I'm one of those annoyingly optimistic people who believes that you can make the best out of a bad thing. All the things that have made my life terrible in the short term have been a long term benefit - and you just need new-perspectives. When you're younger, that perspective isn't available because a year is ages, and 5 years is 1/3rd of your life. Maintaining gratitude for bad things is a valuable life-lesson and one it took me far too long to learn.

The most important thing is that you've got to do the work and never stop doing the work. That's a big part of what Medium is for me. Showing my working. I don't profess to be right, just opinionated. Because I'm no longer nice I tend to be a lot more truthful about what I think - and Medium occasionally pays me for it. :o)

I will always read and comment on your work. I don't know how much money I've made from other people sticking around to read our back and forth in the comments section of my articles.....but I'm sure I should be contributing a little bit to the Urchling's university fund.... or at least Jupe's food bills. :o)