I’m still on the outside looking in to the exclusive club that is the Medium Partner Program. — ME: “Oh wow, it looks pretty nice in there, what does it cost to get in?” MPP: “100 followers. It’s a bit of a popularity contest. How many do you have?” ME: “A paltry 28 at the moment, though it looks like they’re all quality follows— no bots or fake…

Reflections on a family tragedy and what it means to win a Memorial Day road race started in honor of my late aunt. — Note from the author: This story was written a year ago, on Memorial Day 2021. It was edited and updated on Memorial Day 2022. On my bedroom wall hangs four rows of race bibs safety-pinned together, each row a different year of racing, from 2017 to the present. …

You have to be a disaster before becoming a master. — Back when I was a teenager, I thought 40 was ancient. It was such an abstract, far-off number. When my dad turned 40, my mom threw this huge surprise birthday party for him. Dozens of friends from his childhood up to the present came. It was the biggest party I’d…

A Boston Marathon Retrospective — Wouldn’t it be cool if I could run the Boston Marathon someday? It was a thought that crossed my mind, in 2013, when I’d just started to run again consistently after a decade lost to drug abuse. Back then it was such an abstract idea, a pie in the sky…

My family’s story of mask-mandated hell trying to get back home from a foreign country. — I was up “Argentina early,” 6:50 a.m. on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. I couldn’t sleep. In fact, I hadn’t been sleeping well for days. I needed to clear my head in a brief moment of quiet before my two-year-old daughter woke up, most likely crying, the clarion call to begin…

Back in my hometown after 20 years away, I’m finally unpacking my baggage. — “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust Who am I here? I carry the question with me as I step out the door for a run. It’s one of those perfect Midwestern days in between summer and fall. …

It’s actually one of the best things that could happen in our lifetime — here’s why. — Even before I heard it would be making a return to the small screen, Stephen King’s The Stand kept coming to mind. And if you, like me, grew up on dystopian sci-fi lit, how couldn’t it right now? Except for the supernatural elements, the story’s themes eerily parallel the present…

Seven tips for raising your blogging game to epic heights. — Many years ago I watched an interview with the virtuosic, classically trained musician Mike Stern, one of my favorite guitarists of the 1970s-1980s jazz fusion era. The topic was playing music with Miles Davis, and I’ll never forget one of his answers. Interviewer: “How do you improvise so naturally without…

The Walkabout’s origin story. — Hi Internet Brothers and Sisters, I’m Chris, a freelance copywriter, currently based in the Heartland U.S.A., and I’m writing to give you an idea of who I am and why I founded The Walkabout, a new Medium publication focusing on stories of transformation, healing, and renewal. These are topics for…