Day 1: 20 Random Facts!

In no particular order of randomness….
*1. I recently picked up playing the violin again after a longgggg hiatus from the lovely instrument. Its been fun to see how much I remember from memory and learning new things to play as well!
1. I am a twin to a sister whom I beat out of the womb by 30 seconds! I guess I started my racing career early in life.
2. I am ambidextrous…except for writing.
3. I have a beta fish named Napoleon who has defied death several times in the 9 months that I have owned him. Living at camp all summer, living at school with curious teenagers, and flying out of his bowl during a car ride. Was out of his water for at least 10 minutes!
4. I was the fastest female runner from Tennessee at the 2007 Boston Marathon.
5. When I was a kid I had a hamster named Sonic. Named after my favorite cartoon character when I was younger!
6. I qualified for my schools Geography bee in the 6th grade after winning my classroom bee by correctly knowing the question with the answer being “plateau”. I got creamed early on in the Bee by College Jeopardy runner up, Hans Von Walter. No surprise there!
7. I have fainted about 3 three times in my life that I can recall. The 1st time being when I got a bike for Christmas (was really excited I guess), 2nd time being when a bunk bed pin got smashed on my hand while working in the boys dorm, 3rd being after I donated blood at Gimbie Hospital in Ethiopia after being on a hot bus all day. They sat me up WAY too fast and I was not hydrated at all so it took forever…drinking apple soda made it worse!
8. I participated in the Great Ethiopian run in 2008 while I was a SM. Was the most amazing running event I have ever been a part of! A cultural experience never to be forgotten!
9. I have worked at various summer camps going on 9 summers now and was a camper for many summers as a kid. I never got home sick I got camp sick. Camp ministry is something I cherish dearly!
10. I get dizzy when doing forward rolls or any kind of fast spinning action. I am not a fan of roller coasters anymore either :-/ It has gotten worse the last few years. I blame it on my chronic ear infections I had growing up. My middle ear has gone soft!
11. I never received a speeding ticket while living in Collegedale, TN. Only three very gracious warnings!
12. I currently drive a luxury motor vehicle in the form of a 1994 Buick La sabre named Forrest. The story of how I got this car is pretty amazing. Forrest just rolled over the 212,000 mile mark and is still going strong!
13. I placed 4th place in the Florida state track meet for the mile run my 8th and 9th grade year. Looking back I wish I would of known about my ability for longer distance running..running the mile was painful!
14. I am currently in my first year of teaching at Central Vermont Academy. My time in Vermont has been an amazing journey and will be written about in more detail in the next 30 days.
15. I “moon light” after school teaching gymnastics, swimming lessons, reffing basketball, and umpiring softball. I don’t consider these side jobs work though because I have so much fun doing it!
16. My favorite color is green. Any shade of green. It is such a peaceful color that reminds me of my favorite environment to be in and that is outside in nature, preferably the woods. I love green!
17. I am currently working on hiking all 46 ADK high peaks, a wonderful mountain chain in upstate NY. I have bagged 19 peaks so far and hope to get more soon!
18. I have a deep desire to be a long term missionary overseas at some point in my life. My SM experience in Ethiopia helped mold and impress my mission mindedness and left me with the desire to “go back” which I did last March. I know that I am in the mission field now but I look forward to the day when God calls me out again in his name! The mission field is such a life changing place to be!
19. I want to run a marathon on all 7 continents someday! I also want to run a 100 mile ultra or 24 hour run and perhaps even do an Ironman if time and money are available someday.
20. I was a race director for a few 5ks and a kids triathlon during my years at Southern. I hope I can use those skills I learned for the rest of my career. It made me really appreciate the work RD's go through to put on a good race!

Bonus**
Beautiful sunsets/sunrises are one of my most favorite things! I saw countless gorgeous sunsets while in Ethiopia but one that will always stick out in my mind is when we went camping out on a ridge in a village. We were able to see sunset on one side and sunrise on the other. It was stunning and pictures don’t do it justice!