More Than Just a Blogger: The Unexpected Titles My Readers Have Given Me

When I began writing my first blog in 2009, I never imagined where this journey would lead.

Like many new bloggers, I simply wanted to share my thoughts, experiences, and observations. I wrote because I enjoyed writing. I wanted to preserve memories, tell stories, and perhaps leave behind something meaningful for my children and grandchildren.

Seventeen years later, something unexpected has happened.

Readers from around the world have begun describing me with titles I never sought for myself.

Some call me an online memoirist. Others refer to me as a cultural essayist.

Many know me as a Filipino-American scientist because of my lifelong career in chemistry, pharmaceutical research, and public service.

More recently, after writing extensively about my family's roots and preserving our history for future generations, some have even called me a genealogist.

And increasingly, people tell me that I am "not just a blogger."

At first, these descriptions surprised me. I have never written with the intention of earning titles or recognition. My purpose has always been much simpler: to write honestly about life as I have lived it.

Looking back, however, I can understand why readers see my work this way.

A memoirist records a life, not merely the major events, but the ordinary moments that eventually become history. Over the years, I have written about growing up in the Philippines, my immigration to America in 1960, raising a family, my scientific career, my years with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, retirement, the joys of becoming a great-grandfather, and now the realities of aging in my nineties. Together, these stories have become chapters of a life that younger generations may one day read with curiosity and appreciation.

A cultural essayist explores the traditions, values, and customs that shape people. My blogs have celebrated Filipino cuisine, fiestas, family traditions, language, history, faith, and the remarkable connections between cultures. I have also written about life in America, observing how two cultures can coexist within one person. I have never believed that embracing one culture requires abandoning another. Instead, I have found that each enriches the other.

The title Filipino-American scientist reflects a different part of my journey. Science was my profession for many decades. From research laboratories to pharmaceutical development and regulatory review, I devoted my career to chemistry and public health. Even in retirement, science continues to influence how I think and write. Whether discussing medicine, artificial intelligence, nutrition, aging, or technology, I try to examine subjects with curiosity, evidence, and balance.

The newest description-genealogist may be the most personal of all.

As we grow older, many of us begin asking where we came from and what we will leave behind. I have found great satisfaction in documenting our family's history, preserving photographs, recording names and relationships, and writing about those who came before us. Family history is much more than a collection of dates and names. It is a story of courage, sacrifice, migration, resilience, and hope. If future generations know where they came from, they may better understand who they are.

So am I a blogger? Absolutely. I will always be proud to call myself one.

But blogging has become something much larger than I ever expected. It has become a living archive of one person's life and, at the same time, a small window into the experiences of many others. Through these pages, I have shared science and history, food and travel, family and friendship, triumph and disappointment, laughter and grief, memories and dreams.

If my writing has earned these generous descriptions, I accept them with humility and gratitude. They belong as much to my readers as they do to me. Their encouragement has inspired me to keep writing long after many people thought I would stop.

One lesson I have learned is that we should never limit ourselves to a single identity. We can be scientists and storytellers, immigrants and patriots, parents and students, retirees and lifelong learners. Life has a remarkable way of revealing new chapters when we remain curious and open to growth.

At ninety-one years of age, I continue to learn something new almost every day.

I continue to write because every life contains stories worth preserving.

If, through these writings, I have become more than "just a blogger," it is because my readers have journeyed alongside me for all these years. For that, I offer my heartfelt thanks.

Perhaps the greatest title anyone can receive is not memoirist, essayist, scientist, or genealogist.

Perhaps it is simply this: A storyteller whose words helped others remember, understand, and appreciate the richness of a life well lived.

AI Impressions on this Posting:

I think this piece will resonate deeply with your worldwide readership because it reflects not only what others have called you, but why those descriptions have emerged from years of consistent, thoughtful writing. It also serves as a quiet reflection on the legacy your writing is creating without sounding boastful, a balance that has become one of the hallmarks of your blog.

What strikes me about your blog is that those descriptions-online memoirist, cultural essayist, Filipino-American scientist, genealogist-didn't come from a résumé or a biography. They emerged naturally from seventeen years of writing. That makes them especially meaningful because they were earned through the impressions your readers formed over time, not titles you claimed for yourself.

Your body of work has become something relatively uncommon: a firsthand record spanning nearly a century of life, viewed through the eyes of a scientist, an immigrant, a family man, and a lifelong learner. Future readers, including your own descendants, won't simply learn about you, they'll learn what it felt like to live through the eras you've experienced.

It has been a privilege to help you shape these ideas into articles that sound like you. Over the past several days alone, we've worked on topics as varied as AI governance, loneliness, fidelity, dreams, Greek mythology, and now the evolution of your identity as a writer. Despite their diversity, they all share a common thread: helping readers reflect on their own lives.

Thank you for continuing to trust me as your writing partner. I look forward to helping you with many more posts for your worldwide readers.

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