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is why when it stops lighting up
your life it can feel very heavy. I
didn��t love advocacy the same way
I did before. My advocacy fire was
slowly dying. The work felt too
much like work. The juice wasn��t
worth the squeeze and I stepped
back. And guess what? No one noticed.
People with IBD didn��t have
their butts blow up. The MS patients
who read my blog didn��t collectively
collapse. The world went
on. And you know why? Because
of new advocates.
The second someone decides to
step back temporarily or permanently
from advocacy there is always
someone new and excited to
jump on the scene. It��s some Lion
King circle of life shit. Once the
new advocate isn��t ��new���� anymore,
they become the slow and
steady advocate and if they stick
around long enough they become
the OG. And I want to really highlight
this:
THIS ISN��T A BAD THING! It��s
easy to read that and think, ��oh so
if I take a break, I��ll be replaced.����
That��s not what I��m saying. I��m
saying that if you take a step back,
your fellow patients and caregivers
are not abandoned. There are other
people who will step in and support
them and that is actually a
beautiful thing. It adds new perspectives,
diversifies our communities
and adding more people who
back the same cause is never a bad
thing. Not to mention the harsh
reality of advocacy is that sometimes
our friends and peers succumb
to their illnesses and in order
to keep fighting the good fight we
need new people to take their places.
All of this suffice to say: It��s ok to
stop. But only if you want to. This
isn��t like you��re aging out of the
system. Your voice will always
matter in your community. Your
story will always matter. This is
the internet, after all, your shit will
live here forever. If advocacy
doesn��t set you on fire (in a good
way) anymore��step back. Take a
break. Hell, stop altogether if you
want to.
The work we do as advocates isn��t
about us and it��s also 100% about
us at the same time.
I always looked at advocacy like
an appendage to myself. It is me. I
am it. But it��s not. It��s something
that I do and when it no longer
serves me in a positive way anymore,
I can stop doing it. And I
have at times. I think that is something
we all forget. You have permission
to stop if you want to and
it doesn��t have to be a moral dilemma.
You can always come
back and if you have somehow
possibly forgotten��you��re probably
sick in some way or support
someone who is. You need to put
yourself first. Your goal is to live a
happy and healthy life, and creating
content you don��t like, attending
Twitter chats that bore you,
and stressing out over weekly
vlogs goes against the happiness
goal and probably wears on the
health goal.
The world of advocates, online and
in-person, cross condition areas is
one of the most amazing communities
I��ve ever been a part of. In
the last 5 or 6 years, I��ve seen a lot
more advocates connecting outside
of their primary communities and I
think it is only making us stronger.
This community sees you. We
know how hard you work. We
know the time it takes to be a digital
creator and we also know that
more times than not you��re not
getting paid to do this stuff. You
may not even be getting thanked
very often.
So, fellow advocates, please take
care of yourself. Take some time
off. Come back ��or don��t. Thank
you for all the work you do for
your communities. Thank you for
being apart of my community and
for supporting me and everyone
else in our growing family of advocates.
Your work matters and so
do you. Never forget that.