Has it Been Four Years on Associated Content from Yahoo Already?

Four years ago, I accepted an invitation from another contributor to start writing for Associated Content from Yahoo. Back then, we all just called it AC. Besides the gas money, and the writing opportunities I've found by joining, I've also made a few very real, good friends, and learned a lot of hard lessons too. I'm just as grateful for the one, as I am the other.

I've learned that typos can happen to the best of us. Some of those typos are small, almost un-noticeable, and therefore irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Other typos, no matter how small, can carry a world of difference along with them. They change entire meanings of sentences, paragraphs, articles and even lives. That's the power of a comma.

I've learned that sometimes an hour can seem like a lifetime, and a whole lifetime passes by in what seems to be just an hour. I've learned that a day lost is an entire day lost forever. So, make sure each day is spent on something worthy of a day of your life. Opportunities rarely visit twice, so say what you must while you can. Be bold and unapologetic about it, too. Some future generation might come across something you've published here, and they may be in desperate need of the cold, hard truth.

I've learned that I'm lucky to be here. I'm lucky for every opportunity, problem, friend, enemy, lesson or loss. I've learned that in spite of my worst cases of arrogance, ignorance or any possible combination of the two, I do not have all of the answers. Noone does. Noone could. But do not let that stop you from sharing what you know. Never fear the simple opinions of others which will result from your opening a vein and spilling your soul onto a page.

I've learned we humans are complex, sometimes self-contradictory creatures. We're all full of conflict, confusion, and a lack of understanding of so much, we often are not aware of how much we don't even know. If we knew the "Aleph-sub-2-Infinity" of every possible point of knowledge about everything on Earth, there's still an infinity of infinities to keep learning. With any luck, I'll keep learning until I die.