The Future Is That Mountain — IN REGARDS TO SINCE SHE LEFT

IN REGARDS TO SINCE SHE LEFT

Noticing how some people are throwing fits over the departure of Rebecca Rae from the site Since She Left, attacking Mike Waskom, and generally overreacting, I thought I’d share my thoughts. Especially since I consider Mike a friend, and I think I know why he did what he did.

Number one: Something everyone should first consider, the site is called Since She Left, not Since You Left, which is what you might think it’d be called had Mike and Rebecca Rae founded it together. Mike created it. Mike cultivated it. Rebecca Rae found his work so appealing, so inspiring, that she asked to be a part of it. Mike was gracious enough to let her be… for a while. For anyone to now call Mike a bad writer, or say Rebecca Rae’s posts were the only redeeming part, is disingenuous.

Number two: It looks like Mike is taking Since She Left in a new direction. Notice now how even his name is absent from the site. Considering he just moved to New York, has two jobs, and may be trying to write for publications (online or otherwise) that pay him, he probably doesn’t have much time to dedicate to Since She Left. (It should be noted: Rebecca Rae wasn’t contributing much more than a sporadic paragraph or two shortly before her departure, either.) Here’s what I think:

Mike is going to make Since She Left more submission based. I determined this after I saw “Submit” is now one of four remaining links on the left-hand column of the site. This is great because it means you, the reader, get to contribute your own tales of heartbreak for all to read, thus becoming an integral part of the Since She Left experience yourself. For the people, by the people. We all associated with the emotions and experiences Mike and Rebecca Rae wrote about; perhaps soon we’ll have the opportunity to share our own (with quite a large following, I might add).

It’s very easy to lash out without knowing all the facts, to name-call, to “un-follow”, or dish dirt on your personal site instead of handling matters privately, but ultimately this is Mike’s baby. If I know anything about Mike, he’s got your best interests in mind. You, the person who has been reading his site all along. He appreciates your adoration and dedication. If my assumptions are correct, he wants to make you all a bigger part of it.

I say, give the guy time to take a deep breath, to gather his thoughts, and tell you what he has in store. More than likely, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The Whiskey Monologues (who for the last time is not me) is exactly correct, and says everything I wanted to say about this topic. Additionally, I’ll point out that I offered Rebecca to continue to contribute via the /submit link, which she refused. We split the cost of the domain name, she didn’t pay for it. I also did not delete the posts she made, I simply made them private, so that I could email them to her at a later date, precisely because I’m not an inconsiderate prick. It’s interesting the vilification process that happens in a meme driven community. Notwithstanding, Rebecca Rae can be found here, as I’m sure she’ll continue to write and share her thoughts on the world. The site is going to change, and like in life, we can either change with it, or be left behind.