Unlike(d)

A few years ago, I posted a status on Facebook that caught the eyes of some great admirers. Every minute my phone was going off. The notification that someone ‘liked’ my status; even the comments I was receiving were amazing. There’s an embracing feeling to know that your words were liked and people could relate; so, we tell ourselves.

Sometimes were floating high on the many likes our post may receive or the comments we collect, but were your words impactful? And if so, to what magnitude?

Later that day the same status I wrote was shared by a good friend of mine as his status. My 70+ likes and good comments were overshadowed by their 1.1k likes and almost 80 shares. Was I upset, absolutely. It was a moment that someone took my words and made them their own. But I was also upset that people liked their status with my caption. Did I fall into that trap of thinking a ‘like’ was my stardom to popularity? The fact that he had a higher following and a different type of popularity never occurred to me. Is this why he received so many likes? Could I post great statuses and accept that it may help someone, and just be satisfied?

At That Moment:

It occurred to me that in each of my post the goal wasn’t to get the most ‘likes,’ but for my words to be impactful. I wanted my words to mean something to somebody, in hopes of them gaining some respective clarity. My friend liked my post so much that when he shared it on his status and received all those likes and those people in turn shared it on their page, I was already impactful and I didn’t have to attach my name to it. Author, Austin Kleon wrote a book called ‘Steal like an artist.’ It’s a very good read for those aspiring creative minds who love detail but sometimes don’t understand how artistry works. One of the chapters in the book is titled, “write the book you want to read.” It didn’t occur to me at that time that he reposted something he wanted or even needed to read.

I realized that my status was circling and I was rereading my own words from someone else’s page. And the ‘likes’ never changed my career status or made me feel more important than the next creative mind. I share to be impactful; not remembered. I share to give hope and clarity. I share to mend brokenness and to show people that they are not alone. I share to affirm someone who may need those words at that moment. I share NOW without looking at the likes. Though people may not ‘like’ a status doesn’t mean they haven’t read it. Some great things may go unnoticed but your work will always reveal itself, one way or another.