Here's to 3 Years of Josh off the Press: On Substack

(C6) In a refreshing way, I feel like I have just scratched the Surface in what I have written

The Substack platform does a good job of providing prompts for writers, to remind them capitalize certain promotions or reunions. I saw a flash symbol the other week that said,

“Congrats, you have been writing for three years on Substack, go write an anniversary post.”

I don’t have a great desire to make this post with all the bells and whistles, but it is also nice to sometimes stop and smell the roses every now and then.

Also, before I continue - Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely ladies that give our planet human life and sustain us as a species!

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Having the opportunity to write about what I want, and express myself in this type of way, is a truly rewarding passion project. If my mom didn’t birth me, I wouldn’t even be able to do this.

I have seen the Substack platform grow tremendously over the last few years. It’s cool to be a part of it. While I always want my audience to grow, my purpose and reason for this blog/newsletter is for my own sense of fulfillment over anything else.

My primary goal is to express myself, and to also be able to have my writing resonate with people in a way that makes them want to come back to read more. And the highest compliment you could ever give me, is to share my work with other people that you think might enjoy it.

The more focused I am on my craft and being able to create great written work, the more I realize everything else will take care of itself. Whenever I have worried too much about what other people are doing, that’s when I stumble.

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I think back to this quote from a great movie made in 1994 With Honors. The story is about a Harvard student (named Monty) who is a bit of a snob who strikes up a friendship with a homeless man (named Simon) who is initially living in the basement of Harvard’s library, as he is an avid reader, himself.

Obviously that story above sounds somewhat boring as is, so there had to be a plot twist where Simon gets kicked out of the library and somehow, it’s Monty’s fault. But not only that, Simon somehow got a hold of the rough draft of Monty’ Senior Thesis Paper as leverage over him. And this is where the story gets more interesting.

The video below shows Simon, the character Joe Pesci plays giving Monty the character Brandon Fraser plays a bit of a truth serum.

“Winners forget they’re in a race. They just love to run.”

- Simon in his exchange with Monty. WITH HONORS

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I have seen this movie a few times, and every time I hear that quote, it gives me chills. It reminds me of my purpose in life and anchors me in a way that keeps me clear about how I best want to live my life.

Not all of us can necessarily do what we love for a living. But we should continue to do what we love for fun.

Hopefully we like what we do for a living. I like teaching, I love writing. And the pursuit of both actually compliments each other. The clearer I write, the better I teach. The more I teach about good writing, the better the results are for my students.

Here’s to everyone finding a pursuit that they love and making the time to pursue it!

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In the three years I have been writing on Substack, I have published over 100 stories. That’s pretty cool. In the six years I wrote publicly prior to Substack, I published 36 stories on WordPress. Clearly something is working better with me now than before.

If you are curious to know which of my work was in the “Pre-Substack days” then just look at the number in the Subtitle section of my story. They go from I, II, III, all the way to XXXV and XXXVI.

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For example, I did a Thanksgiving 2024 story, titled like this.

Election Year Thanksgivings are always the most fun!

97) In my family, it's a bit of a pastime to talk politics at the dinner table.

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For my 1st through 99th story on Substack, it goes like 1,2,3, making its way up to 8 and 9 fairly quickly to 19 then 23, before I knew it, I had 45 stories, then 55 stories, then 62 all the way to 98 stories. By the time I got to that many stories I forgot I was supposed to memorialize Story #100 in a spectacular way, that I just kept on writing.

I’m back to Roman Numerals. They look something like this -

• C - 100

• C1 - 101

• C2 - 102

For now, the numbers are pretty simple. Hopefully they don’t get too clumsy. But I do like to keep track of what number posts I write. Even if it is just a vain indulgence, I appreciate you all humoring me.

Also, I’d like to thank people in advance for sticking with my newsletter when I dive into sports, namely basketball. I realize to a number of you those stories aren’t your cup of tea.

BTW - As of this publication date, the Knicks are up 2-1 on the defending NBA Champion Celtics in this 2025 playoffs. How about that!?

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Part of me flirts with the idea of creating a separate Substack just for Sports. But part of me also thinks, it’s not hard for my readers to skip over my sports stories if you really don’t like them.

It’s still a debate in my head. Maybe some of you will provide me some type of feedback on this matter to try and sway me into splitting my Substack into two publications, or leaving it as is.

Here’s your chance to have your voice heard:

In the interest of transparency, I’m showing how my subscribers have voted. If I get 10 votes or 100 votes, you will see the vote break-down.

Don’t worry, it’s all anonymous. I see that some of you are shy in liking my posts and commenting, but here your vote is 100% anonymous.

You just get the benefit of seeing the vote tally and how many of my readers actually voted.

Don’t skip out! Your vote and your voice matters!

And no matter what, I hope you continue to enjoy great content from this publication.

Until next time!

-JPJ