Being Judged

Yaro has a great post on building a presence online
and one of the negative outcomes
we all should expect.

“One of the outcomes
from being an information publisher
or any person who shares ideas online,
is that you are putting a piece of yourself
out there for others to see.
It’s inevitable that you will be judged
and because you are presenting yourself publicly,
others will feel it’s okay to judge you publicly as well.

This is especially true on the web,
where people feel safe to ridicule each other
because they are sitting at home
in front of their computer.”

I have a reader who reads
and writes a hateful review
for EVERY story I publish.
She has called me every nasty name
I can think of
and she hasn’t even met me.
She doesn’t know me at all.
I could be her neighbor, her best friend,
anyone.

I won’t and don’t lie.
It hurts.
But I keep writing
because none of my goals are
“To make Megan happy.”

One of the costs
of changing the world
is dealing with scrutiny.
Expect it.
Learn how to deal with it.
Don’t let it stop you.