe, like the star at the top of a Christmas tree. Who were all of these random readers? And why weren’t they reading my other, more…