I am: a Christian

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Coincidental I post this on a Sunday. So, do you go to church every Sunday? Well, even I do not go there every Sunday; but you can find me there quite often. But I just don’t go to church to have something to do on the 7th day of the week. The main reason is:

I do believe in the almighty God, creator of all things and the salvation through the act of love to sacrifice his son, Jesus Christ. The greatest day in history for me is celebrated every Easter and I love the idea how everybody can choose to be saved with just one simple commitment.

In Bavaria, if you tell someone you’re a Christian you are normally associated with the traditional churches and all their rulesets, ceremonies, etc. But I most say, they are not my preferred type of church. I chose a “Freie evangelische Gemeinde” as my home church and I love meeting the people there every Sunday and leading youth group every other Friday.

If you are not a Christian you might have build up some misconceptions about “people like me”:
For example, you might think I do not trust science. Well, I do think, for example, as many others do too, that the theory of the big bang and evaluation and God as creator can coexist with both giving a more complete picture.
Or you might have that picture of Christians that do not accept anyone not living by “their rules”, being homophobic, etc. Well, I’m very sorry you find those jerks out there; but they have missed the most important rule Jesus gave us: To love the others no matter what; just as he does.

To be honest, I do not get along with everybody perfectly, I hit bumps on the road, I am not perfect and I am not unbreakable. Anyone on this earth telling you he is that, is a liar! But I know who to turn to, if I’m in trouble, who to talk to, who to give all my anger and all my worries, who helps me sort out my life and is a good companion along the way. And I would love to introduce you to that guy, whenever you want to decide to meet this marvelous friend, who can’t wait to meet you.

My life with God gives me joy every day and my greatest wish is that so many more will have this joy, too.

I am: an American

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So I am proud owner of this thing: an US passport. As my father is US citizen, I became one too. Also that half of my family is in the US. I visit about once a year, and I really enjoy every stay. Already looking forward to my next one.

I like how friendly and welcoming most of the Americans are. I enjoy all the new tech and multimedia they have. And I’m a fan of their lifestyle.

Often, I use being an American as an excuse, when I do something stereotypical (like eating to much junk food, using a lot of space, wearing comfortable clothes to work), but I most confess that I sometimes exaggerate and that I know Americans better than that.

They are wonderful. I’m so proud to be one of them and I like every friend I made in the US.

I am: a German

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I was born and raised in Germany. So far I have not lived or worked in any other country. So I bring a lot of German things: I am focused on plans, timelines and quality, love Schnitzel, have a leatherhosen and drive fast on the Autobahn.

I am proud to be a German and think Germany is a great place to live. I like our social care systems, transportation networks, innovations and the beautiful landmarks, especially here in Bavaria.

When I am asked which of my two nationalities I consider belonging to I would tend to say German. As this is my home. Home, sweet home.

I am….: May I introduce myself?

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So, when reactivating my twitter I also update my ‘bio’. It is quite common to describe yourself with a couple of words these days. So I tried but I ended up with 14 at the end:

German, American, Christian, twenager, developer, business owner, youth leader, shy, nerd, smart ass, music lover, fun-addicted, crazy, unpredictable

Quite a long list I was told by some, but as my new social media aim is to give you a complete picture rather than marketing I wanted to give you all of them.

And if your interested why I chose these words, stay tuned as I am going to describe them in the next 14 days on here.

My new social media focus

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I know quite a lot of people: About 450 of them made it into my contact lists. But do we really know each other? They might know me from work, from school, from church, are part of my family or met me somewhere on my life journey. But other than that part of my life, most of them have never got the chance to experience the full Patrick.

This is something I’ve been thinking of a lot quite recently and had to realize that I was not really enabling anything, that allowed more to happen. So while also trying to give a more genuine picture in real life,  I want to use the tools of social media additionally to give you access to these insides.

I looked at my current usage. Just now Facebook turned 10. I had a profile there for 7 years, but it does not feature that much. Pictures are pretty limited, a few status updates here and than; some thoughts, quite a lot likes but not too much more.

Also, I limited myself to Facebook at some point. So I tried to fit everything there is into that site; although there might be other, better tools to use. For example, Facebook posts should not be used for things as big as blog posts.

So what I am basically doing now, is I am starting to use accounts on other social media sites (again) to channel different types of information detail:
I use Twitter for my brief messages and activities. If a picture says more than the 140 characters, you might find it on Instagram. My Facebook Timeline will be more focused on highlights, things I want to share with bigger audiences and remember. As I did not want to start a real blog – I do not have that much to write (yet) – I chose this tumblr for everything that needs a bit more space as well as things that make me wonder (and there are quite a lot of those) or other stuff I want to put a small focus on. Also, you might ask me any question you like to.

So, be prepared, that in the next weeks my profiles will undergo updates, get more content and get more and more active. However, I won’t commit to anything regular or schedule-driven posts. This is not to produce content, it main goal is to reflect myself, my thoughts and events. Just as various life events come and go, my posting will be changing constantly. And as these posts don’t write themselfs; there might also be less, when other things get more important.

But depending on whatever you are interested, you can choose to follow me on all or only some of the specific services and determine yourself how much you want to take in.

So, here we go: Welcome to my new social media journey!

I hope we get to know each other better on the way. Also I’m really looking forward to get in touch with some old friends again. And maybe also get the chance to get to know someone new?

Let’s see how it goes. And if all this internet stuff isn’t your thing (or even if it is), remember there is also a real-life, offline version of me, that would love to meet you in person 😉