When you’re geeky, you don’t always think like the people around you or answer questions in the usual way. A writing class I took asked us newbie writers to tell the class a little bit about ourselves. Here’s how I answered that:

I am a multi-cellular, hairless, short-snouted, large-brained bipedal omnivore, evolved over millions of years within the classification of Primates, in response to dramatic environment changes on the planet Earth to become Homo sapiens sapiens.

I occupy the geologic address

34E43.29 N and 117E10.82 W

…the political address

xxxx xxxx Dr., Laguna Hills CA.

…the email address

askatechteacher@gmail.com

…and the internet address (my IP location)

xx.x.xx.xx

I am one of over 7.5 billion big brained creatures living on Earth, each with unique talents and traits allowing us to best fit our local environment. I am a social animal, living in a large community–too large to know my neighbors by the methods other Primates use of ‘grooming’. Instead, we use ‘gossiping’ and ‘storytelling’. I am surrounded by peers who feel superior to other mammals based on subjective factors such as physical characteristics or brain size. This primitive attitude has allowed my kind to take over the world but not run it well.  Without significant changes, we will not remain the dominant species for even as long as dinosaurs, sharks, jelly fish, alligators, Great Apes, or horsetail ferns.

I am no better or worse than any other life form surrounding me, only different.

What I’m NOT is:

• my outward appearance
• my mental skills
• my religion
• my sex
• my opinions
• my social life
• my social media
• my income
• my employment
• my politics

I am not more or less worthy of God’s goodness or Earth’s beneficence than any other form of life.

When I grow up, I’d like to attain:

the non-judgmentalism of my Labrador Retriever

the enthusiasm of my six-year-old nephew

the wisdom of my grandmother

the peacefulness of the Great Apes

the adaptability of viruses

the awe-inspiring beauty of the Rocky mountains

On a personal level, I enjoy music, reading, intellectual pursuits, teaching, my children, my dogs, and nature.

Any questions?

–published first on Today’s Author

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for NEA Today, and a freelance journalist. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, In the Footsteps of Giants, Winter 2021.