All These Different Parts of Me

I started writing when I was very small. Journaling, specifically. Then...I never stopped. I wrote so often that I never thought to identify as a writer until sometime in 2011. (Realizing I was a writer was like realizing that I breathed). 

Writing is one of my many talents and passions, all of which I separate from each other as I go about my daily life. I travel in different social circles, showing one or two aspects of my nature in each environment. There are places I write, places I sing, places I teach, places I lead, places I serve. All these different places each see a different part of me. There are people who know me as a published author but have no idea that I am a singer/songwriter. And people who know me as a teacher but have no idea that I have a very rich spiritual life. There are people who know that I love Jesus but don't know that I study music at Connecticut College. 

Why do I do this? I think I fear showing my full self. And then I think it's often not convenient or polite to tell everyone EVERYTHING that I'm doing.

The choices I'm making are not necessarily wrong. I’m not lying about myself to people. And nobody is ignoring me or doing me any sort of injustice.

I’m showing everyone a true, real, authentic PART of who I am.

But yet something about this seems incomplete, don’t you think?

I’ve divided myself up into all of these different worlds. I am the Student, Small Business Owner, Writer, Trainer, Curriculum Developer, Teacher, Singer, Songwriter, Dancer, YouTuber and really I should stop listing things because it stresses me out to think of all the hats I can wear on a given day (did I mention that somewhere in all of this I ended up bilingual?).

Now I return to being a blogger, which is like journaling, but on the internet, which makes it both more exciting and less safe.

Blogging is an endeavor I took up in 2011 when I co-founded Show & Tell (tagline: SHOW who you are and TELL your story because YOU ARE important) with Photographer Karen Schlink. I let her fly solo on the project in 2012 so I could focus on my book and my music (focus is a relative term).

This blog is a response to two requests put out by the Patch community. I received one email encouraging entrepreneurs to blog and another asking people to blog about faith.

So, I planned to start blogging on Patch using two different “parts” of myself. I would be the author/educator, commenting on my life in children’s programming in one forum. And then, separately, of course, I would be the Christian, meditating on my spiritual life, including the connection between my faith and my music. 

Yet tonight, as I returned from an event at Connecticut College and made a cup of tea before taking an online quiz, I realized something.

I only need one blog.

Because I am only one person.

There is only one me. And I hope that you will welcome my whole self to this online community and that you will look forward to engaging with me as much as I look forward to sharing myself with you. 

It is nice to meet you.

Anna Westbrook
Creative, Eclectic, Professional.