Being a One-Note Band

When I was, oh, say, 11, I was known by others -people who knew me, but not necessarily that well- as one of two things. At my campground, I was known as 'juggling boy', and at my elementary school, 'the magician'. Not that I was necessarily called those things exactly (well, sometimes), it was more that people thought of me along those lines. To them, the activity that they could most closely link me to, either of my hobbies at the time, was their way of relating to me, but for a lot of years I resented it. I didn't want to be a 2-dimensional character in anyone's eyes, and it was even worse that people often made a point of referring to me by the hobby of mine they most closely linked me with, like: "HEY COLIN, the MAGICIAN!". It bugged the hell out of me, and for my teenage years I sought to not be subjected to that, and often resented those, who, even with good intention, addressed me - or opened a conversation with me - by referring to that hobby.

Flash forward many years, and my perception has changed quite a bit. During my time in Mew Media at the UofL, and at UVic in computer science, I blended in - but now that I'm in Education, and as I'm the only future teacher in the program with a teaching concentration in either Computer Science or ICT, I find myself - my reputation or persona - is irrecoverably linked to Computers. It doesn't help that very few people in the program are anywhere near 'tech-savvy' - I'm often called out to be the one to help out with computer-related issues in class. People often start conversations with me at school with a topic about technology, and, last week, I was laughably called out by a few of my cohort-ee's to help the prof fix his digital projector settings in front of the entire class.

What I've realized over the past 5 or 6 years, it's that it's not that bad to be the one-note band. In fact, most if not all people are just that - known for their most notable or endearing quality by their acquaintances - and this is how they're related to. And that's OK. For some reason, for a long time, I resented this from others, but now I see that it's a natural process by which one recognizes value in another person as they get to know more about them.