30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge: My Personal Reflections

It is finished! Well, technically, it will be finished when I finish this hub, but you get the point. I am officially done with the “30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge” and I must say I am relieved. When I started out I figured it was no big deal. If others could do it then that was all the motivation I needed to give it a shot.

Now it is time for the inevitable reflections about the whole process. You have read them before, written beautifully by other writers more talented than I, but it just seems to be a tradition to write the summary so here I am, Mr. Believer In Traditions, more than willing to jump into the fire without a fire-retardant of any kind.

I am going to post this without the usual links or pictures or video or polls or other tools for self-promotion. This is just between you and me; we do not need Facebook to become involved and I won’t be inviting reddit or twitter or any other social media. I do not write this for possible earnings and I don’t care if it is recognized outside of our select group.

What follows is a random collection of impressions that are just coming to me out of the blue, like air-borne germs or letters from bill collectors. I have no power over these impressions, no defense against their sappiness or emotional nature. I am just the medium upon which they travel, from my computer to yours. So sit back, enter the mind of billybuc for awhile and enjoy Hub #30.

YEP, IT WAS A CHALLENGE ALRIGHT!

I honestly did not think it would be. I would just whip out a hub a day. I’m full of it, right, so laying down a thousand words or so a day is like breathing for me. Whether I am a prolific writer or not is open for discussion and debate, but nobody has ever doubted my b.s. abilities so I would just let it fly and whip these babies out with no problem.

Well, there was just one, small problem: I felt I owed my fellow hubbers the best I had each time I wrote a hub. You see, there are some amazing people who follow me and what does it say about me if I’m willing to just toss out crap in order to meet my daily requirements? Dad always told me that if I’m going to do a job then I damn well better do a good job, so that’s what I have tried to do. I write from my heart, guided by passions and emotions which sometimes run uncontrolled but they are there all the same. With that in mind, doing a quality hub each day was in fact a challenge. I am now quite willing to take a day off and rest my weary mind.

WERE THERE ADVANTAGES TO DOING IT?

Now, in hindsight, I can say for sure that there were advantages. When I first started out, however, I looked upon it as a chore, one that might not be necessary (like changing the sheets) but nonetheless probably had some benefits. What I have found is that pushing yourself to find interesting subjects to write about and then pushing yourself to write a quality piece about each of those subjects helps you to grow as a writer. It is not unlike, I suppose, working for a newspaper and having a deadline each and every day. You may not feel like writing on some days but that damn deadline has to be met and so you dig down inside of yourself and find whatever you need to accomplish the goal.

I have definitely grown as a writer since I started the challenge but in a more subtle way I have grown as a person because of the people I have met and their beautiful comments.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE FOLLOWERS, BILLYBUC?

When I began this challenge thirty days ago I had 52 followers; today, now finished, I have 216. Why do I tell you that? If you know me you know that numbers mean very little to me. I am shy and self-effacing and I would much rather the spotlight be on anyone else rather than me, so to point out this sudden rise in followers is done for only one reason….because I am honored and humbled by it all.

To say I have met some incredible people over the past month would be the understatement of my lifetime. I have been brought to tears by the comments left on my hubs, and I mean that literally. Late at night I have sat down in the quiet of my studio and I have cried over the beautiful words of encouragement that have been left by complete strangers. In a very real sense, though, none of you are strangers.

We are all human beings, all experiencing the same challenges in life, feeling the same emotions, at times tossed and turned by the waves of daily existence. Is it any wonder then that some of my more personal hubs would touch so many people? I have written in depth about my alcoholism; I have written in depth about my adoption and the adoption of my son. I have talked about the frustrations and unhappiness that led me to make a major change in my lifestyle so that I could thrive and survive.

Through it all I have written about the feelings associated with each of those subjects and the daily struggles each of us face just living our lives, and you have responded to my words in a remarkable way. You understood! You showed empathy and compassion! You told me that you have felt the same things, that you laugh and cry and doubt and fear, just like I do. You have talked about inspiration and challenge and hope and loneliness and above all, you have talked about love.

I guess more than any other time in my life I came to realize during these past thirty days that we are all alike and that the good in people far outweighs the bad. I was a total stranger to you all and yet in a matter of days you have reached out, shared some very private thoughts, emailed me and generally given your trust in this stranger whom you have never met. To say that I am grateful would be an injustice. For once this writer of words has no words to adequately describe how he feels.

A FINAL THOUGHT

Would I do this again? Knowing what I know now the answer would be most definitely. What I have gained has been a gift beyond measure. It has no monetary value to it nor does it translate into a writing job that pays big dividends. I will not be appearing on national television anytime soon because of meeting this challenge nor will I be recognized on the streets as “that writer.”

My payment for meeting this challenge has been the personal connections I have made in a wonderful community of writers and like souls. I have found friends where once there were strangers and compassion where once there was indifference.

The only thing left for me to say is thank you! You all know who you are; you have been with me almost daily for a month and you have reached out and given acceptance to a man who hoped for it but never really expected it.

Thank you!