Hey, ... Update

As I stated somewhere in the hundreds of comments below my text "Hey, Fat Girl", I stopped coming back to this post a long time ago. Obviously, it has taken a life of its own, and I was always touched and happy when someone would send me a comment or e-mail about it, about them and their journey, and about how they were inspired by my humble words.

A little while ago, some of you have started contacting me about a Facebook post, from someone who ran "at the Westview track". You were angry, calling the author a plagiarist, even trying to do something to make it known to the world. I replied "It's fine, it's the message that matters", thinking the other text was perceived as inspirational and uplifting. I put my personal appreciation of it to the side and went back to other things.

But then something happened. An absolute stranger named Tony decided to react to the text. Himself on a journey to health, he used strong, firm words against the "Westview" text, but made sure to disassociate it from mine at the very beginning. I was very touched, and sent him a thank you message.

Lines of messages after lines of messages, Tony and I discussed about the whole story, about inspiration, and about how "Hey, Fat Girl" had come to life on a work day morning some time ago. He got curious about my fat girl, so I told him something no one in the Internet world knew, because it was never intended to be known. The fat girl in my story existed, but she was a man, and one of my best friends.

Tony asked if that friend, Dan, would like to talk with him. He did.

And this is what happened.

I am speechless. Honored that a perfect stranger who knows from very personal experience what it is to be judged made the difference between my text and another. But, most of all, I am delighted that my little words traveled all around the world to come to a full circle, linking two admirable men from different hemispheres of the planet by the immense respect I have for them. Both.



Qu'un texte devienne populaire sur Internet, c'est gratifiant. Que ce même texte unisse deux parfaits étrangers de chaque côté du monde, et qu'il célèbre tout le respect et l'admiration que j'ai pour eux, c'est extraordinaire.