Personal Note to Readers

Recent events in life have limited my production and slowed me down a bit, but I’m still fighting the good fight

Photo by Gadiel Lazcano on Unsplash

As many of you know, I am a stroke survivor. Before 2014, when life would forever change for us, I was a contractor doing mostly government work. Much of the work we did revolved around recovery efforts after disasters struck. It almost goes without saying that the stroke would leave me in a place where I couldn’t do that anymore. Since I was already writing online, I decided to learn the ins and outs of journalism.

Within a few months, I began taking online OpenCourseWare college courses through Harvard, MIT, the Poynter Institute, and more. I still take part in those free courses today. Soon thereafter, I started publishing online more regularly and eventually was contributing to various outlets such as Latino Rebels/Futuro Media and Unicorn Riot. Some of my readers have been reading my work as far back as 2012 and are still around today.

Without this wonderful community, I doubt I would still be doing this today.

But here’s the truth. Our family still struggles. We never recovered from losing everything. Our house, all but one vehicle, which has since been stolen, everything was gone. With no other options on the table, we were forced to move in with my parents, who have graciously provided us with a roof over our heads for about 10 years. We still don’t have a vehicle and often either borrow one of my parents’ cars or find someone to give us rides to doctors’ appointments, etc.

Recently, our family has had to deal with my father-in-law suffering an identical stroke to mine, leaving him with little vocabulary. My wife and I immediately made efforts to help out, and we did so by getting her family to give us rides back and forth, hundreds of miles away. We have coordinated two trips like this, arranging pick-ups and drop-offs in cities along the way. Needless to say, it doesn’t just suck, but it’s also embarrassing.

All of this has brought my station in life to the forefront and has had a negative impact on my mental health, which feels like a setback. I want to be clear. I am still pushing ahead, and my wife has helped me tremendously in dealing with the current situation. If not for family, I likely would have lost my mind a long time ago, especially after so-called friends conveniently disappeared when I no longer had anything they could take from us. Yet, here I am.

While writing this has made me feel a little better, it also leaves me in a place where I need to figure out how to boost my income so we can get on our own two feet. I’m not sure what that looks like right now, but I’m open to ideas. In the meantime, I just wanted to say thank you for being a part of our community and for supporting my work, whether through paid subscriptions or by simply reading and sharing. I value each and every one of you.

Despite all of this, I still consider myself lucky, thanks to all of you. This community has allowed me to move forward and stop looking back. I couldn’t have done that without all of you. So, with all that said, I just wanted to inform you of why you have been seeing a little less work from me as I navigate this tumultuous time. I will get back to my normal schedule soon. I promise.

Much love, from my family to yours.

NOTE: I’ve never been one to ask for help, and I’m certainly not one to beg. But if you’d like to support my work and get something for your money, you can become a paid subscriber today for just $35/year, visit the Antagonist Magazine store, or, if you’d like to make a donation, you can donate via PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App. If you don’t want to give your money to Substack, you can become a paid subscriber on my Patreon for as little as $1/month.