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Virality moves fast.
Faster than the body. Faster than meaning. Faster than intention.
People talk about reach and numbers. They talk about influence. But they rarely talk about what happens once your words leave you and begin multiplying inside other people.
I did not think about this enough. I say that gently. I participated willingly.
I shared a short video about my experience with the Angel Tree donation system. I thought of it as small. Personal. One story among many. Before this, a viral post for me meant around 500,000 views. Even that felt like a lot. Attention arrived quickly. Messages piled up. People offered their own stories. I felt connection and overwhelm side by side.
Then this video crossed a different threshold.
12.7 million views.
1.6 million likes.
11.7 thousand comments.
Numbers feel tidy. The experience did not.
I was flooded. Gratitude poured in. So did anger. Pain. Correction. Memory. People thanked me. People argued with me. People argued with each other. Many spoke from sincerity. Many spoke from places I would never reach.
Then PEOPLE Magazine reached out.
This is where the double edge sharpened.
I feel grateful. I want to say that clearly. Grateful for the exposure. Grateful for the people who found me and said, you sound like home. Grateful for how this moment moved me closer to goals I have carried quietly for a long time.
Those things matter.
At the same time, I felt sober. Clear. Aware of how quickly a single story escaped my hands. How fast it stretched and shifted and grew louder than I ever expected.
This experience taught me something about misinformation. It rarely begins with bad intent. It begins with perception.
You speak from your lived experience. You choose your words with care. Then those words enter millions of minds shaped by different families, losses, beliefs, and fears.
One hundred people read the same piece of writing. One hundred meanings take root.
You do not get to guide how your words land.
Someone hears scarcity. Someone hears grief. Someone hears accusation. Someone hears relief. Each response feels true to the person holding it.
Then the story moves again. Someone retells it. Context thins. Tone shifts. Meaning bends. No one lies. The message still changes. Virality speeds this process. It flattens nuance. It favors certainty. It rewards statements that feel finished.
But life rarely feels finished.
I noticed the pull to clarify. To explain again. To respond so people would understand what I meant. I wanted to hold the story steady in my hands.
It would not stay.
This is where the work began.
People responded through their own lens because they are human. I felt shaken because I am human too. At some point, I had to choose where to stand.
I could chase understanding from strangers. Or I could return to my own center.
Returning inward felt quiet. It felt grounding. It meant allowing some misunderstandings to exist without chasing them down. It meant trusting my intention even when the response felt messy. It meant staying connected to my body instead of the numbers on a screen.
This does not mean silence. It means discernment.
Speak when your body feels steady. Pause when you feel yourself performing. Stay close to people who know you without context. Touch something solid. Drink water. Breathe without narrating it.
Your story belongs to you first. Once you share it, you release control. Being seen at scale brings opportunity and distortion at the same time. Connection and confusion. Gratitude and gravity.
The work lives in holding both.
I will keep telling my stories. I will keep reminding myself they begin and end with a real person. I am moving forward slower than the internet moves, grateful for the reach, awake to the weight, and committed to staying rooted while the noise passes.
~
author: Madeline Lillis
Image: Author's own
Editor: Nicole Cameron
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