When I was a child my life was whole.
Everything I did revolved around: my parents, my house, my brothers, and my friends. They all fit nicely together. Then as I grew older pieces of my life started to stand on their own, apart from each other. School became a place that was separate from the rest of my life. My school friends were different than my “home” friends, and the two didn’t mix, except maybe once a year for birthday parties.
As I became a teenager, the things I talked about with my friends became separate from what I talked about with my family. My basketball friends were different than my “hanging out” friends, which were different from my “home” friends.
This type of fragmentation continued and reached a peak when I was in college. I related to people based on how I knew them; work, school, family, friends, church, sports, etc. The contact I had with people, and the way I acted, varied with each group. My life was fragmented, and at times I really didn’t know who I really was. At my core I was a whole person, but the different facets of my life were very different, and sometimes at odds with each other.
After College, I moved to a new state, I had a new life, and I began re-arranging it (sometimes unconsciously) into the things that were important to me. Now that I’m married with children my personal life is on an even keel, family mesh nicely with my friends and and their wives and kids, and my parents, etc.
My professional and “online life” was altogether different. My web presence was divided into my different online activities. In one place I would talk about upcoming public speaking events, in another I would write about gluten free news, another graphic design, and just about anywhere else I would be discussing internet marketing or social media. We all wear different “hats” throughout the day, but in order to simplify my professional life, and my online activities I created this website that allows me to put the pieces back together.
