My friends always compliment me on my so called “talent” of being a prolific writer. It’s true: almost everywhere I go, I will stop a conversation to jot down a new story idea in my notepad or type up an article on the fly. So yeah, I write a lot. What I have started to wonder, though, is if these friends of mine actually read the pieces I work so hard to write, edit and publish on the Her Campus site. Are they one of the couple hundred clicks I got this week or not? More importantly, does it matter?
I was trying to decide whether it would matter to me if my friends read my articles or not. On one hand, I’m extremely self-conscious about my writing because it feels deeply personal—I mean, it came out of my own head, so yeah, it’s kind of personal to me—but on the other hand, it might feel validating to know my friends support me.
I recently had a conversation with a friend about love languages. To protect her privacy, I will give her the fake name Maggie. Maggie had recently taken a test to determine her love language and the results said she expressed her love through actions. This also meant that she absorbs love through actions. So, instead of valuing the likes she gets on Facebook for a photo of herself reciting poetry, she values her loved ones showing up to that same poetry performance. How does this connect to my original question about people reading my articles? Well, I suspect I might be an action girl, too. I think I want my friends to read my posts, not to boost my ego through the click report, but because my friends read it; they showed up to the show. As much joy as it brings me when a stranger approaches me on campus to tell me how much my article made their day, or gave them a new view of the world, it means more to me when my friends simply say, “Hey C, I read your article.”
It’s not even a compliment I’m after. I simply like knowing that they’re there, that they are taking the time to be present and click on my piece because I wrote it and not someone else. Whether they like my writing style or not, my friends repeatedly choosing to show up to my URL and engage matters to me because I am an action girl and that’s how I absorb their love.