Me

I've always had a very clear sense of self. What I like, what I don't like, what I'm good at. It was never hard for my family to buy me Christmas and birthday presents. I was me, and I made sure everyone knew who I was.

I wrote the blog "25 Things about Ali" the other day and while it was a little difficult to think of 25 things on the spot, it really wasn't too hard to think of what makes me unique. In fact since then I came up with two more things that I posted as a comment on that blog, plus these 5:

- I eat gravy like soup
- I hate having more than 2 ice cubes in my drink
- I always carve my name into takeout boxes from restaurants
- I hate live music recordings
- I used to be a really slow eater and my mom always had to remind me, "Take another bite, Alison..."

And I'm sure I'll think of more. Because I'm confident in who I am and I know who I am. I think part of it is how God made me, and part of it is how my parents nurtured me to be confident in myself.

I'm really thankful for that. I know people who struggle to figure out who they are, and I've never felt that. In college I struggled with figuring out what I wanted to major in and what career to pursue, but mostly because I couldn't think of all the options out there. Once I heard "curriculum", I knew that's what I was going to do.

So while I may be a little weird, I'm cool with that, and I'm thankful to know who I am.