Yeah, your story is quite similar to mine with the one difference that I've been active every year since 2015, both as reader and writer. I was invited to the partner program very early on, and I was like, nah, maybe someday, for now I'll just do it for free because I like writing anyway, and did so until the end of October 2021. We live in a world of instant gratification. They think that writers here making 3-4 figures a month (and yes, I'm in that group too) got there overnight. Makes me laugh when they moan about making $20 in the first year from their 150 pity-followers. I had three followers in the first year and zero bucks but I was still happy. Those who moan that people need to put food on the table, need to get a job and do writing on the side until they make it (or not). I have a full-time job as a software engineer, not nuts enough to think that sitting and writing on Medium is suddenly gonna bring me a 6 figure salary overnight!