Alright, ladies and gents, buckle down for this one, as I will probably sound like a total dickhead during this entire article, but don't worry, it's for the views like always. I promise I am somewhat of a decent person in real life, but sometimes you have to drop the nice guy act every once in a while to lay down some ground rules. Okay, author's note done, let's go.
Allow me to catch you up on what has happened in the last couple of weeks. I wrote an article describing my asexuality, and surprisingly I had a lot of feedback from it people offering their "words of encouragement", or whatever the hell you want to call it. Even another writer named Danielle Spera wrote a response article about it, I will link it somewhere here so you can read it as well, it's quite an interesting take. However, as interesting as it was, I really didn't appreciate the article about me in the first place and don't worry friends, I'll explain why.
First of all, since the UCF Odyssey community is so large, you rarely get to meet or talk to any of your colleagues. When it comes to myself, I've been friends with our recently appointed editor in chief Megan for years now(who is gonna be one of the best in the Journalism Biz in the near future), and our head honcho Larissa (who has dealt with my BS as a creator to where I should be fired by now, and yet I am still here, so hats off to you). The girl that wrote the article about me (Danielle) is one of the many I have yet to talk in the Odyssey community, which happens, and this is why she got my attention when her article for the week was about me, and to no surprise, she didn't tell me about it.
Now, my people, I don't want you to think the article was bad, it was actually written very well, it deserves some attention and some shares on the internet, but this is where the issues start to arise. The fact she does not know me personally and she tries to make a personal connection with me through the article is a nice attempt. She reveals she is ACE as well, and then she goes on to admit her flaws as to how being ACE is the last thing she hates herself for. Although sounds great, this is where I have a problem with it. The article makes it seem like she is using my situation to make herself look or feel better than me, which is probably the last thing she wanted, but it seemed as if she only looked at this through her view of life and not mine or anyone else's. The way I wrote the first article is the truth, I don't take any of the words back because it's what I feel about it, and that will not change.
Unfortunately, this is a problem. People will try to give you encouraging words, and although the attempt is there, it just makes matters worse. She says that I will be able to find someone that understands me and then you can live with it because I would be comfortable being myself. Danielle, you must be a female version of Doctor Strange because unless you saw the future, I simply cannot believe you. I've had people all my life say that you can be whatever you want to be, but the truth of the matter is you don't get everything you want in life. Your article, although positive in its nature, is actually quite disrespectful mostly because you do not know me as a person, and giving unsolicited advice through here makes it seems like your view on this subject matter must be the correct way, but if it was viewed by another person other than myself, it could cause an internet outburst (maybe that's what you were looking for, but who knows).
Danielle, if you are still reading this to the very point, I just like to give you a thumbs up. You wrote a good article, and you're gonna get a decently large chunk of a paycheck from The Odyssey. I'm not mad at you as a person, but I am at the words you decided to write, but that's okay because you have to be bold in this business sometimes to garner attention, and it worked, great job, enjoy your paycheck. As for me, I will still not seek any professional help on this matter. My philosophy on things like this is that the only people that truly care about your well being besides yourself are your close friends and your family. Anyone else that does or tries to is doing it to make themselves feel better or they are getting paid for it. If you do decide to write a response article to this, feel free, but this is the last I am speaking of it because honestly it's getting too dragged out, and there is so much better content out in the world that can be covered.
Tune in next week as I examine how the NBA has evolved over the last decade because the NBA Finals are here once again, and I am excited to be covering sports that I actually know about this time around!