Feeling nostalgic today.

So, I’m turning twenty years old on the seventeenth of May. I guess that it’s put me in a nostalgic mood. So, I thought I’d do a textual form of some of these random facts-type videos. Maybe I’ll make video forms at some point… thoughts?

Fifty Things!

1. At Christmas time in 1987, when my mom was still pregnant with me, my family lived in a townhouse in a Chicago suburb. The house next to us at the end of the building was abandoned, and the water had not been shut off. The pipes burst, flooding the furnace for both our house and the abandoned one. Long story short, our house had fire and flood damage at the same time, even though our house didn’t technically catch fire and didn’t actually flood. There was so much carbon in our house that my family probably shouldn’t have survived, but they all did (my family at the time consisted of my parents, my just-about-to-turn-eight brother, our puppy, and our bird.)
2. As an infant, I had acid reflux, which caused ulcers in my esophogus.
3. As a toddler, I survived blood poisoning…
4. …a nasty spider bite (my mom thought I was going to die)…
5. …and a bizarre seizure that the doctors were never able to explain.
6. I could read by the age of three. When my dad would tell people this, they wouldn’t believe him, or they’d say that I’d just memorized the books my parents would read to me. To prove them wrong, he would have me read the newspaper out loud.
7. I couldn’t ride a bike without training wheels until I was eight.
8. I couldn’t tie my shoes until I was about ten.
9. In fourth grade, I won a Young Author’s award for my fiction story, “Meeting Mia”.
10. I was fourteen before I could remember the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
11. In fifth grade, I was one of five finalists in my school district’s D.A.R.E. essay contest, and for my efforts won the most hideous tee-shirt I’ve ever owned.
12. I proudly wore that tee shirt in public until I outgrew it.
13. I went to private school for sixth grade.
14. Sixth grade was the worst year of my life.
15. I would not trade sixth grade for the world.
16. I was homeschooled from seventh grade.
17. On September 11, 2001, my mom decided we’d have our first day of school. I was making one of those cute little knotted friendship bracelets (that was my big hobby at the time… ironic after reading point number eight), and my sisters and I were taking turns reading from a book about Squanto. A few pages into the book, my dad came hurrying down the stairs to tell us that Bob and Tom (the radio show) had just said something about the Trade Towers falling. (Also worth noting… I had no clue what the WTC was at this point).
18. In 2003, my dad had gastric bypass surgery (he either had to have that or back surgery to relieve severe pain in his back and legs). Both of my parents had to go to Indianapolis for a few weeks, the longest they’d ever been away from any of us kids. (They also had to miss my fifteenth birthday).
19. In 2004, some of my friends threw a surprise birthday party for Laura (my sister, she’s thirteen months younger than me) and me halfway between our birthdays. It was not only the first surprise party thrown for either of us, but the first non-family birthday party for us both.
20. I’ve only had one boyfriend. The relationship lasted from November of 2004 to Halloween of 2006.
21. I’ve never been kissed.
22. In April of 2005, an arsonist set our garage on fire. We lost everything inside (including our minivan, my brother’s brand-new safe, and my dad’s entire collection of tools), the siding on the entire back of the house melted, and the back deck and windows warped badly. We never found out who did it.
23. On St. Patrick’s Day of 2006, my mom went to the hospital to have a cyst removed from her ovary, that was supposedly causing terrible pain and fevers. During the procedure, the doctor bumped into her appendix, which immediately ruptured. Apparently, it had been infected far longer than any of the hospital staff had seen a case of appendicitis go, and had even started travelling into her large intestine. She ended up staying in the hospital for a week and a half. It was one of the scariest things I’d ever been through (she doesn’t remember any of it except coming home).
24. I did an extra year of high school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do afterwards.
25. After high school, I took a year-long sabbatical, because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do.
26. In January, I took the GED and passed with honors (had I gone to a regular high school, I would have been in the top four percent of my class).
27. I got a near-perfect score on the GED essay.
28. In the fall, I’ll be starting college (I’m studying to be a medical assistant).
29. Because I have a GED, my college made me take an extra admissions test to see if I’d be able to handle the workload. Not only did I answer more questions than most of the people that take it (I answered about 45 out of 50… most people answer 30 or less), but I had one of the highest scores they’d ever seen (you needed 16 to pass, the average score was 18-20, I had 33).
30. I still don’t consider myself particularly smart.
31. I have served on the leadership committee for the local branch of a national Christian organization of which I am a part, and have represented them as a delegate at the annual national meeting.
32. I taught myself to sing out of the book “Singing for Dummies”. Before I had that book, I couldn’t sing at all.
33. I am teaching myself the guitar.
34. I have never had a “real job”.
35. I have had paying jobs as a foot masseuse, babysitter, newspaper carrier, jewelry maker, seamstress, and graphic designer (and someone offered to pay me to set up a myspace page for him).
36. I used to be a gymnast.
37. I used to be a baton twirler.
38. I played the flute in the school orchestra in sixth grade, and marching band the following summer. It was the only thing I liked about school.
39. I joined a swim team when I couldn’t actually swim (and I learned pretty fast).
40. I grew my hair out for six years, and then cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love.
41. A hair stylist once bet me that she could make my hair curl. She couldn’t do it, so she styled my hair for free.
42. I have been ballroom dancing since 2002, and I wish I could make a career out of it.
43. I am a self-taught graphic designer.
44. I have been stuck in the Cleavland overnight with two foreign men whom I had never met before and who were each about ten years older than me.
45. In kindergarten, I was part of a study to see if five-year-olds could tell the difference between brand name and generic cereal. I couldn’t tell left from right, but I pretended that I could because I thought I’d get in trouble.
46. I finally flew in an airplane, traveled alone, and saw the ocean for the first time in May 2007. (I swam in it, too )
47. I still can’t drive.
48. I have auditioned for American Idol (and failed miserably).
49. I ripped up my bedroom carpet and tack strips all by myself.
50. I have never worn a bikini.

In my lifetime…

I want to…

1. …find my “soulmate”, marry only once, and have it last a lifetime. (Maybe even some kids… who knows?)
2. …do things that make the world better, even if I have to suffer to do them.
3. …be published.
4. …write and record an album (even if it’s just for myself).
5. …know what my purpose is. (or at least know a purpose… even if when I get to heaven I find out I was unknowingly fulfilling some other purpose).
6. …[be featured on YouTube... yeah, shallow, I know]…
7. …travel. A lot.
8. …leave a legacy (even if my name is not attatched to it).
9. …make a living at something I love, like writing, ballroom dancing or graphic art.
10. …save someone’s life (either directly or unknowingly).

Yeah… so… yup.
Theaarondelay said I am “hilariously awkward.” At least I’m entertaining

Okay bye.

Kelly ~/`~