2024 is the time to thrive.

Before 2023, my last submission to Vocal was a short piece for 2021's FFXIV Write challenge.

FFXIV players respond to a series of written prompts that are released over the course of a month, sharing tales of their characters' adventures in the world of Eorzea. This started on Tumblr and has expanded to Twitter, if I recall correctly, but it's been a while since I paid attention.

That's two whole years between my last post here and my first of 2023.

That was in November. I wrote a rambling piece about my experience with an adulthood ADHD diagnosis, and it attracted a lot of attention. At the time, I had also started to get into writing on Medium and Substack—the response from Vocal's community, with commenters sharing their experiences and speaking from the heart, made me decide that this was where I needed to be.

It was an experience I won't forget.

There were people that spoke up who had gone through the same thing, or who recognized their own symptoms in what I described, and hearing from people who could say "you're not alone" was something that I appreciated.

What About 2024?

I turn 38 at the end of the month. I can't believe I made it this far, and it's also disappointing that I'm here without anything to really show for it.

Lemme give the Cole's Notes version.

I have been unemployed since the pandemic started, and before that, I was in and out of various jobs and have wound up worse off than when I first entered the workforce after graduation.

My education is outdated. It was outdated before I set foot in the classroom for the first time. How's that for a kick in the pants?

I went back to school for Legal Office Administration but did not return for the second year. Dad told me, "You can't afford to go deeper into debt", and I foolishly listened to that suggestion. Because it wasn't exactly a suggestion. You know what that generation's like.

A law firm administrator makes, on average, $43 per hour in Ontario.

I am still kicking myself.

The Goal.

2024 is the year to crank my writing into overdrive so I can pay off my debts and rebuild my life.

Look, I owe $12,895.54 between three different accounts. I have been carrying that debt for years, and every time I've managed to get some of it under control, something else has come up—one step forward, fifteen steps back.

The first debt to pay off is the student loan, which is sitting pretty at $986.29. From there? The sky's the limit.

Thriving in 2024 With Vocal.Media.

The key to improving one's writing is to do it often. Reading helps.

Vocal provides a simple platform with a built-in community and plenty of worlds to explore. It's a great place to discover new talent and find inspiration. The challenges offer specific goals and topics, especially during times when I'm not sure what I want to write.

And I promised myself I wouldn't limit myself to a specific niche here. This must be my playground, because spending years following the "common wisdom" of for the love of the Gods you have to pick a niche when I'm so full of interesting shit to say has been killing me.

By being a home for everything from poetry to fiction to rambling personal essays, Vocal offers the sort of freedom that I desperately need.

And having monetization tools that do not include annoying ads certainly helps.

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