How to introduce myself?
I really admire those who can write short, interesting introductions that don't over-explain but invite interest. I know that I over introduce myself, probably because I have to do it so often. Every time we pick up the phone and call someone we have to introduce ourselves. Sometimes it is just simply saying, Hi, this Ana Fluit and I am calling you today about....(or this Ana Canino...or this is Ana Canino Fluit..., depending on who I am calling), or sometimes it is this Ana, Arwen's mom, or Zanneke's mom. etc. I like wearing a name-tag. I have one at church, that I always wear it even though it is not required so I can make things easier on the members of the congregation that don't yet know me enough to recognize me from week to week.
At church, I am Ana Canino-Fluit on my name-tag, although almost always get "ah, Mrs. Fluit, the pastor's wife" when I am being introduced to others. I am comfortable with that, or have accepted it enough, because I find myself mentioning Chris's ministry when introduce myself outside of Church settings. When I am introducing myself to people at Rochester Christian School, it is a beneficial thing to include, many might know someone who attends the church or they might have at least seen it while driving down Browncroft/Atlantic. I have also been including a mention of it in my intros at the the ischool. I am not sure how beneficial it is or it is weirdly clumsy. I like that it lays out there that I am at the very least involved with Christianity, and at the same time complicating the picture because I almost always go onto mention my love of pop-culture and comics, which I think is still something that surprises people.
I also tend to mention the girls. In my intro web-page to 511 I used a picture with the both the girls and Chris in it, but this time for my profile picture I used a different picture where I am smiling a natural smile. (I hate when I have a posed smile or half-smile) with everyone else cropped out. Not because they aren't a huge HUGE part of my life, but because they are. It is hard for me to put a picture of me up just by myself, and because it is hard, I need to do it.
What I have been thinking about as I write this post is how relational introductions are. I think most people think of introductions as something someone does for you. A friend introduces you to someone else they know. It is social responsibility to facilitate people making a connection. Self-introductions often then mimic that, by including references to the other relationships one is in, facilitating a connection point.
Curiously last night while I was watching the girls in the Nursery during the evening service, I was reading a copy of July issue of Christianity Today from the church library. It is they had a few pages on a James Choung of Inter-Varsity, titled From Four Laws to Four Circles. Choung has recently written a book on his new evangelical tool,a napkin diagram featuring four circles with which one presents the gospel as the "Big Story" focusing on relationality and salvation. It was really interesting to me. It immediately brought to mind some of the things that appealed to me about Reformed Theology was the idea of the Kingdom and Covenant. Restoring relationship with God, each other and creation. I can really see the appeal of this approach.
For this latest class I had to put together 5 to 10 sentences, and have suggested set of questions to answer put together by Prof. Oakleaf:
- Where are you in your program here at the School of Information Studies?
- What are you hoping to learn in IST 605?
- What are you current career goals?
- Where are you from? Where do you live now?
- What hobbies/interests do you have?
- Is there anything else you want your colleagues to know about you?
This is what I ended up posting:
My name is Ana Canino-Fluit. I am originally from Guynabo, Puerto Rico, but in the last 15 years, since I left home for college, I have lived on both coasts, the Midwest and even the western prairie in Canada. Just a year ago we left our small-town in Alberta for the bright-lights of Rochester, NY. I am just starting out in the LIS program, 4 credits under my belt. I am loving every minute of it, except for not having made up my mind on pursuing the school media specialization so I am playing it safe and taking core classes while I make up my mind. My husband Chris and I just celebrated our tenth anniversary, he is a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and the reason we have moved so much. We have two daughters, the youngest, Zanneke is starting Kindergarten in September, and my oldest Arwen is reading and starting the 2nd grade this fall. I am comic book geek and travel junkie (it been a year and a half since our last trip overseas (Egypt and Jordan) so we are in the midst of planning our next one (Turkey in May of 2009)). In addition to being addicted to NPR, BBC podcasts and Pop Culture in general, I love reading non-fiction, sci-fi and fantasy. My favorite thing about being a History major was all the research time I spent in the library. I love helping people learn how to find information and help them find what they need is what is bringing me to librarianship.




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