The response on Twitter to my announcement that I’m no longer contributing daily to THR — spoilers: it wasn’t my decision, not that of my editors. The accountants of THR‘s ownership, however, are likely to be thrilled by the outcome — was a surreal and awkward thing for me to experience, I’ll be honest.
As someone who doesn’t really like oversharing on social media, or even sharing that much personal information at all there, even just announcing that I wasn’t at THR anymore felt like something I didn’t particularly want to do, for fear of drawing too much attention to myself. It felt somewhat inescapable, however, if only to get the news out as quickly and as broadly as possible, to prevent me from having to tell people over and over again.
In that respect, it was… almost successful? The announcement certainly went wide, judging by the (overwhelming, embarassing) response, and yet I still woke up this morning to pitches from people wanting THR to announce new projects, so… mission nearly accomplished, I guess. It was still better than having to announce it over and over and over again for what likely would’ve been weeks on end.
But that response…! I almost made a joke about knowing what Tom Sawyer felt like, and then finding some uncomfortable way to work in that it’s always been the case because I’m a white straight male in a racist United States, but… that whole thing about being at your own funeral felt particularly true as I got compliments both directly and indirectly — honestly, perhaps the most surreal part of the whole thing — that felt both flattering and horrifically unearned for hours after I posted that I was leaving THR.
I knew, on an objective level, that I was going to have people saying nice things. If nothing else, it’s only polite to sympathize in such a way. I wasn’t prepared for such nice things, though, nor for there to be so much of it. I should, I know, take this as a good thing, and yet. And yet.