Substack

When I joined Substack, I was just joining to practice writing to prepare myself to write a book. I hadn’t written anything with more than 3 paragraphs since college. That was also usually at 1am the day before a paper was due. I’m not a “writer”.

When I read a few articles on the first day, I asked myself what I was doing here! These are real writers with real talent. I don’t have this kind of creativity. I definitely don’t have their vocabulary. If my computer (or mainly phone) didn’t have a spellcheck, everyone would think I didn’t make it past 6th grade!

Then I wrote my first article on September 19, 2025. A few likes. It took 15 articles and 4 1/2 months to hit my biggest article on February 2, 2026. Two days later, I hit 100 subscribers. I guess I’m a writer after all.

Saying all of that doesn’t even show my true reasons I appreciate Substack, especially at this time in my life. Between starting the app and now, I had my longest medical illness since I was on dialysis in 2015. Starting in December I got 4 UTIs and 2 bouts of sepsis. Then after bladder surgery, I had a catheter in that kept me basically immobile for 10 days.

In those 7 months I have become a part of a community that I never knew existed. People from all over the world. All walks of life. Sharing their stories. Supporting me through this time. I’ve met so many amazing people and had so many wonderful conversations with such depth.

When I first joined, I didn’t think I’d ever really write my book without Substack, the app. Now because of the wonderful people of Substack, I’m writing with confidence I didn’t have in this part of my life.

I want to thank a few special people, but you all have done something for me!

Checkout their pages:

Aaliya, Amber’s Healing, Jenny Lynn, Willow, Sam DeCosmo, Unfinished, Man With No Name, Mary Nyx, HeartScribe, Kathleen 🦋, Karin Flodstrom, Seth Diamond ✦ Road Feast, Brittany Felton, The Long Exhale, Quietly, Rebekah, Naomi Overlin, Not Exactly Ana, Jared’s Substack and so many more….