The Blog Abroad’s Top 10 Hate Comments from 2015

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

AWWWWW SCHNAPS?!?! GLO GOT SOME HATERS IN DA HOUSE!?!?!

‘Tis true, my friends. ‘Tis true.

And as I sit here typing this from fetal position in the corner of an abandoned basement, lonely and comforted by the company of my lingering constipation due to such sh*tty comments, I just have to wonder what I did to attract such hate from these nobodies people.

But alas, I’ve wiped all two tears away and I’ve restored my upright position hunched over my laptop to remind you guys that no matter who you are, or what you do, there will always be someone, somewhere who can’t stand the living sh*t out of you.

And there’s a special place in Hell for them yet, I still love them.

Over time, I’ve been fortunate to rack up dozens of publications across sites like The Huffington Post, Elite Daily, Matador Network, and Thought Catalog which you can find an archive of on this blog’s publications page.

Sites I never imagined writing for so soon when I first made it a goal last year.

And of course with that kind of exposure (multiple 50K+ shared articles), comes people who don’t really know you, understand your voice, or try to reason with your thinking. They usually hate you by the first sentence. And that takes a certain level of dedication that’s both admirable and pathetic in the same breath.

So as I look back on a great year of my first taste of syndicated writing, I have to take a moment to appreciate the haters who’ve kept me humble, entertained, and on the losing end of approximately 2.5 seconds of sleep at night. It’s been real, y’all.

1. In Response To: “Stop Asking Me How I Afford to Travel” on The Huffington Post.

“You are rude and ignorant. Who the *bleep* do you think you are? You’re an idiot at worst and disingenuous at best for saying people wonder how you afford to travel internationally.” –Peter Marengo

LOL. Ohhh, Peter. How long has that stick been up there and do you need help pulling it out?

So if you’re new to the party, this article was probably the turning point in my career. I submitted it to The Huffington Post with the title as, “The Problems With the Question ‘How Do You Afford to Travel‘” and in true click-bait fashion, they changed it to what you see above.

This was both the best and worst thing to happen as I found myself on the receiving ends of not only new partnerships with brands, but an onslaught of hate mail and bitterness from people who were offended before they even read a word of the article. Click-bait, for the win!

2. In Response To: “Stop Asking Me How I Afford to Travel” on The Huffington Post.

“I’m so tired of condescending articles written by jerks. You’re a travel blogger for crying out loud!!!! I’ll be skipping your articles in the future.” –Stephanie Nicole

“I’ll be skipping your articles in the future.” LOL, was that a threat? How will I go on without her approval? Stay tuned for next week’s episode of “Articles Skipped by Stephanie” featuring anything with an opinion. *eye roll* Good day and goodbye, I say!

3. In Response To: “Stop Asking Me How I Afford to Travel” on Matador Network.

“You are unbelievably pretentious.” –Kaylin

I guess that’s better than believably pretentious? Lol, I better try harder.

4. In Response To: “Stop Asking Me How I Afford to Travel” on Matador Network.

“Maybe reallocating some of the travel money to an anger management class isn’t the worst of ideas. You should be able to afford it.” –Andrea Andrassy

Ironically, I took anger management classes in high school. Luckily, it was free! Haha. I was such a train wreck growing up, and you’d know if you’ve read “Part 1: The Dream” of my recent e-book, so it’s beautiful to see how much progress I’ve made since.

Andrea, perhaps a lesson in satire wouldn’t bend your budget too much either. I’ll offer them free of charge.

5. In Response To: “Stop Asking Me How I Afford to Travel” on Matador Network.

“She’s probably never worked a day in her life and buys her plane tickets with a trust fund.” –@allrollingwolf

This guy’s onto me! He’s soooo right. I’ve never worked a day in my life, because when you love what you do, it never feels like work!

It’s a shame this trust fund hasn’t yet found its way to my bank account though. Someone please connect the dots here. I wouldn’t mind the help in funding my Nutella addiction!

6. In Response To: “10 Culture Shocks Americans Experience in Spain” on Matador Network.

“Too much slang…” –@razvan

Yo, yo, yo, my bad cuzzo, I wuz thinkin’ dat chu myte undastand deez werdz dat b flowin’ frm ma mouf cuz Im so smoooove wit it. #SorryNotSorry

7. In Response To: “9 Ways Spain Ruined the U.S. For Me” on Matador Network.

“I understand you want to say nice things about my home, but unconsciously your article is so superficial… I am happy you left. You should change the title to: 9 ways Spain proved I’m another dumb U.S. tourist.”

