About Me — Pascal_writes
A self-introduction to me and my intentions on Medium
Disclaimer
I’ll start by saying that writing this intro does feel somewhat uncomfortable. But perhaps not for the reasons you might assume. It isn’t about feeling vulnerable or being socially withdrawn or awkward. What it comes down to for me, and this is directly influenced by my IT background, is that sharing anything private with anyone, and especially on a public online platform like this one, sits somewhere on the below continuum, depending on the details that are included… or not.
Short Public Service Announcement (PSA)
It’s highly recommended not to include details such as your full birth date, home address, phone number, and so on, anywhere in your texts. Identity theft, doxxing and similar things can result from freely sharing this sort of information publicly. Protect your privacy — Don’t fall victim to the malicious agents out there. And that’s all I wanted to say about that.
My intentions with writing
Back to me… As uncomfortable as this may feel, it does make a lot of sense to me that writing an intro piece is a great way to connect with others within and outside of this publication. So I have chosen to make this my first post on Medium. I am new to the platform and as a “public writer” too. Up to now, my writing has been done most extensively for work purposes, along with a healthy amount of thoughtful personal messages sent for non-work purposes.
In recent years I have found myself looking back at what I’ve done so far in my life and I thought that some of it might be of interest and probably even helpful for others to hear about. An interesting mix of experiences and perspectives on various aspects of life is what I want to contribute. Making connections, sharing useful information, learning from others, generally having a positive impact on other people’s lives, as well as hopefully being able to earn some sort of income from all of this sure feels like it’s worth having a go at.
My background
I grew up in Canada where I enjoyed a multicultural and multi-ethnic environment at school, as well as with respect to who my friends have been. My earliest passion which continues to this day and has seen a resurgence since the latter part of 2021 specifically is playing chess. I’m not particularly good at it, but I’m also not completely bad.
Another hobby that I’ve carried out since my teenage years is riding motorcycles. Small to medium-size ones. A third one is anything to do with computers in general, which have remained a constant in my life. As an example, I remember playing chess games over email through a website that used to be called the “Internet Chess Server” (ICS), as well as sending my first electronic messages overseas some years later using a network called FidoNet. I wonder if either one of those mentions also made you feel a twinge of nostalgia just now?
As a teenager, I did TaeKwon-Do for a while but stopped just short of attaining a black belt. I would later train for kickboxing and, regrettably, be forced to quit before I could pursue my goal of taking part in amateur full contact fights, due to distance issues. At some other point down the road, after having moved to the US, I became the proud owner of a giant dog for a few short years. Unfortunately, my dog’s life was cut short due to chronic seizures that couldn’t be explained or fully managed properly. And while it wasn’t my first dog, and I had owned cats and other pets as a child, this last one convinced me to never have a pet again.
By now, my IT career was well underway and I enjoyed visiting the country while traveling for work. Some years passed and I started to go overseas as a tourist, which is another passion of mine that continues to this day. I eventually risked everything to change careers and become an English Teacher overseas to pursue that, which brings me to this day.
Fun fact: I attended a boarding school for roughly the first two years of high school, and one of the classes I was required to take during that time was Latin.
Some run-of-the-mill stats: I’m single, child-free, and I’m always happy to watch a good horror movie to relax right before going to bed. Do you think that’s unusual?
I look forward to reading and responding to your comments, and I hope that you’ll follow me on my journey on Medium and find value in what I write.
All the best,
Pascal
PS: You may also want to read how Taekwon-Do Helped Make Me Who I Am or How A Near-fatal Skydiving Mishap Increased My Self-Confidence.
