Hello world !
It seems like the correct way to start off this Steemit adventure is to introduce oneself. It's not my forte but I'll give it a try, as this is the point of me being on Steemit.
My real name is Eline Zhang although I'd rather use Eli or ZE online. My personnal life is not secret but I always feel more comfortable using a pseudonym, as if it helped me better compartimentalize different parts of my life.
The part of me I like to share with the world, is one of a person who likes to draw, write, sing and play guitar, who's really into Harry Potter, a tat LGBT oriented. Someone who sleeps a lot, wants people to cheer up, who seeks interaction and who shies away from drama. Someone who seem to like to share their life openly but truth be told there is much I don't talk about. Especially if you want to be a positive presence on the web, why bother anyone with all the grim nonsense of life ?
Today I choose to share a bit more here. Not because Steemit seems like the place to share personal stuff, but because I want to try something else, have a new experience here and this is where it starts.
You have to be careful when sharing information about yourself, surely don't broadcast your phone number or credit card number for the world to see, but where do you draw the line ? Those who are more careful would say to keep everything personnal private, restrict permission, control access. Those who are most careful would advise not putting anything about you online. Yet most of us embrace the internet and its many sharing platforms, we thrive in infinite supplies of content, we build social webs of our own through these platforms. We like to talk about our day, hear about other people's day, share ideas, find peers. To me internet is not just a tool but a whole other part of the world, dematerialised but very real. And as much as in the real physical world, you can either choose to be true to yourself or put up appearances, I make the conscious choice of appearing on the web as true to myself as I am IRL.
IRL, I am 25. I live in Paris. I was born in France although both my parents where born in China. Genetically you could say I'm 100% chinese, I look chinese, I grew up reasonably surrounded by chinese culture, but I am French. I am a 3D digital artist and I currently work at Mikros Animation on a French 3D movie that should come out this winter 2018. I am efficient, hardworking and I'd say as friendly as I am discreet. I try to open myself to the people around me but it still is a conscious effort.
Describing oneself is quite a challenge when you have no confidence in yourself or what you could say about yourself. I am very much affected by the infamous Impostor Syndrome and I'm always afraid that whatever I might say about myself might change and one day proven wrong and that I would then be called a liar, a pretender. But people change, things change, ideas change and what is true today might not be true tomorrow, I have to accept that and yet I'd like to empathize on that point. Whatever I write today, might completely be irrelevant tomorrow. So don't take it for granted.
After all this all this rambling on, I guess I should explain what type of content could be expected from me. I draw, I write, I roleplay, I work on 3D animation movies, I'm French, of Chinese origins, I struggle with LGBT issues and mental health issues. Life is full of things and a person cannot be limited to a simple title or a few adjectives. I intend to share a bit more about my writing process, the roleplay dynamic and how it serves as inspiration in my art, as it is what I enjoy most sharing. But there may be much more, other things, other thoughts. I am not a column in a newspaper, I am a person and everything that comes with it. I hope some of you will enjoy coming along for this little ride on life with me.
Either way, it's nice to meet you.