Hello Steemit, my name is Julian and I'm from Berlin :D

What's up Steemit community? Happy Friday from Berlin, Germany! My name is Julian-Sebastian and yes, that is my first name. When I was born my parents couldn't choose between Julian or Sebastian, and my father being the massive Bach fan that he is said "heh, Julian-Sebastian doesn't sound too bad." I know he was just trying to be diplomatic, but I don't think he imagined how much confusion it would cause for people trying to address me (or for me filling out legal documents) years down the line.

I was born in San Francisco, California, and spent most of my young life bouncing around the Bay Area until moving to Arizona at age 15. I went to high school in Phoenix, ran track, played basketball and eventually got a scholarship to attend the University of Arizona. In 2013 I completed a Bachelor or Science in Psychology with a minor in English Literature. I also ran for the University track and field team, specializing in the 400m. After graduation, I went traveling and eventually landed in Berlin, where I now permanently reside. My father is German (thus, the Bach fixation) so I've been coming to Berlin and traveling around Germany since I was little.

My father never spoke German to me when I was young. Again, being the gentlemen that he is he didn't want my mom to feel left out of conversations. So, I've been learning for the past 5 years on my own and yeah, it's hard as hell. I'd say I'm about 90% fluent and honestly it's the proudest accomplishment of my life so far.

Berlin life

I'm currently working as a Community Manager and Content Editor for an online publishing platform. In my free time I do photography, like to write and cook as much as I possibly can. I love food. I love it so much. I also run with a sports club called the Berlin Braves. Some of my closest friends here are also part of the Braves, and together we not only train and compete in races but go on trips, host events and produce content around all of the different things that we do. With us, it's not just about athletics. We're a family of creatives with interests in everything from fashion and photography to politics and engineering.

Our team is also part of the Bridge The Gap (BTG) community. We're a global network of runners from every country you could imagine, who get together to run races, share experiences and do a fair bit of partying. Last year for annual the Berlin Marathon we hosted all of the running teams from the Bridge The Gap network to join us for a weekend of festivities. One of my good friends, Sam, who runs with us is also a freelance videographer and he filmed/edited a short piece documenting the weekend of the Berlin weekend. Check it out!

For me, it's all about people!

As a Community Manager, I spend most of my day working with and helping people. In my free time I like to be social, go to events, travel and engage with different communities. So yeah, I guess you could say I'm a people person! I enjoy being part of communities just as much and I enjoy helping to create them. In everything I do, both professionally and leisurely, I try to involve people. If I do anything in this world, I want to bring people together. So far, that's what I find most interesting about Steemit. The fact that a person's "value" (still hate using that term but oh well) is determined not only by the quality of their contributions to the platform, but the quality of interactions they have as well. For someone who spends a lot of time in online communities, I find that really refreshing. While it definitely has lucrative benefits, I get the feeling that the creators of Steemit really want to harvest a meaningful community here.

I hope that's the case, and I would like to contribute to it by simply being myself. On my blog, I will share content around the things that interest me. Things that are important to my everyday life. Things that I want to accomplish, question and learn more about. I look forward to sharing my mind with all of you and learning from your contributions as well.

Cheers,

Julian-Sebastian