When I began writing for a popular wellness blog 8 years ago, I had no idea of the intense success that I would receive. It all started from me writing a piece to them and then being asked to be one of their top contributors.

Each week, I would have seventy or plus thousand views of my articles that they published and it felt great! I had always thought that I needed a bachelor’s degree to do what I was doing and was so grateful that I didn’t need to. I had become a successful writer for the biggest wellness blog website and I felt like one of my biggest dreams was coming true.

Like with everything else, there is it’s positive side and negative. And, although I was living out a dream, it was still reality. And, life is filled with duality so that we can learn and grow.

I do not regret the experience and will never take it back as I learned a lot. Here are 3 of the things that I learned:

1. Haters are a sign that you are doing something right.

When I was younger, especially in school. I was popular but only by fluke. I was very rebellious and hated school so because I vocalized that, the underdogs were naturally drawn to me. I did, unfortunately, have my days when I hurt others because I was insecure but I mostly wanted to defend others from being bullied themselves.

Because of this nature, I was popular but not liked. In fact, most teachers would ask for me not to be in their class because I would ask a lot of questions and call them out if they were being biased or unfair. Growing up, I lacked the awareness to see that I could rub people up the wrong way until one day in a debate in our English class, I defended someone who had been plastered in the newspapers as a ‘thief’ without any convictions. I asked, ‘what happened to innocent until proven guiltily’ and was met with a lot of hateful comments and as though I was dumb for asking the question. I learned then that if you believe what you believe, especially if it doesn’t go with the common narrative, you will have haters.

So, later on in my life, I would read thousands of comments and remember that I was doing something right. I was questioning a common narrative and pushing boundaries- in a respectful way, obviously. But, having a strong opinion will be met with people who think otherwise. We are all allowed to have opinions.

2. A lot of media is sensationalized.

As I began to receive the top views on the blog, I noticed that more and more of my articles were being heavily edited. I am an Editor and believe in editing and changing titles for SEOs and branding. However, they started to completely change what I had written in an attempt to draw more attention.

After this, I lost trust in most media outlets as I saw how my articles which were written with good intentions were twisted and distorted to seem otherwise.

This is what spurred my decision to start BiologiqueLife, to promote wellness; not sensationalize and dramatize it.

3. There is no such thing as bad press.

I was a writer for them for almost two years and went from feeling hurt by some comments to the point where I look at it from a business perspective. Some say don’t look at the comments; however, I find myself sometimes curious and want to know.

Knowing what someone thinks of me doesn’t mean that it’s true. An opinion is just that, an opinion. I think as a whole, we have become so weak and get upset over words as though they are facts.

To me, words will never be violence to me. I’ve been called fat, ugly, too dark, too light, too black, too white, too African, too European and many other things but none of those words mean anything to me. I am a child of God and align myself with divinity- no other opinions matter of me. If it is about my business, I will always protect that but a comment about me only carries weight and importance if I give it.

Life is too short to give other people power over me like that. My life belongs to me; not those who like me today; hate me tomorrow. Or vice versa. It’s all a facade anyway.