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The End of Five Hundred

The End of Five Hundred

When the last period ends the last sentence, this will be my myTake number 500 in the can. It's not exactly life's greatest accomplishment or anything nearing that, but it's one of those things where you look up, and you go, huh, really?

I thanked the GaG Community at large when I made it to 100, and I thank you all again at 500. Whether you want to believe in it or not, GaG is yet another string on the web of social media that helps us to connect with one another in world where people increasingly feel less and less connected in their everyday lives. I hope something I wrote under my SN or Anon made you laugh, or think, or get angry, or surprised you, or distracted you, or made you feel something in your day.

This writing thing certainly helps me and others say what they want to say, and many times, need to say. Unless you're at work doing this, you're not going to get fired for having a thought or getting into a lively debate, or for expressing a view contradictory to what someone else is saying. It's free speech* (even though we know free speech is not free). I don't take what free speech we do have for granted, because I know there are places even in 2017, that don't allow this type of social media, and certainly don't allow you to openly discuss in sections like "Politics," without heavy government censorship and/or the risk of jail time or even death. People complain about what we do have a lot and rarely do they recognize how good they have it.

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And you should use it, to speak up, to speak out, to speak about what you love, to speak about what you dislike, to speak about something personal that you didn't think anyone else would understand. One of my favorites was like that. I wrote about something very personal to me, and I was genuinely surprised how many people were supportive or knew someone who had gone through the same. That was one of those moments where I did actually feel like this was a community, and thankfully there have been more moments like that where it wasn't about the downside with trolls, catfishers, people who abuse Anon status, or people who just want to bully people because they feel helpless in their own lives to take any sort of control.

I guess this is a long winded way of saying not only thank you for the comments and the reads, but cherish your voice and don't be afraid to use it. Recognize that your words can both help and hurt, so use them wisely, and share your story because you never know who you are going to end up connecting with and having meaningful and powerful dialogue with.

The End of Five Hundred
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