S. Botello's Notebook

Feb 19, 2019 at 1:13am

Just received a heartfelt notice that 16 years ago today I became a member of Writing.com. Speechless. But not wordless. It's amazing to me how hard I worked at trying to be consistent, persistent and stick to something. Growing up, I was told I changed my mind too much. I was told I needed to be more patient.

I realize I wrote here five chapters to a story called Prototype and kept ending each one with a "cliff hanger" leaving everyone in suspense. One reviewer said I was a bit too good at doing that. But yeah, I did what I did...I left the story hanging and didn't complete it. Meanwhile, Writing.com grew and changed and got better maybe bigger maybe set more limitations and one day I came back and found limits to the free account and came to realize that even if I wanted to, the limits would not allow me to finish the story.

But wow...16 years? That's how old the main characters in the story were/are.

I want to announce that there is one thing I did not give up on and that is my passion for storytelling which developed with my career in video and film.

I am celebrating 10 years since I launched my most passionate project. You can check my links and my website to see what that is, if you are curious. It's crazy how time doesn't just fly and take us from here to there or from there to here. When you float up into the universe and look down on your own world, you can see the growth. It's not that we age but we grow. They say we grow older. Time is a human creation so in the reality of all things, time is not real. It's something we created to count things. We count things to give it value or take value away from things. We add to create value to money but we subtract to give value to life. In other words, the younger we are the more we are valued. The more money we have the more we are valued. Only humans could invent such awkward and backward rules.

I suppose I will celebrate for this instant that I was born here 16 years ago. One of the values I appreciate from Writing.com is that all of us are more than people...we are defined by our words. I just wanted to say hello and I hope your stories inspire everyone who read them like the stories that inspired you to write your own. Stories are the most valuable thing we humans found in the universe. They are worth more than money itself. Realize their power and use it to make the world a better place.

Peace to all of you. And thank you for the reminder, Writing.com. It's good to be a teenager again. ;)

• 2 comments

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Alexi

Feb 19, 2019 at 7:26am

Congratulations sixteen years on WDC.

🌕 HuntersMoon

Feb 19, 2019 at 11:51am

Congratulations!

S. Botello

Oct 9, 2014 at 10:07pm

I really enjoy the free flow of writing to share a story or message. What I love about filmmaking is that, although it's a lot of work, the personal rewards are amazing. To watch the viewers entrenched in every essence of your tale and enjoying the final cut of your film for all that came together to make it happen is a very rewarding experience.

There is a psychological factor in sharing the audio with the visual which can send mixed messages, that is part of the science of filmmaking. That same factor, however, can make your story explode with messages, feelings and sensations which could never be "told" to someone or experienced through their own imagination upon reading your story.

Therefore, make a film. Try it. You already have the camera in your pocket. www.mobilfilmfestival.com

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