A Single Identity

I started running my first website in 2013. Back then, it was called MJDesign and served one purpose: collecting my works from many services. It wasn’t the most professional looking website or the most useful one. It contained links to other websites I worked on, small C++ scripts, links to a poetry book I put together, and other seemingly random things. Nevertheless, it was already an improvement over the previous Google Sites-hosted page, which included baking recipies, photos of robots, and links to presentations I made. But it still did not have the “it” factor.

Three years and one highschool graduation later, and I had my first full-fledged website. It was new, it was fresh, it featured a brand new logo, and most importantly was stripped down to the core things: websites. I think at that point I liked to look at myself as a webmaster on a crusade to bring a website to every home. The year 2016 marks my first big implementation: the website of Primary School no. 23 in Warsaw.

At that time, I was also a member of the Young European Federalists in Poland; I set up their then-website too. I was also maintaining it and keeping it up to date. This membership, however, brought a conflict into my online identity. On one hand, I was a tech person who was starting to build their tech portfolio. On the other, I was an aspiring young policy influencer. This conflict resulted in the creation of a second webpage, which was both personal and political: MichalJarski.EU.

Over the years, both websites co-existed: one for (mostly) personal tech projects (jarski.eu) and one for a political identity (michaljarski.eu). However, with waining interest in politics and heightened workload during my bachelor studies, the political website started losing its original purpose. Eventually, the political site was turned into a personal tech portfolio, and the barrier between both websites disappeared completely. I remember a friend of mine asking me at the time why I have two websites serving the same purpose. I guess back then I thought that they were still somehow distinct.

A lot has changed over the course of 2022. The website hosted under michaljarski.eu went through multiple design and content changes, and over the months both websites became very similar. The main difference between them was the presence of a resume on one of them and a blog on the other. This split did not make much sense anymore, considering the circumstances of their existence. Therefore, as of today they are merged into one website: michaljarski.eu. The domain jarski.eu will keep operating and will redirect to this page.

In the future, if it becomes necessary, both website could be split again. For now, they are one.