A One, a Comma, and Three Zeroes

I'm always surprised by my story total on Vocal. I've been doing this Vocal thing for two and a half years, and I thought that by now, I'd have written about 500 stories, maybe 600 at the most. I never thought I'd have this many by now. How many, you ask? As the title and the pic clearly shows, this is #1000.

One thousand stories. Amazing, isn't it? When I joined Vocal back in April 2021, I originally did so to write reviews, mainly about my favorite villainesses. I love my Villainess Reviews. I'm grateful to Vocal because those reviews have actually gained good feedback from some of the actresses who played these characters. A number of them have responded and liked. Some of them followed me on social media! I even met Juliet Landau because of one of my stories (true story)!

But yeah, my sports fandom ended up taking over, and most of my stories have been in Unbalanced. Weekly recaps in the NFL, CFL, and yes, XFL, as well as stories centering on the NBA, MLB, and of course, the NHL. I do love writing the "What Went Wrong" series of stories, because it's my humorous way of criticizing the teams who get eliminated. How critical I get depends on the team. Example: my Twins story this year was quite generous. My Astros story, though, that's another matter.

I've also written stories outside of those two subjects; true crime stories, for one. I'm still amazed that this true crime story I wrote is my most read out of all of them; the twisted tale of Maria Sosa. Maria Sosa was the wife of retired boxer Ramon Sosa, but in 2015, Maria turned heel by masterminding a murder-for-hire plot against her husband. That story still fascinates me; I truly think that Lifetime should make that story into one of their recent batch of true crime movie retellings.

Other stories I've written involved my wrestling fandom as well, but I also get important messages out, mainly social issues. I have been doing my best to raise awareness about a lot of society's ills; one of the main ones being bigotry--racial issues, calling out homophobes, and of course, my story condemning "Cancel Culture" as nothing more than a weak, crybaby excuse. In addition, I've also written a few personal stories, like my recent piece on my wisdom tooth surgery.

I have to mention my fiction stories. My confidence in writing fiction, to be honest, was very low entering my foray into Vocal. As the time passed, it's been boosted big time, and the biggest boost came when one of my stories, Skeletons in the Closet, actually got a Top Story bonus. Sally Field saying her famous statement, "You like me! You really like me!," at the Oscars actually came to mind when I saw that Top Story bonus for a fiction story I wrote. And of course, my fiction pieces are wannabe Lifetime films.

I always beam when I get a Top Story bonus, and it's more than just the $5 with me. A Top Story bonus, to me, means, I did something right, and I wrote something that a lot of people are interested in. That is very heartwarming.

Speaking of heartwarming:

I never thought I'd have to privilege of writing this. I have recapped every sport's championship on Vocal beginning with the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, and when the following year's Final was official, I thought, "I get to recap the Avalanche in the Final, oh man!" As a diehard Colorado Avalanche fan, I was over the moon when we made the Final, but on the evening of June 26, 2022, when we actually won the Cup, that was absolutely amazing! I got to celebrate at home, I got to celebrate with other fans on social media, and of course, I got to write about Game Six on that evening. It remains my most emotional story, because we hadn't won in 21 years, and it's my favorite of my stories, because the memories of that game are just amazing.

1000 stories. Still can't believe it. I've enjoyed writing all of these stories on that amazing site, and I will definitely look forward to writing the next 1000!