Manuel in a recent blogpost:
I also don’t consider myself a writer. Which is funny because when I get asked to describe what I do the most succinct definition I often use is “writer of code and words” since that is what I spend my time doing in front of this screen. But reflecting on the use of these words made me wonder what even is this thing I’m doing here on this site.
I find this intriguing, because I feel the same. I don't see myself as a writer. Nor a blogger. Nor a coder, project manager, photographer, data analyst, reader, or whatever other label you can think of.
Instead, I am someone who writes, and blogs, and takes pictures, and manages projects, and goes to the gym, and reads, and so on. I might sometimes use a label because it is easier for people to grasp, but I don't feel like any of these terms is my identity.
I've recently started watching movies about ordinary life. They are a mix of slow cinema and slice-of-life.
If you have the attention span of a TikToker, you will hate them. Nothing explodes. No one saves the universe. In fact, plot-wise, nothing really happens.
But I love them.
One of these movies was Paterson.
Spoiler territory, stop reading if you want to watch the movie.
What I liked about it is that Paterson could easily call himself a poet. But he doesn't. He is someone who writes poetry.
His wife, Laura, is almost the opposite. She is constantly trying on new identities and imagining new versions of herself. Neither approach is presented as wrong, and both seem perfectly happy living the way they do.
But I feel much closer to Paterson.
Maybe that is also why labels have never felt particularly useful to me. My interests are eclectic, but I don't need every interest to become something I am.