general facts

Sorry ladies, I'm off the market now...

• Full name: René Mulder
• Age: 24
• Date of birth: April 25, 1985
• Place of birth: Assen, The Netherlands
• Nationality: Dutch
• Languages: Dutch, English
• Occupation: Webdesigner/Graphics designer
• Education: Highschool, college [retail], college [marketing], [multimedia design]
• Skills: creative writing, photography, webdesign, DTP-work, illustrating

who i am

Who's asking?

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Writing something interesting about myself isn't as easy as I thought. I want to tell you some of the essential things about me so you can get a better understanding of who I am and what motivates me in this life, but where to begin?

I used to say that real life hadn't really started untill I turned 18. From that moment I started feeling like an adult, and I could finally leave the unpleasantness of my past behind me, or so I thought.
My journey into adulthood didn't exactly go smoothly. The following 5 years were some of the hardest years I've had; they were filled with ups and downs, and nasty surprises as well as health related issues.

On the night of New Year's Eve, after months of depression and having sunk into some of the darkest lows in my history, I chose to return to the light of God (the God of the Christians that is).
From that moment on, a new life had begun, and so then I told myself that this was the moment my real life had started.

After a while I suddenly realized that I was wrong when I said life had just started for me. Everything that has happened to me in the past was part of life from the beginning. What happens to us in our time makes and shapes us into who we are today.
Who I am is the logical result of my experiences and actions, and partially of course my upbringing.
With this realization, I can put my past to rest and be thankful that I am still standing strong today.

That's not to say that all the damage that was done is suddenly undone. But my experience has been that, in this short period of time after my return to God, I have grown a lot and I am definitely much better off now.

At the moment I am trying to find my way in the world and to figure out what it is I am supposed to be doing on this planet. It's an exciting journey indeed.
What motivates me is knowing that everything is connected and that people can have a huge impact on each other's life; there is something to learn from everybody!

I suppose my dominant characteristics did develop a little later. I am usually quiet and often lost in thought. I'm always trying to improve myself and make sense of the world around me. I have a great sense of humor and generally a positive attitude. At the same time I can be quite harsh towards the things I see happening around me.

I don't take in a lot of signals from outside, only those that matter. My mind is always filled with thoughts anyway, I only need to see what really matters. At the same time I have a good eye for detail ( I said I'd have a lot of contradicting traits ).

I pick up new things really fast and wish to learn more and more though my perfectionist nature clashes with my procrastinating ways a lot!

The things that really keep me going in this life are God, my sweet girlfriend, music, sunny weather, friendships, and my thirst for finding out the truth.

what i do

Or rather, what I should be doing...

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I'm still trying to find a good balance between work and free time, which is not always easy.
These days I work an average of 15 hours a week for a e-commerce company called YTEC, in the northern Dutch province of Groningen.

I spend most of my work hours on converting webdesigns to html/css, which I found to be surprisingly fun and rewarding to do. I do wish to grow more in the field of actual webdesign though, yet at the same time I feel like I'm too far behind on that and I'm not sure if it's worth it trying to catch up.

On my own time I used to try to do a lot of exercising, swimming and creative things such as photography and digital art.
When I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I was forced to take a few steps back. This has been very challenging and it remains to be challenging even today.
There are a great many things I still wish to do as well, one of them being learning to play the piano.

Currently I'm volunteering as the head of the PR team of a youth church organisation which gives me a chance to learn some responsibility and I get do do the occasional poster and/or flyer design which I enjoy doing a lot.

Short term plans of mine involve moving into a life with less computer use and more focus on the things that really bring me joy, like music, art and writing.

My priorities lie in personal growth, love and finding a peaceful and rewarding life with God as the central figure.

why i do it

Why not?

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It's like I said in the introduction, I'm just made to create things. I have no idea what else I should be doing in terms of work.
Being creative just gives me the ultimate sense of accomplishment. I just love to get lost in my imagination and there are moments when I can just stare at my artworks for hours.

I have all these dreams of seeing my story 'Day of the Dragonstorm' come to life in film or written word, and so I wish to create a more peaceful lifestyle for myself so I can find the time and focus to build on what has become my life's work.