S ISTER PAIGE BROUGHT this viral craze of “25 Random Things About Me” to TSP, when she made her own list last week. And I’m sure you’ve seen the meme on Facebook via numerous “tag you’re it” notes. Partly inspired by a great blog about the daily lives of five sisters, who each wrote 100 things about themselves in separate posts (start here with Lauren‘s and work your way through all 500 facts), and partly inspired by Paige’s great list (in which she admits to her arborist past), I’ve decided to do my own. Don’t worry, I’m not going to require that you make one, too. But perhaps it will get you thinking…
25 Random Things About Me (Anastasia Caroli Salem Smith)
1. I have a birthmark on my right hip in the shape of Afghanistan.
2. Once my brother told me that he bit off my pinkie finger at birth and that the one I had was a fake, and I believed him.
3. Sometimes I feel like I’m in an abusive long-term relationship with the entire country of France.
4. I am named after the midwife who delivered me.
5. My favorite toy as a child was a little box of rocks that I pretended was a family.
6. I like to binge on television shows and then never watch them again.
7. I wish I was better at sewing.
8. In middle school I had to make a speech in front of the whole school as president of the student council and I got my period through my jeans during it. That might be my most embarrassing moment.
9. Another embarrassing moment happened when I walked straight into the lake at summer camp during a silent candlelit ceremony.
10. When I’m bored, I draw the cursive alphabet in my head.
11. In awkward situations I like to picture myself from aerial view. Sometimes it makes me feel less awkward.
12. I am in awe of the fact that I took AP calculus in high school, and that I actually did pretty well.
13. Another game I liked to play as a child was stuffing my whole head into the tiny rooms of my dollhouse.
14. After the first snow of winter, my brother and I used to run around our house once barefoot. In hindsight, I can’t believe our parents watched us do that.
15. We once witnessed some of our parents’ friends walking across burning coals, so maybe that’s what inspired us.
16. I used to buy bridal magazines with my allowance money.
17. Most of the things that I used to be obsessed with as a child–brides, 1950s domesticity, Bill Clinton, teen pregnancy–I now think are absolutely crazy.
18. I wrote a letter to Bill Clinton in second grade and started it, “Dear Bill,” like we were real chummy or something.
19. When I lived in Montpellier, France, I had to walk through a scary wooded area to get back to my house late at night. And I would make myself sing Buttercup out loud to keep my mind from wandering to all the drug addicts and wild boars that were probably hiding in the trees.
20. I also like to sing a song every year that I learned in preschool called Spring is Coming! when I see the first signs of spring.
21. I am not a talented singer.
22. Paradise exists on the shores of the Mediterranean, I am sure of it.
23. I once saw someone smoke crack on Metro line 2, between la Chapelle and Stalingrad.
24. I wish I could have been exposed to more diverse cultures and identities while I was growing up.
25. I hope that I get to be a mother someday.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Love this. Sometimes, these lists make me think “Huh? WTF?” but yours is enlightening, funny and real. Go little sister.
ooh Anna remembering #9 had be laughing out loud at work! Everyone was just looking at me funny….gosh that was a great story!
It is a good story, and pretty much sealed the deal on my “total klutz” image that has existed ever since.
Remember how I did a presentation on it in Mr. Carroll’s English class junior year?
13: That’s a hilarious mental image; in my mind, your head gets stuck (not because you have a big head) and then you run around screaming with a dollhouse on your head.
19: Yeah, that was maybe the sketchiest wooded path I’ve ever been on. I don’t think I ever told you this, but after seeing it myself, I felt somewhat uneasy about knowing that you regularly walked that path alone – and about the fact that, through my silence, I would share some part of the responsibility if you were ever kidnapped and murdered.
22: I agree.
I totally lol-ed in response to #19, too, even though my “roommates” are quietly watching the latest Big Love episode right behind me. I also really loved how every next random thing seemed to introduce its successor. Nicely done.
my favorite is about the box of rocks that was a family. you have such a great imagination and i think you should have done 50 random things because i want more anastasia randomness. see you in a few weeks!
yeah linds! I can’t wait to see you! maybe I’ll even lend you my little box of stones to play with.