Day 1: Introduce Yourself

Although I have several posts waiting to be...well...posted, I stumbled across this fun "meme" and thought that since I am online all the time, I can totally get this done. Here are the stats:

Day 01 – Introduce yourself
Day 02 – Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 – Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 – What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 – Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 – Your day, in great detail
Day 07 – Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 – A moment, in great detail
Day 09 – Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 11 – Your siblings, in great detail
Day 12 – What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 – This week, in great detail
Day 14 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 – Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 – Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 – Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 – Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 – This month, in great detail
Day 21 – Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 – Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 – A first, in great detail
Day 26 – Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 – Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 – Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 – Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 – One last moment, in great detail

So....

Day 1 - Introduce yourself

Harder than you would think. I am a 29 year old girl (I feel like I am 23-24 most days) originally from Portland, OR but currently in Michigan (of all states). I've been here for two full weeks tomorrow and still am in shock that I a) drove here b) alone and c) actually have my own apartment again. I am attending Eastern Michigan University for my masters degree in higher education administration/student affairs. I want to ultimately become an advisor/academic support person for those struggling to achieve their education which is HIGHLY ironic given that it took me 10 years to complete my bachelors degree.

Personally, I have a very small group of friends and got out of a serious relationship last year. I would love, love to be in a relationship again but don't see that happening anytime soon for various reasons including the fact that I have all sorts of crazy baggage to get rid of first. I am a very creative, insightful, and gentle person who varies between all sorts of extremes: I am outgoing/incredibly shy, self-assured in my skills but very self-conscious otherwise, can be assertive when I need to but hate confrontation and I am both frightened of turning 30 but also looking forward to getting out my 20's because I have hated them.

I have very little furniture right now but have been able to rig up a decent sleeping situation. I haven't had a "proper" bed for about 12 months but have been able to sleep in "proper" beds while dog/cat sitting and at hotels and hostels on my recent road trip. If I could, I would live at the DoubleTree Hotels. Excellent beds. And cookies.

My upbringing was fairly typical I suppose. I remember playing in the front yard with the kids on my street. I had a Kool-Aid stand and picked cherry tomatoes in the backyard. My brother is 14 years older than me and we didn't really grow up together. It was mostly me and my mom except for the handful of years that my dad was around. My mom made all of my Barbie furniture because we were too poor to buy the fancy stuff. Her stuff was way better. Grew up in southern Oregon then a little bit of California then Beaverton and after high school, it was all over the place for me. I am the first one in my family to have traveled overseas, graduate from college, attempt my masters, and live on the east coast. I was in Americorps National Civilian Community Corps (community service program) in 2003 and it significantly changed me and allowed me to travel to areas of the country I would have never been able to. It was dramatic and intense but a great experience overall. After that, I was a nanny to two adorable little boys and they also changed my life. It was hard to say goodbye but I decided to attend college full time at Oregon State University and really made the effort to get my degree finished. After three years there, I just barely survived. I worked at the college and saw the kind of support that is given to students, both good and bad, and that inspired me to pursue higher education as a career. After a very rocky and difficult time after graduation, I knew that I needed to get my masters so that I could create the kind of life that I wanted and support myself. So.....I applied to a bunch of universities with my horrible GPA, excellent personal essay and some lovely letters of recommendation and ultimately decided to attend EMU.

So that brings me to today.