Renaissance Man on the Internet

Yeah, I really do all of this stuff. And honestly, I’m okay with that now.

So it’s about time I came clean with my online identity.

I do a lot of really interesting, varied things.

Phew, I finally came out and said it. See, I've been stressing about this for the past ten or so years. My online identity has always been carefully tailored to show the world a focused, marketable, top-notch professional in [insert current field here]. It was either photography, web design, programming, history education, technology education, or some other pigeonhole that I recently moved to. Every year or two I had to expunge my online existence and prepare it for future “potential employers” to peruse secretly and at their leisure. It is exhausting to cultivate this sort of appearance. That’s what the marketers and the social networking pros tell you to do — focus on your market, produce nothing but that, and make sure that you present the most professional appearance possible (or at least make sure your appearance is what you want it to be). Maybe I missed the message completely.

I have worked my way through forums, I have been very careful where I use my usernames, and I have created online personas to facilitate my business. It has all been very stressful.

Do you know what I realized?

Nobody cares.

In reality, I do a dozen different things. I am a photographer with many interests, I am a writer of science fiction and academic history (I’ll finish that second Master’s degree someday), I am a designer of many things (especially interfaces). I am a teacher and an educator, I am a surrogate parent to some of my former students, and now I am an entrepreneur seeking success in the field of educational technology. I am a technology enthusiast with the willingness to tackle any new problem with a smile and a select list of technology-related curse words (i.e., I love the tech, so I’ll live through the frustrations it inherently brings to make it work). Hell, I've even taken an interest in tiny house building and built my own home, soon to be adorned with my own ink illustrations.

Therefore, I think I’ll stop segregating my online life into photography related profiles and blogs, education related profiles and blogs, &c. Since nobody actually seems to care about all of that stuff anyway. That’s honestly why I was so excited to see Medium come to the fore. It’s not that I couldn’t have created the “omniblog” on Wordpress or something. It’s that Medium provides a fresh beginning and a new profile, this time an honest one.

Yes, I do all of these things. Yes, I have beliefs about how the world should and does operate. Yes, I believe I am still a qualified educator despite the fact that I have political views, and I believe I am still a good historian despite the fact that I identify as a photographer and a web developer. It’s somewhat schizophrenic, but it’s also the way I am.