Yes. I first understood "writer" or "poet" as identities to try on, to grow into. Being a writer was my niche through the otherwise dismal experience of K-12 education. Cheaper than being a band kid.

I have come to understand "writer" as an artisan's term, the label for a craftsman who works with words on a page (real or virtual). My grandfather was a carpenter, my other grandfather was an electrician, I am a writer. I am that because I do that.

And because I do that, because I have been doing that for most of the past 45 years, I have grown into this identity I once used as a shield and am so comfortable here that I throw it and thus myself open to the world like a window.

"Now we see through a glass, darkly..."