[TEST POST/DRAFT] This is My Origin Story. What's Yours?
Updated: May 19
Have you ever had the chance to revisit work from early in your career? To discover your #originstory? What was that like for you?
I realized what my origin story was a couple of weeks ago when my dad texted me this picture of what I didn't realize at the time was my very first #techwriting project. At the time (ahem, thirty-one years ago) I didn't even know that "technical communication" was an actual profession; I thought it was just a great idea that I'd had.
See, back then I was a payroll clerk accidentally becoming a Unix sysadmin, a job that included providing tech support for the users of our small company's first computer network. I was learning these new tools only slightly faster than our users, and as I voraciously read every installation guide and support manual, I found myself:
distilling key concepts and common tasks into shorter, more simple instructions
creating employee-facing operational calendars for the network installation so that everyone would know what to expect and when and plan accordingly
That soon led to my creating the aforementioned tech comm project, an internal newsletter containing the calendar and info tidbits, to help get folks up to speed in the new tech as quickly as possible.
I didn't invent technical communication, but I'm trying to reinvent it.
Seeing this old project from Baby Bex really crystallized for me that trying to present information in a way that clarifies, connects, and empowers is and always has been at the core of everything I strive to do and be.
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In conclusion
I'm so grateful to my dad for sharing this and creating the opportunity for me to look back over the last few decades of my career and see how it's evolved.
I told you mine...
Do you have an origin story? If so, I'd love to hear it! Email or comment and tell me about it.