The Facebook Scroll that Changed My Life

It was mid-afternoon in the California scorch zone when I came across the Facebook scroll that changed my life.

The day had grown too hot to emerge from my post under the oasis of the AC’s lazy Sunday hum and I absently scrolled Facebook for the 1000th time searching for something—anything—that would give me some kind of instant relief from the insanity of the clutching despair of boredom when I scrolled across something which made my heart leap with excitement!

It was as if the Universe showed up, handed me something, and said, “Here, I’m tired of watching you mope. Cheers!”

It summed itself up in one short sentence as, “Vocal is a platform that provides storytelling tools and engaged communities for writers,” accompanied by a now-forgotten visual and the unavoidable call to SIGN UP. I jumped on it with not even a second of wasted time. I clicked as if pouncing onto a prey item being driven by some sort of primitive starvation.

Once the rigmarole of the email and password ritual was out of the way, I found myself standing sublimely in the longest, quietest cyber halls of the world’s largest collection of magazine articles written by vested writers my eyes had ever feasted on.

In that weird moth-to-flame moment, I instantly found my genre, Health & Wellness followed by its next of kin, Psyche. OMG!! Not only do I have tons of material to read… GUESS WHAT? I can become a contributing writer as well. I was erecting upward more keenly now.

I could see this platform being kind of like YouTube for video and gaming geeks, but with actual words for word geeks. My heart skipped another beat and I zoomed from the Mercury in retrograde shit that hit the fan a week earlier to I might live after all! Yes, it sucked that bad.

I quickly selected an article in Psyche, which is powered by Vocal, entitled "Bipolar Penpals" by Ryan Ziemba with the subtitle, Misery Loves Company.

YES IT DOES! I almost felt as if I had just met a long, lost relative and I could settle in for some much-needed company of my own while taking in the scene of author nephew chronicling his dysphoric mania in letters to his chronically depressed Aunt Robyn; I was sure this would help to fill in the gaps and give a little boost to my chronically depressed Sunday.

“When I’m down I’m drawn deeper (or I drag myself deeper—I’m still trying to figure that one out.),” Nephew Ryan writes to his aunt. Oh my, could I unintentionally expose myself to an unwanted energy portal? After all, energy follows thought and… “worry becomes doubt. Doubt begets anxiety. Anxiety wrenches downward. Depression. Then self-hatred, agitated mania.”

Oh crap! I was gripped in a bath of sweat mixed with uncertain emotions and I wondered if it would be wise to abort mission and save myself, or continue on, and risk reigniting last week’s hellfire all over my own seemingly bipolar life. With that, I picked up my berry basket and skipped along my way. Bipolar Penpals by Ryan Ziemba is very thoughtfully written, it is graphic and descriptive in its emotional depths and does exactly what it was written to do. Make its reader feel the overwhelming power of what is Bipolar Disorder.

I can only describe myself as that kid with the sweet-forbidding, vegan, hippy mom peering into a window of yummy pastries as I perused the categories: Culture, Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, Health & Wellness, Home & Travel, Business & Education, News & Politics, Science & Tech, Love & Relationship, Lifestyle and, of course, Sports.

One shiny, little drop of drool collected at the corner of my mouth, and I just couldn’t believe this fantastic new dose of cosmic Prozac. My delighted eyes fondled the subcategories which you will have to check out yourself, but I will prime with one called Filthy and those articles are not about How To Use Tide Pods either.

My point is, there is a category and\or subcategory for every genre and interest that would tickle a writer’s fancy. AND you can write whatever you want—they have a category for that!

And the best part is you can use your posted content to earn money based on a viewing scale and tips from readers, but that’s another article. In the meantime, stay tuned because I hope to report back in one year with some awesome Vocal all over my Wallet.