While I was waiting at the traffic light yesterday, I saw a man handing out little pieces of paper. They were thin strips of paper, almost looking like Bible verses from a distance.

Flyers of many colors and sizes have been handed out to me before, but I haven’t really received this size paper before. So I waited in anticipation as he made his way through the cars towards me.

When it was my turn, I rolled my window down and the man handed me one. I turned the paper around:

LOOKING FOR JOB
MY NAME IS NICKSON, I AM 30 YEARS OLD MALAWIAN MAN, I AM LOOKING FOR A JOB AS A GARDENER, PAINTER AND DOMESTIC OR AVAILABLE JOB, I HAVE 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE
YOU CAN CONTACT ME ON: 084 7177 402

It was interesting to me how Nickson introduced himself as a Malawian man. It seemed like it was something quite important to him. Something that would anchor the request and establish a sense of identity, credibility, and trust.

It made me think.

We all do that. Regardless of where we come from, who we are and what we do in life. We want to establish identity and appear trustworthy towards other people. So we anchor ourselves with the thing that gives us the most identity.

I am Dr. Livingstone.
I am a creative director.
I am the founder.
Proud problem solver.
Viking from Manhattan.
Father.
Wife.
Giant cupcake.
Nerd fighter.

And so it goes on…

The first few words of an introduction are easily swallowed up by the many words that follow. But if you linger on them for a little while more, it might tell its own story.

What make these seemingly simple words more interesting is how they change as we move through contexts and as we move through life.

So with that said, I will suffice with a simple, hi, my name is Steyn and I’m a husband to a beautiful wife.