January 2022
So this is Instagram… I've known about social media for many years. In fact, one of my projects was a precursor to them, just before Tuenti (spanish social media) came into people's lives. Facebook was a different story, though. For me, Zuckerberg was a complete stranger. At first, I found social media very innovative. They allowed people to connect with friends and family, but gradually, my friends started leaving my web services behind, and I was forced to go with the flow. Not long after that, while living in Malta, I discovered something that kept me away from social media for over a decade.
“Before publishing your novel, it would be advisable for you to open up to the world,” they told me. So, that's what I did: I joined Instagram, and that was two weeks ago!
I work as a systems engineer for a well-known Spanish technology company, but… Am I really an engineer? I have been many things: a student, an athlete, a volunteer at Youth Red Cross, a home computer technician, a programmer, a technician at a TV production company, a video game developer, a telemarketer, an enterprise application architect… Because one can be whatever they set out to be, I can attest to that. Recently, I won a literary contest that made me think, “strangers like what I write,” but let's not digress. I am a father of two children, a husband, an independent developer, and an engineer, “among many other things.” I also love astrophysics, microscopy, myrmecology, video games… But recent events have made me question myself: What am I really? Searching for the answer, I discovered that anyone who, even without having published a single work, has written their first book, story, script, or any other literary work of certain caliber, can consider themselves a novice writer. Wait… I have also written things! But I have already been too many things. I can't go on like this!
After careful consideration, I think I will recap how I have come to this point in my life. Meanwhile, I have chosen to consider myself a “so-called writer.”
Iván Baya
