On Bits and Pieces

A friend of mine recently asked me why I use a pseudonym, or a pen name, when I’m writing my articles. I wasn’t really sure how to answer him – it’s hard to explain to someone that you ARE getting credit for your articles, just under a different name. Ever since he asked me, I've been trying to figure out a way to explain it in a way that hopefully more people than just me will understand.

Names and who we are is reflected in one statement: I am. I am Amy-Leigh. I am a writer. I am a girlfriend and I am a sister and I am a daughter. I am imperfect and I am tolerant. I’d like to believe that I am open-minded. Everything we are is supposed to be summed up in one name, and I can’t handle that. I feel that there is more substance to me, to pretty much everyone, than simply one name or label. Everybody is more than one thing. That’s why I write under a pen name – because writer Amy-Leigh is not the same as Twitter Amy-Leigh or blogger Amy-Leigh. There are different parts to myself that I am willing to show only at certain times, and all those different pieces of me are supposed to be summed up in one name and frankly I don’t like that. It’s not that I’m trying to hide from my work or anything like that; it’s just that Amy-Leigh and the girl who writes those articles feel like two different people to me.

This is around the point of the post where I realize that maybe I’m actually just crazy. I’ll continue regardless.

You may have noticed that while there are a million different aspects of who I am, of whom anyone is, I've only got my name and a pen name, as opposed to a million different names. I've pretty much managed to divide my life up into two categories; real Amy-Leigh and everyone else’s Amy-Leigh. Oddly enough, real Amy-Leigh is the Amy-Leigh that operates under a pen name, and honestly this blog should have been under that pen name too, it’s just that I hadn't thought of all this when I started the blog yet. So know that what you’re getting here is the part of my that isn't shared with most of the people in my life because I’m not here to impress anyone – I’m here to talk endlessly about myself so I can figure out who exactly “myself” is.

SMOOTH SEGWAY into everyone else’s Amy-Leigh. That’s my real name and my real. That’s the Amy-Leigh that finds it really hard to try to be myself around other people because I am constantly trying to figure out what everyone else wants to hear and see and then I try to be that. I have a pseudonym because I want the part of my life that is made up of my thoughts to be recognized sometimes, not just the part of me that tries to impress everyone else.

Well this post turned out to be a lot longer than I expected, so I’m sorry about that. But if you’re still here with me: I encourage you to try being someone else, and by someone else, I mean yourself.