Feelings about Dandelife − 1 March, 2008
I’ve been using Dandelife for four months now. After having been away from it for over a week, I’ve had some time to reflect on my feelings about it. They are quite a mix! Here are the many feelings I’ve felt:
Fear that something I have written will come back to haunt me professionally. This was especially true for Sicko, by leaps and bounds my most popular post.
Connection with people whose stories either resonate with my own experience or make me feel compassion and warmth.
Frustration that I cannot express myself more fully for fear of later repercussions in the form of rejection by future employers.
Pure addiction to writing and to keeping up with my favorite people.
Paranoia that negative things I’ve written about loved ones would be discovered by the same people. I pulled a story and changed my real name to a pen name just for this reason!
Gratitude that Dandelife is here for me when I need it.
Joy at having my stories chosen for “Stories of the Month”.
Happiness when people take the time to leave me comments. It’s the only way I know that I’ve connected with people.
Anticipation about how my stories will be received. Will readers like them, or pass them by?
Appreciation that the Dandelife community is such a friendly and gentle one. I’ve never been flamed. I’ve never seen anyone flame a person who’d probably get flamed on other sites.
Consternation that pieces I have spent hours perfecting, like Pickiing Up Chicks in Seattle, have received lukewarm attention while pieces I’ve dashed off in 15 minutes, like She's Atomic Blue!, have been quite popular.
Fulfillment that other people out there are reading my words and after reading a really good story someone else wrote.
Gratification that eventually an initially underappreciated and beloved piece, The Homewood Chronicles, Part I, overtook its sister piece The Homewood Chronicles, Part II in popularity.
Sadness when people I’ve grown to care about on Dandelife are sad.
Soaring elation when I read/watched Kelly’s piece Obama! Obama! Obama!
That’s probably enough feelings for now!
Fear that something I have written will come back to haunt me professionally. This was especially true for Sicko, by leaps and bounds my most popular post.
Connection with people whose stories either resonate with my own experience or make me feel compassion and warmth.
Frustration that I cannot express myself more fully for fear of later repercussions in the form of rejection by future employers.
Pure addiction to writing and to keeping up with my favorite people.
Paranoia that negative things I’ve written about loved ones would be discovered by the same people. I pulled a story and changed my real name to a pen name just for this reason!
Gratitude that Dandelife is here for me when I need it.
Joy at having my stories chosen for “Stories of the Month”.
Happiness when people take the time to leave me comments. It’s the only way I know that I’ve connected with people.
Anticipation about how my stories will be received. Will readers like them, or pass them by?
Appreciation that the Dandelife community is such a friendly and gentle one. I’ve never been flamed. I’ve never seen anyone flame a person who’d probably get flamed on other sites.
Consternation that pieces I have spent hours perfecting, like Pickiing Up Chicks in Seattle, have received lukewarm attention while pieces I’ve dashed off in 15 minutes, like She's Atomic Blue!, have been quite popular.
Fulfillment that other people out there are reading my words and after reading a really good story someone else wrote.
Gratification that eventually an initially underappreciated and beloved piece, The Homewood Chronicles, Part I, overtook its sister piece The Homewood Chronicles, Part II in popularity.
Sadness when people I’ve grown to care about on Dandelife are sad.
Soaring elation when I read/watched Kelly’s piece Obama! Obama! Obama!
That’s probably enough feelings for now!
Comments:
intrepideddie (March 2, 2008. 06:41am)
Very well said. I think that most of us on Dandelife -- that post stories, anyway -- can relate to probably all of these. Yeah, you don't see me using last names -- or many names at all... with my tendency to use the f-word with the frequency that I do... well, it'd certainly be an interesting day at work if my boss came across it. The bit on consternation is funny; I've noticed the same thing.
kga245 (March 3, 2008. 09:17pm)
Thanks for writing this, PEP!