Why We're In The Rain
Like so many who still walk the hallowed fading halls of ActiveRain, I began my journey here over a dozen years ago. Blogging was a new concept to most of us. We knew we wanted it but didn’t know how to get there.
We were excited at the possibilities when we found this amazing group. We taught each other lessons, we learned, we grew our businesses, we made new friends. We found people whom we loved to the depths of our souls, and we quickly found those we didn’t want to play in the sandbox with.
When I first started, Kerri was the glue that held AR together. It took me almost a year to start, but I remember being so excited when I uploaded my first post and got comments! Wow! This really worked. With each post, you found different personalities and ideas and friends and ways of doing business.
I was learning this blogging business and came back all the time to learn more. Farming, selling, buyers, staging, formatting, referrals, SEO – we were all sharing.
Then one day I shared an intensely personal story, and my journey here changed. I was not only embraced by this community I was coming to love, but the Mama Bear (Kerri) sent me a statuette that solidified why I was here. We were family.
Like any family, there are some you want to hang out with, and some you avoid at any cost. We’ve been through tragedies, trials, triumphs, and teachings together, and grew closer in the experiences. Have I mentioned how much I adored Kerri?
There was so much to learn, countless nuances, so much ‘grease’ that made the wheels turn. I often felt like I’d been invited to a party and they let me into the foyer, but there were closed doors I didn’t know how to open and all the fun was behind the doors. So I learned all I could – that your post had to have at least fifty words for points, that your comment had to have fifty characters for points, that you didn't get points for more than ten comments per day (ten then, now twenty), that if you got someone to join the party, you’d get 250 points and 10% credit each time they got points.
Points
Ah, points, what a simple yet brilliant idea. This platform is crowded with mature adults with thriving professions, and yet those silly points kept us coming back each day for the hundred points we get just for showing up. Some were so motivated by the points that AR became an almost full-time job.
Some of us learned to blog so well from our time here, we became authors. I hope for you that whatever your experience, it has been a rewarding journey and that you’ve made countless connections. I’ve made friends for a lifetime, people I will always treasure – many whom I’ve never met IRL, many whom I’ve traveled innumerable miles to meet. The journey in the Rain has been life changing.
With this post, I will pass the million-point mark. Dozens who started around the same time I did have multiple million of points. They are the ones who held ActiveRain together. I love you guys so much (you know who you are). I’m glad I’m here. I’m grateful for all I’ve learned and the friendships made. I may not ever add another million to my score (one million was a goal, two million, not so much), but I’ll always be thankful I’ve had this experience.
Thank you to the powers that be for keeping this platform open. It has enriched so many lives.
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