i carry your heart(i carry it in my registrar)
In my last post, I talked about getting stuck trying to find a domain. Yesterday, I encountered an important fork in the road I am calling The Face Test.
This requires a little context. Using a custom domain is not new to me. I come from a proud lineage of nerds, and I’ve had my own domain as long as I’ve had an email. It was bought a maintained for me by my dad, and after I established myself as an adult, it was up to me to pay for it if I wanted to keep it alive. It’s a lovely domain for a young cyber girl, but rather juvenile at this point. I had planned to use it as my catch-all domain for newsletters and such. Even if I don’t want to use it personally or professionally, it’s still mine so I might as well use it.
Well, that brings us back to yesterday. I was at a shoe store swapping out a pair of shoes for a different size, and the clerk needed to collect my email. Staring this woman in the face, I could not bear to give her my old domain. This is the Face Test. If you cannot give your email to a stranger in polite conversation, it will not work. I’m a strong practitioner of whimsy, but in a customer service interaction i just couldn't screech to a halt and whip out my childhood email.
I've been thinking about the things that I want to pay for when it comes to email strategy. I accept that "you are the product when the service is free", but I also don't want to pay for a bunch of stuff I don't need. That said, I think I'll keep the old domain active. It's the email I gave out to my elementary school friends when I moved away, the one I gave to my old neopets that oughtta be mummified by now.
I don't know if anyone will ever try to reach me through this old email, but in case they do, I think I'll keep the lights on. I used this email all the way up through high school, and I carry all of those people with me now. This week I've encountered this e.e. cummings poem a couple of times. I love how it tumbles over itself, full of love. Today I think about the people I carry with me. On the off chance they want to reach through time and say hello, I'll carry the address at my registrar, and I'll carry them in my heart.