Today, I'm going to address a question I wonder about often, directed towards myself. The question is, "Is there anything to you past your articles?" Or, for alternate wording, "Don't you ever feel like people know everything about you because you have so many candid articles?"
Truth be told, I am a very candid person and the definition of an open book in a few ways. Of course, you'll gain a great sense of who I am as a person by reading my articles. You'll begin to understand my personality if you've never met me before, and will know a lot about my life/life story.
For instance, I've written a coming out article, a piece on having the INFJ personality type, and several works on my various passions. The articles I've already written are more than enough to piece together a large part of my life and personality.
However, there's a lot you don't, and probably won't, know, especially if we aren't close. There's a lot that goes on behind closed doors. This isn't to say that I'm not an honest or genuine writer, though.
I do try to be as down-to-earth as possible in my work and I pride myself on being real with myself and with you all in these articles. But there's far too much to include in each 500-word or so piece, and there's even too much to imply.
My article about rushing for sorority recruitment sparked the renewal of my question. So many people told me that they read my article and were proud of me, which I am very grateful for. This praise did make me think, though, because thousands of people, some of which I do not know, now know something personal about me.
Every story has unspoken details. Usually, I don't have difficulty being vulnerable, but I don't want people to think they know me on a personal level because they read my articles. Sure, you can reach out to me or befriend me – I've no problem with that. I just don't like people jumping to conclusions and thinking they can nail my personality and life story to a tee.
Assumptions have a lot of potential to be incorrect, and judging someone based on their art/work will only result in perhaps some correct perceptions of that artist. It's silly that I worry about whether people see me for who I am, but it happens. As long as I know that there's so much more to me, that's what matters.
I write articles and those articles encompass much of who I am as a person, but they do not define me.