Those of you who have a Facebook account will be familiar with this viral meme going around 25 random things about me. The rules on facebook are"when you are tagged you must post a note with 25 Facts, Goals, Habits or other random things about yourself. Then tag at least 10 of your friends instructing them to post their 25 random things!" I was tagged! No rules here. I decided to do a copy and paste from my note on Facebook and publish it here. Feel free share any random thing about you or add any random thing about me in the comments section.
1. I did my Math homework only about 10-20% of the time in my entire school career. I like Math but not Math homework.
2. I want to start my Masters degree this year. I look forward to going to 'school' again. I enjoy learning and researching as long as it is not in a laboratory.
3. If I did not already know you were supposed to say the glass was half full, I would say it was half empty. Still, I would object to being branded a pessimist. My feeling is that I have a pessimistic mind but an optimistic heart.
4. "Most likely to leap first and grow wings along the way" is how one of my closest and oldest friends described me.
5. A case in point of how this is such an apt description of me is my decision to uproot myself from friends and family in Malaysia and Singapore and move to Seattle to marry a man I first met online. Even I was surprised at how quickly I knew Chad was 'the one'. I am glad for friends who provide me checks and balances and my intuition has always been on the mark (I should listen to it more often).
6. I am happy to say that my wings are growing just fine and have managed to keep me afloat. I count myself lucky to be living in an age when technology has helped make the world so much smaller. Being able to keep in constant contact with friends and family helped me make the move without breaking my heart. I am glad to be able to talk with my mom and dad once or twice a week on the phone. Email, IMs, our blogs and Facebook help us all keep in touch and connected.
7. Sushi and sashimi are my No. 1 comfort food. There must be some kind of chemical in raw salmon which does it for me. Plus they're really yummy!
8. When I was 10, my youngest brother at the time passed away suddenly. He was 4. I found it difficult to cry. For years, I wished it were me instead of him. When I was 16, I had an English Essay assignment "The Pain and Pleasures of Growing Up". I wrote about my brother's death. My teacher liked the essay so much, she made me read it out loud to the entire class. At first, I was horrified. As I read my piece, there were tears (not just mine) and it was great therapy.
9. My childhood asthma resurfaced in my 30s.
10. Jobs I've done: Cashier, Waitress, Research Assistant, Private Tutor, Teacher and Education officer at a Science Centre. Working as a cashier and a waitress in between school and university semesters taught me that I could never really be happy or succeed in the service line.
11. My all time favourite movie is "When Harry Met Sally". I watched it back to back 4 times in a row one stressfull night when I had to work all night, grading exam papers.
12. I tolerate carbonated drinks but generally dislike them.
13. When I was 4 (or 5), I went around my neighbourhood and invited the kids to my house for a party at 5pm. It was my birthday. At 3 pm I arrived home and informed my parents about the party. Only years after did I recognise that look they had: PANIC. My dad rushed out and got ice-cream and other goodies while my mom got the house ready and at 5 pm, I had my birthday party.
14. In my first 6 months as a teacher, I had some challenging classes. Those kids often frustrated me to tears. I learnt much more from them than they did from me, and I grew to become a better teacher because of them.
15. I love love love the smell of coffee but I am more of a tea person. I drink all sorts of tea but my favourite is teh si which is black tea made with evaporated milk which you can order in any coffee shop in Singapore and Malaysia.
16. When I do drink coffee, it has to be really good coffee, usually black. When I do want cream, I want lots of cream. No sugar.
17. I am able to understand the dialogue of the movie "Run Lola Run" without the subtitles. I took German lessons at the Goethe Institute for 3.5 years. I don't speak it much because I am too unforgiving with myself when I make mistakes. Other languages (besides English) are of course Malay. I understand a smattering of Indonesian, Mandarin (and some Hokkien) and Kristang (a creole language spoken by community of people of mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry, chiefly in Malacca [in Malaysia] and Singapore)
18. I enjoy and am comfortable with spending time alone at home and though I have travelled alone many times, I prefer to share experience. I went for a movie alone once and did not like it. As I come out of a movie theater, I want to be able to ask someone how they felt about the movie. Sharing the movie is as important as watching the movie.
19. My curiosity gets me into trouble sometimes. When I was 6 or 7, I wondered if a pencil sharpener could do the same job as a nail clipper. Although my younger brother was a somewhat willing participant in my experiment, my parents were less than amused when the results of my experiement (using my little brother's pinkie finger) did not support my hypothesis.
20. When I tell people I'm a teacher, people would guess that I'm an English Language or Literature teacher. I'm not sure why that is. I actually taught Science and in the last few years mainly Cell and Molecular Biology.
21. I hate filling in forms where I have to list my occupation these days. I refuse to write 'Unemployed' or 'Housewife'. I am still waiting for my Employment Authorisation Document and green card. What I am is 'Between Jobs' and soon, hopefully 'Student'. I need to be able to interact with people, learn new things, make my contribution to the world and bring home a paycheck.
22. I think I often make a poor first impression. Making a better impression is something I have to constantly work on. I need to bolster up my confidence and silence the negative self-talk.
23. I started watching 'Sesame's Street' when I was 10 months old and was still watching it well into my teens. I love the Muppets and mourned the death of Jim Henson a.k.a. Kermit the Frog.
24. What I enjoyed about being a teacher was being able to help young people. I had some success with that. Because of a smaller class size of 24 instead of my usual 40 and a more reasonable workload, I feel I was BEST able to achieve that in the last 2 years of my career.
25. More than once, I tied a length of string on a dragonfly and tried to fly it like a kite. Kids do strange things.
Bonus Random Thing:
I never respond to chain letters especially if they warn of impending death and years of bad luck. This however, I thought is a fun little meme. I am not at all interesting or a good writer, so I had a bit of a challenge coming up with 25 things. Once I got going though, I found it to be fun. I will also try to be more interesting.
Click HERE for '25 Random Things About Chad'
1 comment:
karen, your "25 Random Things"was very good, interesting, fascinating and delightful. I did not know about the "Facebook Thing" because never have seen it or done it. Writing about one's self would be a journey not so easy for possibly fun. I enjoyed this experience with you very much. Such delightful memories and responses. Thanks so much for revealing. I have done something similar but the focus has been on unusual happenings. Maeve
Post a Comment