And now I'm wondering exactly how much I should post about all that stuff because I'm looking into teaching and I don't know how parents would feel about having their children taught by someone who writes about the ocassional schizophrenic nature of sexuality. I don't exactly live in a liberal city. Perhaps if I lived in Austin...mmmmm, Austin. Good live music. Vegetarian foods. Public transportation and a top notch creative writing program at UT....slobber! slobber!
Thoughts?
4 comments:
Thoughts? You want thoughts? Oh I'll give you some thoughts alright. :)
1. About putting personal stuff out where future parents of students may be able to find it, I can see why you're concerned. We as reasonable people know there's nothing wrong with you or what you write about, but a group of reasonable people is not what we're dealing with. We're dealing with parents who watch 20/20 specials about "The ex-con... who's also your daughter's FIRST GRADE TEACHER!", always on the lookout for something weird, and yes, in an area not exactly known for it's liberal tides. My solution? Blog under a fake name. I've been doing it for YEARS. And part of why is that I know it's common practice these days for potential employers to google job applicants' names. Do they need to know that I hate capitalism, eat a vegan diet, and swear by psychotherapy and chiropractic? Nooooooooo.
2) LOVE your essay. When I was in high school - high school! - some girl actually stopped me in the hall to ask me if I was a boy or a girl. OK, I was wearing army pants and big black boots, but jesus, I had hair down to my waist and a very feminine face... aarg. People are so dumb.
I'm with Melissa Bastian (who's name, apparently, is NOT Melissa Bastian!). Blog uh-non-uh-mussly. I used to. When I decided to not be anonymous I had to make a bunch of decisions about what I was going to put up. If you don't want to restrict yourself, yeah, just change your name. I'd be all over that if I posted sensitive stuff that employers or coworkers or whoever would freak about, or maybe make ME uncomfortable about sharing.
Oh, and I don't know if I'd move to Texas just yet, either, although I was randomly pondering that move a few short years ago, and I'm pondering picking up and just taking off yet again. There's a 99% certainty I wouldn't, but it makes for a lovely daydream.
I would, however, LOVE to just pick up on a Thursday and take of for a four day weekend somewhere on a road trip, preferably behind the wheel of some vehicle that was at least forty years old.
If you choose not to write about your personal life online you should still write about it in a journal, cocktail napkin or whatever you have sitting around.
I'm with everyone else here though, write under a pseudonym. It's been working for me for ages.
I think I will continue this thing under a different name. Thanks, dudes!
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