You're. . . It?

Josh and I have been tagged by Julie Hess, so we are posting seven unique things about ourselves. This has been pretty fun.

Me as a concentration camp prisoner in a college production of Playing for Time
(with my sisters Abby and Helen)

1. I used to be an actor. I use this term loosely, as I have never been a great actor, but I used to be a member of an improvisational comedy troupe when I lived in SLC, and have also performed with other troupes like Quickwitz and ComedySportz, as well as being a member of the all-female troupe "The SLC Skirts" (we performed twice in NYC for the Del Close Marathon). I have also been in 20ish plays/musicals (both in school and in the community) and was a theater minor. I have directed two plays (Waiting for Godot and The Valentine Fairy). I always thought the theater would be a part of my life, but right now I have to be satisfied with role plays during class.

Me as a budding, pre-teen Faulkner

2. I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. Even Josh didn't know this about me until recently, but when I was a pre-teen and teenager I was a prolific amateur writer. I finished my first novel when I was 11, and of course it was terrible but I was very proud of myself. I started writing less when I began dating more, but I still entertain the dream of writing a novel some day.

I like to think that being born in Wisconsin is what made me so cheesy

3. I was born on vacation. My family used to have a house in northern Wisconsin and we would go there every summer even before I was born. One summer, my mother happened to be pregnant with me while in Wisconsin. It wasn't a surprise I would be born in Wisconsin, but it makes me unique because I am the only person that was born in that town on that date and the only one of my siblings that was born outside of Oregon.

Fighting the twin demons of laziness and procrastination

4. I get slightly obsessional about things. This quality of mine really annoys Josh because I can just sit and do something (mostly reading or playing computer games) for hours and hours and hours without stopping or taking a break. I actually depend on this ability in order to finish research papers or homework, but if I have to do something that I'm not looking forward to doing I can really procrastinate forever until finally getting into that obsessional mode. I also have a tendency to need to do things now-- like if I want to eat or play a game I have to do it now and get increasingly anxious until it is done.

Luckily, I still graduated with honors

5. I got a bad grade in my first psychology class. This was during my first term in my freshman year of college, so I hadn't quite gotten the whole studying thing down yet. Psychology interested me from the beginning, but I was so discouraged (and so in love with being an English major) that it took me four and a half years before taking another psych class.

Can you imagine a ShepAlder-free existence? It almost happened!

6. I lived in Hillsboro for six months in 2005. Yes, I am one of those people who moved somewhere to follow a boyfriend. I was highly influenced by my college dance teacher who moved to NYC to follow a guy she had been dating for a month and whom she later married. I guess I'm a romantic! I dated this guy about a year before I realized I needed to get out (and fast!), which took me back to Eugene to eventually fall in love with Josh. For a long time I wondered why I had gone through that experience, but the reason became very clear when I was accepted to Pacific and found myself back in Hillsboro two years later.

Honestly, how could we not end up together?

7. My Bishop told me it was okay if I didn't want to marry Josh. This is interesting or weird only because our Bishop at the time was infamous for promoting marriage as an answer to everything. I was unsure when we began dating whether I would want to marry Josh, and our Bishop very wisely counseled me that it was okay if I didn't know right away. He told me that if I enjoyed being around Josh then I should continue being around Josh and just worry later whether or not he was my Eternal Companion. Of course, our Bishop then made me Relief Society president, so I lasted about six months at that before Josh and I got engaged.

And I tag...
Carissa
Maret and Logan
Heather Noakes
Emily Gilkey
Mike and Sherrilyn