To keep things semi-PG, I couldn’t add the entirety of his comment, but feel free to click through to the article link and scroll to the bottom and read it for yourself.

The article was assigned to me as a satirical job. “Ruined” in this context, was supposed to show how much Spain has spoiled me, hence America just won’t be the same after having lived in Spain.

It was written very tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted, and honestly, the millennial generation is usually/always my target audience for these kind of pieces.

But then you have the older folk who don’t take too kindly to satire or the idea of you toying around with clichés of their country.

In the future, I’ll probably keep the satirical articles for my site only, since my readers know my voice. LOL at being a “dumb U.S. tourist” though! He must not have known that I called myself that daily every time I screwed up a menial task while traveling. Derp!

8. In Response To: “10 Tips For Dating A Girl Who Loves to Travel” on Elite Daily

“Wanderlust. A word mostly used by assholes who never really go anywhere.” –Alex Taylor

…says the guy who’s probably never traveled a day outside of his rear end. Case closed.

9. In Response To: “A Student of the World: Why a Passport is More Important Than a College Degree” on Elite Daily

“Way to promote the increase of stupid, ignorant, and annoying tourists. Education is a privilege and an essential pillar to your being. To forgo it sets you back in gaining the capacity to learn and appreciate anything. Consider your travels kaput.” –Kaoshoua Yang Pha

Another unfortunate case in editors changing my title which was originally “CONFESSION: I’m a College Graduate, But I’ve Used My Passport More Than My Degree” and while the click-bait worked its wonders and several thousands of shares across both Elite Daily and Matador Network came, some people were lost on the title and took it as me disregarding education.

I argued that having a passport and a degree helped me see the true value in both — one has more monetary value (degree), the other intrinsic (passport), and all I did was share my perspective on the matter through my own personal journey. Shout out to Baker University, my alma mater though! #BTID

10. In Response To: “The Best Thing About The Millennial Generation” on Thought Catalog

“The generation that gave us selfies, and YOLO!
FOMO. Promiscuity and the “almost” relationship.
The generation that literally can’t even.
The generation that still mooches off their parents.
Oh, yeah…. you rebel innovators you!” –Anonymous (of course)

Hahahaha, no lie, I actually laughed at his comment because “literally can’t even” was so overused around the time he wrote this, that I was just about sick of that phrase too.

While he may not find use for selfies because he doesn’t need a reflection to see what a worthless, cold-hearted shipwreck he is inside, the blanket statement that we all mooch off our parents is such a lazy generalization, and it seems he must’ve recently lost his job or his girlfriend to a millennial to harbor such unnecessary hate. Either way, sucks to suck.

Fellow travel writers tell me they’d never dare to browse through the comment section, because even with some of the most heart-warming stories on the internet today, if you make the mistake of scrolling too far down, you’ll find an army of people ripping apart the most obsolete detail.

And while criticism and nastiness isn’t something to be afraid of, it might be something you need in moderate doses.

When it comes to compliments and the legion of unbelievably supportive people in my corner, I have to practice running through doors sometimes, to make sure my head still fits through it.

That’s why I never let the good get to my head or the bad get to my heart.

I take it all in, process, absorb, and allocate it where it belongs, then move on with my life.

At the end of the day, the approval of the Man Upstairs and the lady in the mirror is all I’m after. Everything else is just extra.

So if you’re an aspiring writer or blogger looking to publish your first pieces beyond your blog, but you’re hesitant due to this very reason — trolls and internet bullies stealing your shine, I promise you, the sick satisfaction they try to get from being mean to others doesn’t even come close to the real satisfaction you get from having published work online.

So now that the fun is over, I’m gonna go hug myself, eat some cake, and freeze the tears of my sadness to ice my next glass of champagne.

And thanks to you all for sticking in my corner despite being a rude, ignorant, unbelievably pretentious, uncontrollably angry, slang-swangin’, trust-funded, dumb U.S. asshole tourist!  Whew! I should use that as a byline on my resumé.

Cheers!