TLDR: I wanted to create an introduction that really spoke to who I am, but this turned out to be a bigger task than initially anticipated so I’ve decided to write it in sections. This first post will just provide the reasoning for reintroducing myself and a short origin story.
There’s a small handful of you here who already know me, some from Prison Hooch ( @hive-194670), a few from the Rucking group ( @hive-185384), maybe one or two from the home for indigenous woodwinds at QuenaSabor ( @hive-158471), and maybe a couple from my posts in the Magick group ( @hive-171740) and Instrument Porn ( @hive-139030 …which is, by the way, a group dedicated to pictures of musical instruments, not band camp stories about the misuse of them :)
…and one knows me from the former home for my eclectic interests, Reddit. Many thanks to @quochuy. He suggested 3Speak when I told him I was looking for a new video hosting site, and proceeded to help guide me through some of the more confusing stages of getting started on the blockchain once I had my account. I had my doubts about Hive blogging when I first joined, but my love for this community blossomed almost immediately. Now it’s my exclusive online home.
Reasoning for Re-Introduction
So when I started, I was told I should make an introduction post. I was thinking, ok, no one really cares to read about me or my whatever, so woo woo woo, here’s a paragraph about me aaaaaaaand, I’m done. Fortunately, they followed up with me and linked some examples. This was my moment of questioning. These posts were awesome. They were in depth, interesting, peppered with photos and formatting…I wondered if I could keep up. But I tried, and it went well, and I began to remember how much I used to enjoy the art of writing.
At that time, I made an honest effort to put together the best introduction I could think to make (Original Introduction), but what I see when I look back at that post, is that I didn’t yet know the community to whom I was speaking, nor who I would be within it. It is for this reason primarily that I’ve decided to re-introduce myself, and to do so in a context which is meaningful against the background of my anticipated role in the community, and who I am to this earth.
Anyway, this is already getting long and I haven’t even started, so let’s get into it.
Despite efforts to find a concise way to do this, I just kept finding that there are so many facets I want to share that I’ve decided to do it in pieces. I’m going to start by introducing myself as it pertains to a few of my groups, because these are of course big parts of who I am and what makes me, and because it’s becoming clear that I will need to divide my “self” into digestible segments if I want to do anything real.
Have you ever considered that we are only what we choose to be? And what that really means? To the best of what I’ve been able to determine so far, at least psychologically, “We” (as in each of our individual personalities or personas) basically boil down to a system of likes and dislikes, and it is entirely possible to change all of these as our awareness expands; therefore, “who” or “what” you are, in terms of your flesh persona, is entirely your choice. I say this because I want to clarify that, as far as I’m concerned, I really can’t introduce “myself,” because I can’t say who I always was anymore than I can tell you who I’ll always be. Instead, I can tell you who I am in this moment, who I was in some other distant snapshots, and perhaps how I came from there to here.
When I started this I intended a single post, so I apologize that Part 1 of my reintroduction is nothing more than the reasoning behind it, but I hope to unfold my story in a way that is interesting, informative, and helps define the type of character and content I intend to bring to the Hive community…in other words, I hope I can make it worth your while!
Origin Story
Yup, that cute little dude was me at one time. Of course, by now literally every cell that made up my body and it’s components has long since died and been replaced, but the same developing consciousness that was behind those eyes resides within this ever changing body, even today.
I was born in Ft. Monroe, Virginia. My father was in the army and my mother stayed home with the kids. Both of my parents spent time with us and did their best to make our lives happy and fun while teaching us the basics of how to survive this thing called society.
I spent the first several years in Norfolk, Virginia. At about the age of 7, we moved to spend one year in Germany. From Germany, we moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia for a year, and then went in to spend a couple years in Texas. While moving around like that did a lot to shape my shapelessness, I had a profound experience at the age of 10, in Copperas Cove, Texas.
Looking at these, it’s hard to believe I turned out as handsome as I did!
Another kid had gotten ahold of the anarchist’s cookbook, and had made napalm from the instructions therein. It was in a disposable plastic cup, surrounded by dry grass in the Texas heat, next to a wooden picket fence, and I felt obliged to put it out as quickly as I could. Like most 10 year old kids, I was extremely overzealous in this endeavor, and I stomped with all my might. The cup collapsed and the napalm within was displaced, splattering my face with a viscous fiery liquid.
I learned a lot from this, but at 10 years of age the biggest thing was that now I was lumped in with the “different” kids. I am thankful for this in every way. Kids can be mean, but by being outcast for my damaged appearance, I learned much about the value of seeing others for what lies beneath the surface.
From Texas we moved to New York, and from New York we moved, just in time for my senior year of high school, to a densely populated town in Maryland, far from any military base. For the first time, we moved somewhere where people didn’t know what it was like to be the new kid. Here I further learned isolation. How to be alone in a crowd, how to enjoy the peace of solitude…the respite of being unwanted - These things have their benefits if we are willing to believe it is so.
After failing a few classes in my first year at community college and totaling my car. I was tired of disappointing my family and wanted to be free to learn life the hard way without their witnessing, so I joined the army. At the age of 19 years, I processed through MEPS in Baltimore and was shipped of to South Carolina to begin training…
I think this will be a good time to transition to the next section, so for today, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and I look forward to unfolding more soon!
