There’s something funny and stupid about self identifying: I’m a writer, or a gardener, a consultant, or a traveller. Really these are just labels, tools for narrowing & self-identifying . But what actually gives us the authority to adopt any of these labels? Is just writing enough to call yourself a writer? Or do you have to be paid for it? How much time does a person need to spend in their garden? How many countries before travelling can become your main personality trait?
A few days ago I wrote the word “writer’ in my LinkedIn bio. It felt kind of silly, imagining how it was going to read to the people that know me. I felt like maybe I didn’t have the validity to call myself this. Even a “content writer”, which is what I really wrote – for the purpose of finding a job. Do I know how to write content?
I’ve never been paid to write. So what gives me the authority to call myself one, professionally? There’s an aspect of fake it till you make it – finally feeling brave enough. And deciding to choose my own story. Feeling fed up with doing the work I’ve found myself doing, being active instead of reactive. I know I’ve spent a long time trying to fit into other people’s ideas of me – assistant, admin-person, side-table. Maybe that’s why it’s important to adopt your own label, telling people who you are instead of waiting for them to tell you. Yet I also know how fake it sounds, at least to me. And how limiting.
Like when a label becomes your whole identity. Captain Haddock, for example. We know who he is, what he does. We know he’s going to sail at some point. But what is he outside of the sea? Is he still a captain. We call him one even though he’s not on the ocean right now. Am I a writer even when I’m not writing? Or professionally?
I used to consider myself a filmmaker, but it was always a somewhat forced label. What does it mean to be a filmmaker when you don’t really make films? Or at least if you haven’t made one for a very long time. Maybe calling yourself a filmmaker when you don’t make films, have never made films, no longer want to make films is a little like calling yourself a Marquis after the monarchy has been abolished because your father’s father’s father was one. What does a marquis do? Surely we should ditch the old labels. What’s the use of them outside of our doing the thing they point towards.
Your labels, identity, the things you associate yourself with change. We can adopt new labels that feel right, throw the old ones away. Maybe it really is as easy as updating your LinkedIn bio. When I call myself a writer I make a promise to myself, this is what I’m going to do. And I trust myself enough that I tell other people, too. Maybe that’s what a label is, a captain will sail, a writer will write, a gardener will garden, maybe not now but at some point, and maybe not anymore but once.
